About

BUILDING A CULTURE OF VOLUNTEERISM AND SERVICE IN ULSTER COUNTY

UlsterCorps is a countywide resource dedicated to fostering a culture of volunteerism, collaborative work and community service. Our mission is to educate about volunteerism and best practices, facilitate successful and effective volunteer placements, and build collaborations among nonprofit organizations, local government agencies, and businesses engaged in community involvement throughout Ulster County. While UlsterCorps involves individuals of all ages in its activities, it has a deep commitment to engaging and educating youth in community service and leadership.

Why UlsterCorps? In early 2009, a small group of committed volunteers launched UlsterCorps to bring other volunteers together with the organizations in Ulster County that rely on their help. Since its inception UlsterCorps has connected thousands of people with dozens of Ulster County agencies that provide food, clothing, shelter, emergency services, literacy training, child and elder care, animal welfare, and more to the area’s most vulnerable residents. UlsterCorps has become a vital, collaboration-building resource for nonprofit agencies, civic and religious organizations, businesses, schools, government and volunteers of all ages.

Volunteerism is central to sustaining healthy, resilient communities, and UlsterCorps volunteers offer diverse talents, availability, interests, and abilities. Through its comprehensive website www.UlsterCorps.org, volunteers can choose from a wide range of opportunities to serve the needs of others, from one-time events to ongoing commitments that meet their abilities, interests and time availability. Volunteers can also register online for e-newsletters and Action Alerts that notify them of timely events in need of community support. Nonprofit agencies and other engaged groups can find information about collaborative initiatives on our website.

Since 2009, UlsterCorps volunteers have:

• Hosted an annual Service Summit which brings together over 70 community leaders from the nonprofit, business, higher education and governmental sectors to address the work and value of volunteerism and collaborative projects in Ulster County. The 2023 Summit focused on Expanding Outreach: Amplifying Volunteer Voices for Next Generation Service. Our 2021 Summit, held virtually, focused on Resilience in the time of COVID and can be found here. The Summit, which is free to participants, is part of the on-going work of UlsterCorps to deepen the knowledge about volunteerism and to find ways to strengthen a culture of service and collaboration in Ulster County;
• Built a dedicated corps of 185 volunteers, our Glean Team, to assist the Farm to Food Pantry Collaborative led by the Rondout Valley Growers Association and Family of Woodstock. Starting in 2009, the group has gleaned, collected and distributed over 1,313,068 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to soup kitchens and food pantries in the county. In 2023, the collaborative collected over 127,896 lbs lbs. of produce from 23 donors and distributed it to 53 food pantries, shelters, and community meal programs in Ulster and surrounding counties.
• Served Together as the U-Team, an active and vital community of volunteers who serve as “first-call responders” for urgent events, projects and last minute community needs;
• Assisted other local non-profits through our Volunteer Coordination Team, a corps of volunteers who can help agencies coordinate short and long term events and assist with key aspects of volunteer management during a disaster, including operating a volunteer reception center, placing spontaneous unaffiliated volunteers, and inter-agency coordination;
• Collected and distributed new or gently used coats, suits, hats, mittens, holiday gifts and other agency wish list items for those in need in our community;
• Matched thousands of volunteers with service opportunities during National Days of Service, including Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day of Service, I Love My Park Day, September 11 Day of Recognition and Service and throughout the year;
• Created an Online Database of 100+ agencies and their needs so volunteers can easily learn about available opportunities and how to connect with them;
• Developed and maintained both interactive and printed maps of volunteer opportunities, food pantries and soup kitchens, farms and farmers markets to help volunteers, and those in need of services, connect;
• Built a community of over 3700 individuals who subscribe to our monthly e-news of upcoming long and short term volunteer opportunities throughout Ulster County;
• Brought together and honored volunteers who give their time and energy to agencies throughout Ulster County at our Annual Celebration of Service

UlsterCorps initiates and supports creative collaborations that seek to educate, inspire, and explore causes and solutions to some of the challenges facing our community. For example:

• The Farm to Food Pantry Collaborative, a coalition of local workers and volunteers from Community Gardens and Farms, Gleaners, Processors, Storage Facilities, Food Pantries and Soup Kitchens working together to help make the connections that will feed more people in our communities. Led by Family of Woodstock, the Rondout Valley Growers Association, UlsterCorps and the Bruderhof Community, the program addresses food insecurity by engaging local farmers to donate locally grown produce and training volunteers to glean, process and distribute nutritious food to the network food pantries, feeding programs and shelters in Ulster and surrounding counties. Farmers are generously offering to donate fresh produce but need help getting it to those in need. UlsterCorps is responsible for building a corps of volunteers, our Glean Team, to assist in growing, gleaning, processing and transporting food from local farms to local food pantries and soup kitchens.
• Emergency Response and Recovery – UlsterCorps collaborates with the Red Cross, United Way, Ulster County Office of Emergency Management and other local Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD) to assess our current capacity and improve our readiness for future emergencies. We have conducted a survey of local agencies and businesses to assess preparedness, volunteer workforce capacity and needs, and are working with the Red Cross to train more local volunteers in sheltering, feeding, bulk distribution, volunteer reception and management, communications and long-term recovery. We are also helping to develop a new Ulster County Animal Response Team (UCART), a cadre of pre-trained volunteers who can assist Emergency Management in the event of an emergency involving animals.
• Supporting Youth and Campus volunteer programs which seek to make service a key component of education. UlsterCorps has collaborated with SUNY New Paltz on its annual Make a Difference Day, Alternative Spring Break and September 11th National Day of Service, with SUNY Ulster and Ulster BOCES for MLK National Day of Service. We conduct regular presentations to both college and high school service learning clubs and community service programs, Girls Inc, and have, since our inception, included youth Student Associates on our Board of Directors. Currently we are working with Ulster County to build a Youth Service Corps.
• Arts for Ulster, raising funds and awareness for local non-profits through a collaborative group art exhibit and auction featuring 50 works by 50 artists for 50 causes in Ulster County;
• Harvesting a Lifetime, interviewing and recording the memories, stories, and histories of over 70 seniors (and growing) from around the county;

UlsterCorps also serves as a prototype for grass-roots volunteer initiatives beyond our county’s boundaries.

To learn more, please visit www.ulstercorps.org or contact us at 845-481-0331.

Contact us at:

UlsterCorps
PO Box 34
Stone Ridge, NY 12484
845-481-0331

You can also…
– search volunteer opportunities
– register as a volunteer and track your hours
– join us on Facebook
– subscribe/sync to our calendar
– sign up for our mailing list

Thank you so much to our generous supporters!

Board of Directors