University of Phoenix and HandsOn Network Team to Launch Volunteer Program

By his hundredth day, President Obama reached out with a call to service, asking citizens to stand up and give back to their communities. Many have answered that call, from individuals to larger organizations. University of Phoenix online college is among them — along with partnering company HandsOn Network, the online college is working to help people organize and take action.

At first, it seems like an odd couple. HandsOn Network is part of of the Points of Light Institute, an organization founded in the spirit of former President George H.W. Bush’s “thousand points of light” inaugural speech addressing the United States’ community and diversity. The organization connects citizens across the country, helps with volunteer resources, and makes opportunities for thousands of citizens who want to help but don’t know how to get started. University of Phoenix, on the other hand, is a private college best known for flexible online business degrees and graduate degree programs. Do online degrees have anything to do with volunteer work? They’re about to.

HandsOn Network is working to keep up with a large influx of volunteers that have come forward, inspired by the president’s speech, but they need help — strengthening their own program, as well as training those volunteers to be leaders, so that they may in turn train still others, and harness the power of community to its fullest. That’s where University of Phoenix comes in. The university is developing “virtual volunteer leader training classes.” With these classes, volunteers can develop their leadership skills from any location in the country, enabling volunteer groups to be more self sufficient, with leaders that are free to spend less time at classes and more time focusing on the local issues that spark their concerns. Instead of coming to HandsOn, HandsOn can come to the volunteers.

Chas Edelstein, Co-Chief Executive Officer of University of Phoenix’s parent company, Apollo Group, Inc., seems especially optimistic about the new course. “The upside of this down economy,” he told the press, “is that people who have not been involved in service before are reaching out to make a difference in the community around them. At University of Phoenix, we recognize that we can develop the leadership skills of those interested in supporting causes that are the most relevant and needed.”

© Copyright 2009 The Distance Daily. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.