The richland county health department (RCHD) has served as the sponsoring agency of the northeast MT rsvp program since 2004, now covering daniels, mccone, richland, roosevelt, sheridan counties,…

The richland county health department (RCHD) has served as the sponsoring agency of the northeast MT rsvp program since 2004, now covering daniels, mccone, richland, roosevelt, sheridan counties, and the fort peck indian reservation. An estimated 537 rsvp volunteers will serve. Of this number, 537 rsvp volunteers will be placed in outcome assignments. Some of their activities will include: distributing opioid & elder abuse prevention information, working in food banks and food delivery to the homebound; connecting veterans to services; and providing capacity building services to enhance the program delivery model of nonprofits. The primary focus area of this project is capacity building. The cncs federal investment of $191,045 will be supplemented by an anticipated level of non-federal resources totaling $106,972. At the end of the three-year grant: 1. 180 individuals living in rural areas will use preventive and primary health care services and programs; 2. 175 homebound or older adults and individuals living with disabilities receiving food delivery & companionship service will report increased social ties or perceived social support; 3. 170 individuals receiving emergency food & education will report increased food security of themselves and their children; 4. Eight nonprofit organizations will implement three or more effective volunteer management practices; 5. Eighteen workstations will receive volunteer support in addressing additional community needs in adult literacy, youth mentoring, veteran support, disaster preparedness & recovery. The northeast MT rsvp program has played an invaluable role by helping bridge community gaps and combine available resources since 2004. The vision of richland county health department northeast MT rsvp is to transform our frontier region by showing partnering agencies and non-profits how to more effectively engage volunteers so those organizations can better meet the needs of their communities and become a service enterprise. Service enterprise is defined as an organization engaging 50 or more volunteers utilizing best volunteer management practices. RCHD is hosting one americorps grant program. Ten full-time americorps members are serving in the issue area of healthy futures and capacity building, supporting all rsvp priorities.