Community Volunteer Ambassadors: A Year Building Park Volunteer Programs, Starting in Asheville

National parks run on volunteers, and someone has to recruit, organize and keep them. That is the job of Community Volunteer Ambassadors (CVAs): young people placed in park sites for a 50-week professional internship to build each site's volunteer program and connect it with the surrounding community.

Community Volunteer Ambassadors at a Blue Ridge Parkway visitor center. NPS.

The program

It is run jointly by the National Park Service's Volunteers-In-Parks program and the Stewards Individual Placement Program of Conservation Legacy. Members are 18 to 30, or up to 35 for veterans, from diverse backgrounds, and are aiming for careers in service and conservation stewardship. In 2022, about 90 were to be placed in parks across the country.

A week in Asheville

The February 2023 cohort met for National Early Service Training at the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville, North Carolina, from April 3 to 7:

• Training in planning volunteer events and in community outreach.
• Site projects: each new CVA presented a study of their own park, identifying needs and openings the volunteer program could meet.
• A panel of second-year CVAs answering first-years' questions, and a "Collab Lab" pairing members from similar sites — historic parks, large parks, parks with new volunteer programs — to trade ideas.

Second-year members also led sessions and welcomed the newcomers into the cohort.

Training sessions focused on volunteer event planning and outreach. NPS.

Sources

Based on "Community Volunteer Ambassadors: National Early Service Training Held at Blue Ridge Parkway," National Park Service, Volunteers-In-Parks; a work of the United States government in the public domain.