Oregon Public Broadcasting

Unemployment is still high in Oregon, but that doesn't mean those who are out of a paid job aren't working.

A lot of people have taken up volunteer work.

Nationwide, the number of volunteers increased by more than a million. According to the latest government survey in September 2008.  As Barbara Leidl reports, Oregon volunteer organizations are seeing an influx of people who want to help.

The truth is: Without their volunteers, a lot of organizations wouldn’t be able to function. This is especially true in a recession, says Dave Patterson. He is director of the Crook County Library in Prineville.

Crook County Library

Dave Patterson: "Library is funded by tax dollars. And when the unemployment is high, income to the country drops and the result of that is, we don’t have the tax dollars available to fund the additional positions we would need and we could definitely put to work right now."

The high unemployment rate also means a lot of people are coming through the library’s doors.

The library's computer usage alone has gone up by more than 50 percent in the last year.

So Patterson is glad to have more than 150 volunteers who contributed 3000 hours of work in the library.

One of those volunteers  is 58-year-old Fran Pradmore.

Fran Pradmore: "Right now, I’m in the youth room, putting away books and DVDs and videos."

Pradmore lost her job in a flower shop more than a year ago, due to the downturn in the economy.Twice a week she comes into the library as a volunteer and sorts books back onto the shelves.

Fran Pradmore

Fran Pradmore: "They’ll be showing me how to like clean and repair things, and I have checked in books somewhat."

Like about a quarter of the library volunteers, Pradmore is trying to attain new skills and build her resume -- maybe eventually get hired at the library.

Dave Patterson: "If I had the position open, I would love to put Fran to work. Fran is an outstanding worker, because she knows what needs to be done and she gets it done."

Organizations that use volunteers have seen more and more people dedicate their free time to volunteer work in the past few months.

The Oregon Food Bank, for example, reports that the hours contributed by volunteers increased more than 20 percent only in the last year – and the donated time is worth $1.5 million.

People with full-time jobs still make up the largest group of volunteers. Their reasons for volunteering vary, but the vast majority just wants to do something good for the community.

But many new volunteers have – like Fran Pradmore – recently been laid off.  

Kate Budd of Oregon Volunteers says that's a change for volunteer organizations.

Kate Budd: "One interesting thing is that our volunteer managers feel like they have taken on a role, a new role as career counselors. Folks who are unemployed or looking for employment are coming to them looking to gain news kills and seeking advice as to how to get into a particular government organization or particular non-profit."

And the effort does often times lead to a new job. 25-year-old Marisa Espinoza graduated from college this April – and worked as a receptionist. Not what she wanted to do, but....

Marisa Espinoza: "With the skills I had I felt like Ireally need to expand them if I wanted to get more into the non-profit worldand kind of do more work that felt more meaningful to me. It just felt like in orderto get more involvedI was gonna have to got some hands-on experience, not just, you know, be ableto say that I had a Bachelor’s degree."

So she took up volunteering for Volunteers ofAmerica, learned about fundraising and three months later she applied for a job as assistant developer at the non-profit Sisters of the Road Cafe in Portland.

Marisa Espinoza: "When they explained to me how they dofundraising in their owntimeline it all just kind of clicked, you know. I made a lot of sense to me."

She got the job, and now it’s Espinoza, who's guiding volunteers at her workplace.