On Monday, March 11, the Vital Community Connecters (VCC) coalition will host their second public awareness forum from 5:30 PM – 7 PM in the Center Hall Building 2 of the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center, which is located at 44219 Airport Road, in California, Maryland.  All are welcomed and encouraged to attend.

Monday evening’s forum will present an overview of the economic importance of the VCC, followed by testimony from VCC program recipients, volunteers, and others from the community about the importance of  the services and programs VCC offered by organizations to the people of St. Mary’s County, and the impact that they have on the community’s quality of life.  The meeting will end with a discussion, questions, and comment from the participants. The forum will also include exhibits hosted by various organizations.

The VCC represents a coalition of over 18 nonprofit community organizations in St. Mary’s County. The coalition was formed to raise public awareness about the importance to the St. Mary’s community of continued public funding for nonprofit agencies and organizations in St. Mary’s County.  The continued support of St. Mary’s County Government to its varied Vital Community Connectors helps to build a sound and well rounded infrastructure of necessary programs and services at the lowest possible cost.

According to VCC spokesperson Joe Anderson, the advantages to the St. Mary’s  community are many.

He said, ” Outsourcing to nonprofit organizations for vital services reduces the need to build long-term Governmental infrastructures to fulfill growing service needs. This practice works in concert with the notion of keeping Government small and manageable; outsourcing to nonprofit organizations draws upon available, but rare professional skills and expertise and reinforces the notion of community involvement through meaningful volunteer opportunities, and that outsourcing to nonprofit organizations on an annual basis permits meaningful economic, performance and need based evaluation as pre-requisites for further funding.”

Anderson added that the Vital Community Connectors, through their diversified approach involve some 25,000 volunteers serving over 64,000 county residents. The types of services and programs vary from concert-attendees, to wounded-warriors, to substance abusers, to providers of higher education, and emphasized that all of these services are vital for the continued well-being of our thriving community.

Stressing the importance of continued county financial support he said that many vital nonprofit organizations rely on grants that require local Government support as a pre-requisite for award.  Research shows that the Vital Community Connectors directly leverage $8.7M through such conditional grants.

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