The Power of Collaborative Volunteering: OneOC & CVCOC Oak View Project

Today's guest post is written by Dan McQuaid, President/CEO of OneOC. Dan has more than 25 years of leadership experience as a chief executive officer, community leader, board chairperson, organization consultant and trainer.

Freshly painted public spaces including a concrete skateboard platform, playgrounds, and school buildings along with improvements to soccer fields and school gardens made in the low-income Oak View neighborhood of Huntington Beach were the outward results of the first combined volunteer project planned and executed by the Corporate Volunteer Council of Orange County (CVCOC) with project coordination by OneOC.

“When they set out to improve the Oak View neighborhood, the CVCOC members were thrilled to learn that they would work side by side with Oak View community members. This project brought together 11 nonprofits, 16 companies, and 75 neighborhood residents, all working together to build a stronger, more vibrant quality of life for those who call Oak View home,” said Rob DeLiema, president of BJ's Restaurants Foundation and task force leader of CVCOC’s combined corporate volunteer project. CVCOC was launched in January 2012 in collaboration with OneOC, a nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization committed to accelerating nonprofit success through volunteer, training, consulting and business services.

The CVCOC Oak View project was the first combined company-volunteer effort.  This expansive project brought together 500 volunteers, including grateful local residents and energized employees from 16 Orange County companies on the morning of Saturday, February 23, and did as much for the spirits of the participants as it did for the physical places they touched.  This Oak View neighborhood is a densely-populated neighborhood of 10,000 residents in one square mile, 32% of whom live below the poverty line.

The project contributed to the overall Oak View Renewal Project that seeks to narrow the cultural, social, educational, health and economic gap between Oak View and the remainder of Huntington Beach and to serve as a model for community development.

CVCOC and OneOC’s efforts show the power of collaborative volunteerism. Diane Killeen, manager, Disney VoluntEARS and Cast Initiatives, Disneyland Resort and CVCOC vice chair agreed: “The success of our first CVCOC joint effort demonstrated our power to provide a community-based solution though volunteerism, both as individual corporate members and as part of the collaboration. Along the way, our Disney VoluntEARS had the opportunity to work closely with people from companies they may never have met otherwise and be a part of an incredible effort to brighten the lives of our Orange County neighbors.”

Participating companies included Allergan, Bank of America, BJ’s Restaurants, Corinthian Colleges, Cox Communications, Disneyland Resort, Edwards Lifesciences, Experian, Fluor, JP Morgan Chase, Kaiser, Pacific Life, PIMCO, Ricoh Electronics, HUB International and Western Digital.