Niila Hebert, MAVA’s Public Affairs Committee Chair, and I met with Senator John Marty last week for an hour and discussed strategies for passage of the volunteerism Bill (SF 1949). We informed him about our meeting a few weeks back with staff from Senator Jeremy Miller and Representative Garafolo. Miller and Garafolo are Chairs of the House and Senate Jobs Committees. The Bill was heard in the House in front of the Job Growth and Energy Affordability Policy and Finance committee. MAVA members testified in favor of the Bill and received a favorable response from committee members. The Bill was passed for possible inclusion in the Jobs Omnibus Bill.
While the Bill was not included in the Jobs Omnibus Bill, we are hopeful that this legislative session we will see positive action on the Bill. The Bill was not heard in the Senate. Our task this legislative session will be the get a hearing in the jobs committee in both the House and the Senate.
The Bill is designed to build capacity for high quality volunteerism in Minnesota. The Bill will authorize the commissioner of employment and economic development to issue a grant to MAVA to administer evidence-based volunteerism innovation grants targeting grantee-selected Minnesota compass measures. The Bill also requires the completion of a statewide study of the potential capacity of volunteer efforts to address community challenges and opportunities.
We need help to get this Bill passed this year! We need a marketing volunteer to help revise our information sheet and we need volunteer lobbyists (training included). To help promote this Bill or for further information, please contact
publicpolicy@mavavnetwork.org or
kbulman@mavanetwork.org.