YOU VOLUNTEER KATHY POSNER WILL CHECK

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Volunteer At Chicago's Grant Park

The City of Chicago has a vast number of volunteer opportunities for people who want to get involved. There are about 50 different “job” categories ranging from greeting visitors flying into the city as part of The Airport Ambassador Program (free parking and a uniform!) or being a docent at the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool in Lincoln Park (you get 6 weeks of training from area experts on horticulture, the art of interpretation, the history of Lincoln Park, and landscape design.) In fact just last week, the city was awarded a two-year, $200,000 Rockefeller Foundation grant to hire a full-time "chief service officer" to develop a citywide volunteerism plan. Even though people will be performing these jobs for free, one cannot just show up and expect to be “hired.” There are certain requirements depending on the “job.” For one to become part of the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) volunteers must not only complete orientation training, Core Disaster Life Support Training, attend Chicago department of Public Health sponsored events etc. In all cases of becoming a volunteer, one must submit to a background check of some sort; some more extensive than others depending on the department. It has just been discovered that the volunteers at Chicago Animal Care and Control (CACC) have never undergone a criminal background check, been fingerprinted or provided their Social Security numbers. That should be fairly easy to rectify; NOT! The 250 unpaid volunteers are threatening to walk off the “job” if subjected to an investigation. According to a story in the Sun Times, Human Resources spokesperson Constance Buscemi said “Animal Care should have been going through that same process. It was an oversight that they didn't. That oversight was identified and is being corrected. We understand the important work they do. We certainly don't want to inconvenience them. But in the interest of public safety, this is a practice that's important. We need to make sure that anybody who's acting on behalf of the city or has access to city facilities has been checked out. " There are only 68 full-time City workers for CACC, so if the 250 volunteers unleash themselves from the department there will be a lot of poop piling up. Other duties of the volunteers includes walking the strays; conducting public tours; assisting in adoptions; calling people to try and match micro-chipped strays with their owners and performing clerical work. Refusing to submit to a background check is sort of like the taking the 5th. One cannot be presumed guilty; but why else would someone refuse? The City cannot risk that Michael Vick is volunteering; what a way to expend his community service hours!
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