Category Archives: Auxiliary Outreach

Deborah Turner (601) 506-9430 Email report form

Hit The Ground working! 

1. Ask What can you do to help my community?
2. Connect Make a connection with a partner (local Groups or Organization)
3. Present Present it for a vote in your Auxiliary
4. Work Go to work with great partners. Wear your VFW Auxiliary gear and make a difference.

Deborah Turner (601) 506-9430 Email report form

What’s Not Considered Auxiliary Outreach

Auxiliary Outreach is for projects NOT AFFILIATED with VFW or VFW Auxiliary Programs. Volunteer work that is performed for the benefit of the Post or Auxiliary is NOT considered Outreach. Examples of projects that do not qualify include

· Repairs to, maintenance or beautification of the Post home.
· Cooking or serving a meal for a Post or Auxiliary fundraiser. “Buddy”® Poppy distribution.
· VFW or Auxiliary meetings, conventions, conferences or schools of instruction.
· Providing an honor guard at a member’s funeral.
· Flying the American Flag.
· Conducting Flag retirement programs.
· Church activities for one specific congregation and not the entire community (e.g., usher, elder, deacon, minister, etc.)

Important Auxiliary Additions to VFW Community Service:

1. Wear something that signifies you are a member of the VFW Auxiliary.
2. The project must be voted on during an Auxiliary meeting. (The VFW also requires this in another section of their instructions.)
3. If what you are doing is reportable under another Auxiliary Program, report it under that Program, not under Auxiliary Outreach.
4. Auxiliary work* (e.g., Outreach, Americanism, Veterans & Family Support, etc.) is to be reported to your local VFW Post Adjutant so it can be added to their report. This will help your Post with eligibility for the National Outstanding Community Service Post Award.
5. Auxiliary Outreach volunteer work need not be verified by the organization you are partnering with. (This is a VFW requirement only.)

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.: A few of the ways listed to participate in Auxiliary Outreach involve youth. Wouldn’t this be reported under the Auxiliary’s Youth Activities Program?

A.: It depends on the project. For example, if you are putting on a patriotic program at a school with your Auxiliary, that is reported under Americanism and/or Youth Activities. If your Auxiliary volunteers with the Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts to teach them the Folds of the Flag, that is reported under Americanism and/or Youth Activities. If your Auxiliary partners at the Boys & Girls Club to tutor a group of kids, that is reported under Auxiliary Outreach.

Please continue to report the great things you are doing in your communities. Continue to let the light of your Auxiliary shine and make a difference.

Thanks for all you do. Don’t hesitate to contact me.

Deborah Turner, Auxiliary (601) 506-9430 Email report form

What is the VFW Auxiliary Outreach Program?

• Auxiliary Outreach involves Auxiliaries volunteering to help nonprofit organizations, local groups and to
  address needs in your community.
• Focus is on volunteering, not monetary or in-kind donations.
• Partnership where one or more Auxiliary members help another organization or group to make their project
  successful.

The first step in making your Auxiliary Outreach Program successful is reaching into your
community.
Here are a few other basic steps:

• Find local groups and organizations in need of assistance.
• Ask what your Auxiliary can do to help them.
• Vote at an Auxiliary meeting to approve the activity.
• Form a partnership.
• Report the details.

Suggestions for VFW Auxiliary Outreach

• Assist with local fundraising walks as a volunteer, not an entrant.
• Help your local library by working at book fairs.
• Assist with local youth activities and at senior centers.
• Help your town or city during elections but remain nonpartisan.

Benefits of the Auxiliary Outreach Program

• Helping others
• Learning new skills
• Meeting new people
• Developing a sense of purpose
• Personal growth

Always Remember to

• Wear your VFW Auxiliary attire (name badge, shirt, hat, jacket, etc.)
• Report the number of hours volunteered.

Deborah Turner (601) 506-9430 Email report form

Our programs are designed to bring needed services, information, and assistance to these target groups. Veterans, service members, their families, and our communities.

Volunteering is second nature for VFW Auxiliary members. It’s what we do, how we do it, where we do it and why we do it – because it’s always the right thing to do.

While emphasis is placed on our core VFW and Auxiliary Programs, Auxiliaries also partner with other community organizations. Auxiliaries can report and be recognized for such community work through the Auxiliary Outreach Program.

When an entire Auxiliary partners with another organization outside our own, it is considered Auxiliary Outreach if the project was approved by the Auxiliary and recorded in the meeting minutes prior to the project. Search your community for great partnerships.

For example:

An individual can cook for and feed several Homeless Veterans and people in the community and that’s honorable but if you partner with and established soup kitchen it can mean feeding hundreds per day and that is making a difference on a much larger scale. 

Other examples include:

Working with local police on child ID kits.

Working with firefighters on fire safety and prevention.

Working with EMTs to host CPR training.

Handing out food at soup kitchens.

Partnering with an animal shelter to hold a spay and neuter clinic.

Auxiliaries are responsible for so many good deeds that help our communities. VFW Auxiliary members work with other organizations in their communities, often individually, and often behind the scenes, but Auxiliary Outreach gives us the opportunity to work together as members alongside members of another organization to do more with local communities and to be recognized in doing so. Collectively, all our projects need to be counted to effectively show the importance of the local VFW and VFW Auxiliary to the community.

Thanks for all you do. Don’t hesitate to contact me.

Deborah Turner, Auxiliary (601) 506-9430 Email

report form

REACH OUT FOR AUXILIARY OUTREACH

Search your community for great partnerships.

For example, and individual can cook for and feed several Homeless Veterans and people in the community and that’s honorable but if you partner with and established soup kitchen it can mean feedings hundreds per day and that is making a difference on a much larger scale. 

Auxiliaries are responsible for so many good deeds that help our communities. Collectively, all our projects need to be counted to effectively show the importance of the local VFW and VFW Auxiliary to the community. 

Thanks for all you do. Don’t hesitate to contact me

Community Service vs Auxiliary Outreach

Do not confuse Auxiliary Outreach with Community Service

Deborah Turner (601)506 9430 email

Auxiliary Outreach is one of our 12 National Programs. Community service is
not one of them.

VFW Community Service and VFW Auxiliary Outreach
VFW Auxiliary Outreach is similar to the VFW Community Service Program. Below is an excerpt from what the VFW communicates to their Posts. We hope this will help you to know what can and cannot be reported under this Program for both the VFW and the Auxiliary.

VFW Community Service
Community Service as defined by the National Community Service Trust Act
“encompasses any human act serving the common good, in the interest of the
community.” Elsewhere, community service is further defined as “a service that is performed for the benefit of the public or its institutions.”

The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. subscribes to the above but adds
that, for the purposes of volunteer recognition, VFW community service must
be performed by and as a representative of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and
must be performed for an organization outside the VFW and its Auxiliaries and must be verified by an authorized representative of that organization.

In addition, efforts performed for the benefit of the Post or Auxiliary’s benefit
should not be considered as community service.

A particularly controversial area in VFW community service is service to one’s
church. Generally, these efforts are not considered community service for two
reasons: 1) they are not performed for the community at large; 2) they are part of an individual’s service to their faith and not to the VFW. The exception to this would be performing the same service for all religious organizations in a given community.

Important Auxiliary Additions to VFW Community Service:

1. Wear something that signifies you are a member of the VFW Auxiliary.
2. The project must be voted on during an Auxiliary meeting. (The VFW also requires this in another section of their instructions.)
3. If what you are doing is reportable under another Auxiliary Program, report it under that Program, not under Auxiliary Outreach.
4. Auxiliary work* (e.g., Outreach, Americanism, Veterans & Family Support, etc.) is to be reported to your local VFW Post Adjutant so it can be added to their report. This will help your Post with eligibility for the National Outstanding Community Service Post Award.
5. Auxiliary Outreach volunteer work need not be verified by the organization you are partnering with. (This is a VFW requirement only.)

Auxiliaries are responsible for so many good deeds that help our communities. Collectively, all our projects need to be counted to effectively show the importance of the local VFW and VFW Auxiliary to the community.

We hope this provides clarification on this Program. If you are unsure of whether your project will count toward the Auxiliary Outreach Program.

What is Auxiliary Outreach?

• Auxiliary Outreach is volunteer work performed by an Auxiliary under the direction of another organization, for the benefit of their community or its institutions. It is a donation of time, not
  in-kind or monetary donations. It’s about partnering with other organizations in our communities to help improve where we live. Auxiliary Outreach can:
• Be performed by people of any age, skill set or ability level.
• Benefit any group of people such as youth, senior citizens and those with disabilities.
• Benefit animals, the environment and public spaces.
• Be done in communities of all types and sizes – rural, suburban and urban, small and large.
  

Please continue to report the great things you are doing in your communities.

Continue to let the light of your Auxiliary shine and make a difference.
Thanks for all you do. Don’t hesitate to contact me.

Deborah Turner Ph (601)506-9430

Hi, I am Deborah Turner your Auxiliary outreach chairperson for 2023-2024. I am looking forward to an awesome year of reporting the things you are doing in your communities. Collectively, all our projects and hours need to be counted to effectively show the importance of the local VFW and VFW Auxiliary to the community. I know that reaching our veterans and community are just as important to you as they are to me. So, let’s make a difference. report, report ,report we are better as a unit than apart.

If you are unsure about your project Feel free to contact me:

Exert from Malta-member resources- Auxiliary Outreach:
What’s Considered Auxiliary Outreach
Examples include:

• Working walks or runs that benefit other organizations as an event spotter, water station
  volunteer, timekeeper, etc. (Walking or running in the race is not part of Auxiliary Outreach; that’s
  participation, not partnering.)
• Working with local police on child ID kits or with EMTs to host CPR Training.
• Working with firefighters on fire safety and prevention.
• Working with parks and recreation departments to plant trees, develop non-veteran related
  community art installations and on adopt-a-park initiatives.
• Helping with a spay and neuter animal clinic.
• Serving food at soup kitchens.
  What’s Not Considered Auxiliary Outreach
  Auxiliary Outreach is for projects NOT AFFILIATED with VFW or VFW Auxiliary Programs. Volunteer
  work that is performed for the benefit of the Post or Auxiliary is NOT considered Outreach. Examples of
  projects that do not qualify include:
• Repairs to, maintenance or beautification of the Post home.
• Cooking or serving a meal for a Post or Auxiliary fundraiser.
• “Buddy”® Poppy distribution.
• VFW or Auxiliary meetings, conventions, conferences, or schools of instruction.
• Providing an honor guard at a member’s funeral.
• Flying the American Flag.
• Conducting Flag retirement programs.
• Church activities for one specific congregation and not the entire community (e.g., usher, elder,
  deacon, minister, etc.)
  Remember to wear something that shows you are a VFW Auxiliary member. Get your Outreach program
  approved by the Auxiliary body.
  Thank you in advance now let’s do great things.

Hi, I am Deborah Turner your Auxiliary outreach chairperson for 2023-2024. I am looking forward to an awesome year of reporting the things you are doing in your communities. Collectively, all our projects and hours need to be counted to effectively show the importance of the local VFW and VFW Auxiliary to the community.

I know that reaching our veterans and community are just as important to you as they are to me. So, let’s make a difference. report, report ,report we are better as a unit than apart.

If you are unsure about your project
Feel free to contact me:
Ph (601)506-9430
Email or
Mail 1117 Sawmill Drive, Crystal Springs MS. 39059

Exert from Malta-member resources- Auxiliary Outreach:
What’s Considered Auxiliary Outreach Examples include:

• Working walks or runs that benefit other organizations as an event spotter, water station volunteer, timekeeper, etc. (Walking or running in the race is not part of Auxiliary Outreach; that’s participation, not partnering.)
• Working with local police on child ID kits or with EMTs to host CPR Training.
• Working with firefighters on fire safety and prevention.
• Working with parks and recreation departments to plant trees, develop non-veteran related community art installations and on adopt-a-park initiatives.
• Helping with a spay and neuter animal clinic.
• Serving food at soup kitchens.

What’s Not Considered Auxiliary Outreach
Auxiliary Outreach is for projects NOT AFFILIATED with VFW or VFW Auxiliary Programs. Volunteer work that is performed for the benefit of the Post or Auxiliary is NOT considered Outreach. Examples of projects that do not qualify include:

• Repairs to, maintenance or beautification of the Post home.
• Cooking or serving a meal for a Post or Auxiliary fundraiser.
• “Buddy”® Poppy distribution.
• VFW or Auxiliary meetings, conventions, conferences, or schools of instruction.
• Providing an honor guard at a member’s funeral.
• Flying the American Flag.
• Conducting Flag retirement programs.
• Church activities for one specific congregation and not the entire community (e.g., usher, elder, deacon, minister, etc.)

Remember to wear something that shows you are a VFW Auxiliary member. Get your Outreach program approved by the Auxiliary body.
Thank you in advance, now let’s do great things.