You don't have to have a lot of time to make a big impact.

Deborah Langer is a Public Affairs Outreach Specialist at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Her kids are getting older, and she isn't "on call " as much with them. Deborah likes to be constructive with her downtime. We aimed to harness her energy and enthusiasm into a volunteer project management role.

Arise and Flourish provides an educational program to middle and high school students where real life stories and education on the cycle of addiction are led by young adult peers in recovery. When we told Deborah about Arise and Flourish, she excitedly told us her son had just attended a presentation at his public high school and found it to be impactful! We met with Deborah and two Arise and Flourish board members to brainstorm ways to help. Deborah chose an area where she could audit what is working and what isn't for the nonprofit and suggest a plan. She leveraged her limited free time by involving colleagues to help assess marketing strategies and create templates and systems that the volunteer staff can implement. Pro-bono project-based volunteering can be an excellent way to create bandwidth and build capacity for a small but mighty nonprofit.

Contact Arise and Flourish to arrange a visit to your middle or high school student's school.