The Community Service Center will host its annual Volunteer Expo, which is intended to inform students about local and national nonprofit organizations.

The event will be today on the second floor of the Ferguson Center, in the main entrance area by the food court, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Volunteer Expo will connect students with local and national nonprofit organizations. There will be more than 20 local and national volunteer agencies in attendance, and students will be able to discuss the agencies’ service projects with representatives.

“For the most part, I think anything someone wants to get involved in, they should be there. From mentoring to working in a soup kitchen, we’ll have groups there,” said Hillary Moore, CSC director of public relations and marketing.

The agencies represented at the expo are the CSC’s community partners, and the CSC partners with them several times throughout the year. Partner organizations include Habitat for Humanity, who they schedule monthly events with, and West Alabama Food Bank, who they partner with for Beat Auburn Beat Hunger.

“West Alabama Food Bank – it’s just very exciting to do Beat Auburn Beat Hunger with them, and Tuscaloosa’s One Place – they offer a variety of services from parenting classes for fathers who have been ordered to have parenting classes by the court,” Moore said. “You can be a mentor at an elementary school; you can be a tutor at an elementary school. They need people who speak Spanish to work in their main offices, so they offer a variety of services.”

The CSC also coordinates events with various nonprofits throughout the year. Students who worked with the CSC completed more than 350,000 service hours in regional, national and international volunteer efforts last year. Many students who volunteer through the CSC work with the Good Samaritan Clinic, Big Brother Big Sister and the Boys and Girls Club of West Alabama, Moore said.

According to their website, the CSC divides its efforts into several focus areas: arts; youth and education; hunger and homelessness; civic engagement and outreach; volunteer/freshman outreach; special projects; alternative break; and public relations and marketing.

The CSC’s Signature Projects, according to their Community Partners Directory, include Ripple Effect: Freshman Volunteer Day of Service, Beat Auburn Beat Hunger Food Fight, Alternative Breaks and Give-N-Go. The CSC also honors student groups and individuals who have excelled in various areas of service during the year at their annual awards ceremony, Profiles in Service Awards.

For further information on the CSC’s community partners and their student volunteer opportunities, a Community Partner Directory is available in the CSC office, Room 346 in the Ferguson Student Center.

“It has all the information about the groups we work with and all the different project areas, so anything [students] want to know about, we should be able to help them get information about it,” Moore said.

Five easy ways to find volunteer opportunities:

1)  Stop by the CSC office at 346 Ferguson Center

2)  Check their website: volunteer.ua.edu

3)  Send an email to [email protected] to sign up for the monthly electronic newsletter and get up-to-date information

4)  Create an account at http://slpro.ua.edu and browse volunteer opportunities (more information about creating an SL Pro account will be given at the CSC Kickoff on Thurs., Sept. 9 at 6 p.m. in the Riverside Community Center)

5) Follow them on Twitter (@VolunteerBama) or ‘like’ their Facebook page

The next service opportunities are Wed., Sept. 1 (walking dogs at T-town Paws) and Friday, Sep. 3 (Creative Campers After School Arts Program)