HGNA Finds Recruitment an Ongoing Challenge

Five years after it was incorporated, Helping Girls Navigate Adolescence Inc. faces its first serious challenge.

It isn't money. The group has done well with its annual pancake breakfast fundraiser and donations from the business community. It also charges a nominal fee for programming—enough to cover costs.

It isn't programming. Led by women passionate about seeing girls through the challenging 'tween years, HGNA has no shortage of ideas for programming and no shortage of successes, including the group's signature workshop for girls, Chick Chat, which attracts more than 150 participants each year.

And it isn't finding dedicated professionals, many of whom are willing to offer their services for a small stipend or at no charge because they believe in the organization and its focus on girls.

Rather, HGNA is desperate for the rank-and-file volunteers that are the lifeblood of every not-for-profit organization.

Given the organization's tight focus—its programs target girls aged nine to 13—many of the parents who are its mainstay remain involved only so long as their daughters meet the age criteria.

"As soon as it's no longer relevant to your daughter, it's hard to stay with it, unless it's a passion," said Sandra McDonnell, HGNA president.

The organization's structure also poses challenges for recruitment. Unlike organizations that offer the same programs involving the same tasks every year, HGNA changes many of its programs and offerings on a year-to-year basis, said Mary Ellen, the group's co-founder and program director.

"Every year we change our programs, our structure," she said. "The kind of volunteers we need are the kind willing to take on big jobs sometimes and to do them from scratch."

Current volunteer needs include facilitators for HGNA's Girl Scout programs, which are held in conjunction with the Downers Grove Park District and have been so successful HGNA was asked to offer them to the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, which serves 19,000 girls.

HGNA also is fine-tuning a new program for dads and daughters aimed at providing guidance and support for fathers grappling with the emotional needs of their growing girls.

Other parent education programs are also in the works. The group previously has sponsored or co-sponsored presentations by nationally recognized parenting experts.

McDonnell and Young have been working on strategies to attract the volunteers HGNA needs. The group has added a coordinator charged with recruiting professional volunteers, while elementary school principals who sit on its board are doing their bit to encourage moms of daughters to consider volunteering for HGNA.

"I know that people are so busy," Young said. "A lot of women are working, devoting time to schools or sports or church and don't have anything left over. But they support us. They love what we do."

She also commended the group's "core of wonderful volunteers."

Despite its focus and the perception that HGNA is for women only, the group is actively seeking the help of men like board members Joe Leo, an accountant and former school board member, and Greg Bedalov, the president of the Downers Grove Economic Development Corp.

"A lot of people make the assumption that we just want women on the board, but we also want those who come from various backgrounds," Young said. "People from the business world who know how to provide more of a business structure to a not-for-profit."

Among HGNA's most pressing volunteer needs right now are a director of marketing and public relations and a director of communications, she said.

"We need people with vision, people who have a certain expertise and can help us work toward a common goal and put systems and procedures and structures in place."

Editor's note: In the interest of full disclosure, I'm one of those mothers of daughters who has served on the HGNA board, although my participation in the group currently is largely limited to writing the occasional press release.