Where's the Los Angeles Volunteer Bureau?

With the big pushes for the upcoming "Big Sunday" volunteer service event (which, like Halloween, is more than one day in Los Angeles), it's too bad the City doesn't work to build a volunteer base all year long. For many years, there has been a Volunteer Bureau in the Mayor's office, but as of late, their web presence has been disappointing. Here's a great way to engage the (web-savvy) citizenry of Los Angeles, yet it's merely a "check back soon" page.

They could easily do a few things to make at least the temporary page useful:

1. List links to other volunteer agencies in the City, like the Volunteer Center of Los Angeles or any other the many other such non-profits.

2. Have a contact name, number and email for someone who is working with coordinating and placing volunteers in the City or could make that referral.

3. Have links to the other community volunteer opportunities within the City such as interns in various departments like LAPD (neighborhood watch, reserves, etc.) and Animal Services (which has an entire volunteer page), special community projects & engagement opportunities from departments and practically every councilmember, etc.

4. Link to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment's site and refer inquiries to get involved to the local neighborhood council.

5. Link to the Big Sunday site.

At least these is a way to direct and convert someone's interest to get involved into something meaningful and they don't get frustrated with the City.

In a City the size of Los Angeles, the City leaders and employees alone cannot sustain a livable community without the community's participation and volunteerism. It's fine if the City's not going to operate at volunteer bureau, but at the very least, they should have a "get involved" button on the City's homepage that directs visitors to a list of all those opportunities offered as listed in the suggestions above. The City needs to admit as an entity (and on their homepage) that it needs people to be involved.