03/13/2012
Kimberly Shook of Citizens Bank on loan to WAIT House
Community Service Sabbatical program reaches a milestone with 100 community service colleague sabbaticals since 1994
ALBANY, NY (March 13, 2012) – Kimberly Shook, an Assistant Branch Manager at Citizens Bank in Queensbury, has been awarded a Community Service Sabbatical. She is on loan for three months to WAIT House, a nonprofit organization in Glens Falls that provides support and stability to at-risk and homeless youth in Warren and Washington Counties, through coordinated services, emergency shelter and transitional living.
Kimberly, who has been with the bank since 2003, is working with WAIT House as a full-time volunteer for three months during a paid leave of absence from the bank. Her sabbatical began on March 5 and runs through June 8.
The Community Service Sabbatical reached a milestone this year with the placement of its 100th sabbatical recipient. Started in 1994, recipients have donated 48,000 volunteer hours of community service, saving nonprofits more than $1 million based on the hourly wage for volunteers as determined by Independent Sector.
"Community service is one of our core values at Citizens Bank, and we are very proud of the commitment shown by Kimberly and our other Community Service Sabbatical volunteers, who voluntarily suspend their ‘day jobs’ to donate their skills and their energy to organizations like WAIT House, which are so important to the health of local communities,” said Jim Gaspo, President, Citizens Bank and RBS Citizens, New York. “We know from the organizations for which our colleagues have volunteered in the past that our colleagues make a real difference in their sabbaticals. It is also a rewarding experience for our sabbatical recipients who come back to work with a different perspective on life and a better understanding of the needs in our community. We congratulate Kimberly on this opportunity and look forward to learning from her experiences ourselves."
WAIT House provides emergency shelter for homeless youth, as well as linkages to coordinated services including medical and mental health, and substance abuse treatment. The organization also provides transitional housing services, with the goal of personal responsibility and self-sufficiency. The aftercare program provides support services to youth after they leave the shelter, enabling them to continue the goal plan they established while they were shelter residents. For more information, visit the organization’s website at www.hycwaithouse.org.
As a full-time volunteer, Shook is helping the staff at WAIT House identify the greatest needs of the young people they serve, and plan for the utilization of existing community resources to address those needs, including career goal planning, financial education, and healthy living skills training. Through this assessment and outreach, she will help to create the structure for a part-time “house manager” position, set to be filled in May. This position will coordinate and supplement the resources provided to those young people living at WAIT House.
"We are honored that Kimberly has chosen to volunteer with WAIT House and thankful to Citizens Bank for supporting her efforts,” said Duane Vaughn, executive director of WAIT House. “We know that she will be a tremendous asset to our organization and we look forward to working with and learning from her."
About Citizens Bank
Citizens Bank is a division of RBS Citizens, N.A., operating its seven-state branch network in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. It has 233 branches and 493 ATMs in New York.
RBS Citizens, N.A., is a subsidiary of Citizens Financial Group, Inc., a $130 billion commercial bank holding company. It is headquartered in Providence, R.I., and through its subsidiaries has more than 1,500 branches, approximately 3,900 ATMs and approximately 19,700 colleagues. Its two bank subsidiaries are RBS Citizens, N.A. and Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. They operate a 12-state branch network under the Citizens Bank brand in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, and the Charter One brand in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. CFG has non-branch retail and commercial offices in more than 30 states. CFG is owned by RBS (the Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc). CFG’s website is citizensbank.com.
