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Pink-slip parties and avid online networking have grown popular as the recession continues. But taking some time each week to volunteer and apply skills learned on the job to help nonprofits could only help in the long run, according to job-search experts.

"It's so essential to get out from behind your computer at home and get engaged in organizations where people meet and get together," said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm. "Doing volunteer work is a great way to get engaged with an organization. You'll get to know the people who work there, the board, the people who run the organization, which is valuable in your job search. You feel like your skills aren't atrophying. In fact, you could put it on your resume."

BVU is in the early stages of organizing a program called the Council of Professionals and Executives, or COPE. Organizers hope that COPE will tap scores of laid-off workers - attorneys, marketing pros, human resources and financial experts - for their specialized skills, and link them to nonprofit groups as short-term project consultants and advisers. Levesque hopes to be one of them.

Pink-slip parties and avid online networking have grown popular as the recession continues. But taking some time each week to volunteer and apply skills learned on the job to help nonprofits could only help in the long run, according to job-search experts.

"It's so essential to get out from behind your computer at home and get engaged in organizations where people meet and get together," said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm. "Doing volunteer work is a great way to get engaged with an organization. You'll get to know the people who work there, the board, the people who run the organization, which is valuable in your job search. You feel like your skills aren't atrophying. In fact, you could put it on your resume."

BVU is in the early stages of organizing a program called the Council of Professionals and Executives, or COPE. Organizers hope that COPE will tap scores of laid-off workers - attorneys, marketing pros, human resources and financial experts - for their specialized skills, and link them to nonprofit groups as short-term project consultants and advisers. Levesque hopes to be one of them.