Volunteer Fair

Idealist is holding free Global Volunteering Fairs this next week for those of you interested in volunteering all over the world. Panel discussions will also be occuring on International Volunteerism 101 and Affordable Volunteering Abroad Checkout the schedule and the resources!
Washington, DC (Tues., Feb. 3) at Google from 6 to 9 p.m.
New York (Thurs., Feb. 5) at Barnard College from 6 to 9 p.m.
Boston (Sat., Feb. 7) at Simmons College from 12 to 3 p.m.

If you're interested in volunteering abroad, but won't be able to attend the fairs, use these international volunteerism resources:
Resource center – which helps answer questions like, should you go it alone or with a group? And how do you pay for it? And how do you translate your experience when you get home?
Discussion forum – where you can ask questions and find out about new programs Opportunity search – local or international, for an hour or for a year

Micro-loans

Micro loans are gaining momentum and in doing so changing lives around the world. Micro loans operate by donors giving small amounts of money, about $25, to an unemployed or poor entrepreneur who lacks the credit to get a traditional bank loan. The lendees have plans as to what to do with your money, and in most cases your money will be paid back within a year, so that you can invest the money again in another lendee.
Kiva is the first person to person micro loan site on the web; here you get to choose the person who you want to lend to.
Another interesting micro loan site that I have stumbled upon has to do with people seeking treatment for their children with autism, lend4health. Lendees propose how much money they need and what treatments they are looking at.
I find the idea of mirco loans really facinating; there's not a lot of risk to you or your financial stability, but you can make a huge impact for someone else. New business is good for everyone.

Fund your dreams

Submit and/or vote for your favorite entrepreneurial scheme at Ideablob. 4 more days of this voting period, next round of voting begins February 1st. If the people choose you, you could receive $10,000 to make your business dream come true!

Take Action Round Up: January 26

We've already discussed that giving is good for your health, and good for those who you give to, and by giving you can inspire others to give. How long have you been giving? Where did you learn it from? Razoo, a charity database site writes about how to raise a charitable child, so you can encourage a new generation who knows nothing but altruism.

Random Acts of Kindness Foundation has lesson plans for teachers on how to incorporate ideas of charity and service into school.

Youth Policy Action Center focuses on kids, teens and young adults and the national and state issues that affect them. Even if you aren't old enough to vote you can still be involved.

Invisible People: Viper

Viper from invisible people on Vimeo.

You too can save the world

From Seth Godin's blog, things you can do to do good.

Here are some ideas that you can do online or in your community, with time, not so much with money.

1. Read a copy of the Lorax to a child that's never heard it.
2. Teach someone how to sell their services on Craigslist, or how to use the web to find a job.
3. Build a Squidoo lens every day for a year about a favorite author or musician and dedicate the proceeds to charity. 300 a year could earn tens of thousands of dollars for a cause you care about. That adds up to serious money.
4. Start a blog and profile one worthy non-profit every single day.
5. Go through your house and find beloved books that you're glad you read... and give them to the library.
6. Find an artisan and redesign their website or help them figure out how to promote their work.
7. Create and promote an online petition for a cause you care about.
8. Make a video that teaches people how to do better in a job interview or balance a checkbook or spot consumer fraud.
9. Start a Facebook group for like-minded people who support the same non-profit you do. Commit to spending time to promote it, organize the people there and actually create outcomes of value.
10. Seek out a religion that isn't yours and volunteer to help build a bridge between your circle and theirs.
11. Write ten letters a day to corporations seeking donations for a local homeless shelter.
12. Find a tool that non-profits need online, and then organize some brilliant people to build it as an opensource utility.
13. Find a cause that supports soldiers or diplomats or other public servants that are on the road, and make it easier for them to connect with people back home.
14. Use Copilot to diagnose and fix computer problems for people or causes that can't afford fancy IT support. It's free on weekends.
15. Find an entrepreneur in the developing world and become her email penpal. Daily advice and encouragement might save hundreds of lives.
16. Lobby Congress with letters and blog posts to make a change to a law that doesn't benefit you at all, but helps the community in the long run.
17. Write a great wikipedia article every day about a person who is changing the world for the better.
18. Find video and remix it into an insanely viral video that promotes a cause that you believe in.

Volunteer Opportinities Galore

HOPE Homeless Count
January 26th 10:30PM-4:AM
All Boroughs
Venture out into the dark and help count the street homeless so the appropriate amount of funding will be given to shelters, homeless out reach and other social services.

Painting Client's Apartment
February 1st 1:30PM
Sheep's Head Bay, Brooklyn
One of our low-income clients is in the process of applying for Section 8 Housing, but in order for his apartment to be eligible for Section 8 it needs a new coat of paint. Our client would do it himself but he is blind, so he needs our help!

Serving Lunch to Seniors
On-going 12PM-1PM
33 West End Ave at W 61st St, Manhattan
We are looking for a volunteer to serve communal meals to seniors at the residence on W61 St (on West End Ave) for an hour around noon. The job is to plate the food from the tray, serve uniform portions and to see that the paper and plastic materials are thrown out. Volunteers should be able to commit to at least one day a week for at least 6 months.

Contact Stefanie Greenberg at 212.453.9619 or sgreenberg@metcouncil.org for more information or if you want to participate

The Do Something Awards

Do you do good things, do you have ideas to do good things but don't have the funding? Then this is for you! Since 1996 The Do Something Awards have been given to people 25 and younger who help change their surroundings. Awards are granted in community grants and scholarship money. You have until March 1st to apply.

Invisible in Germany

fiftyfifty street magazine: Invisible

Take Action Round Up: January 21

Sorry I'm so late this week with ideas about what you can do to take action and change the world! This week it will be a bit of a hodge podge of info since I'm still a little overwhelmed with MLK Day backlog:

• Radio station, WRXP, is holding a competition and will donate $10,000 to the charity with the largest number of votes on their website. You can vote every day until the 30th!
  
  
• Vote for the idea that you think the new Obama administration should pay attention to in the Citizen's Briefing Book.
  
  
• Text "Share" to 20222 to donate $5 to end childhood hunger in the US. AT&T will match your gift!

MLK Day Photos

To see more photos go here

MLK Day Thank you!!

Met Council, our Volunteer Department and I personally want to thank all of our volunteers who came out to support us and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream yesterday! The official count is not in yet, but we had about 100 volunteers, at times it was crazy, but Stefanie was very organized and the volunteers were very efficient! We sorted through an untold number of bags of donated clothes and shoes, that are now nicely hung in our closet for clients to take. We cleaned and rearranged the Crisis Services waiting room. We decorated and hung bulletin boards, flyers and framed posters. We painted our main hallway, that will now impress clients and donors a like. Everyone did a stellar job , we were very luck to have such an amazing group of volunteers!

Photos to follow!

Rewards

Starbucks, love them or hate them, is rewarding people for good public service. On election day they gave out free coffee to anyone who voted, this week, if you pledge to volunteer 5 hours in the next year they will give you a free coffee (or tea)!

We still need volunteers

Since 1994 when Congress declared Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a National day of volunteer service, we have been celebrating Dr. King's vision by making his birthday a day on, not a day off. Due to such an emphasis on service by the Obama administration, this MLK Day is shaping up to be the largest day of service ever in the Unites States!

At Met Council we are having a full day of volunteer activities. In the morning we are sorting donated clothing and working on making our Crisis Services waiting room more family friendly.
In the afternoon we will be making our main hallway brighter and fresher by adding a fresh coat of paint.

We still need volunteers to help paint in the afternoon. We will be painting starting at 2PM on the 21st floor. Let me know if you can come!
Hopefully we will see you there!

ahowe@metcouncil.org or 212.453.9619

More MLK Day!

USAService is sponsoring a video contest on YouTube about what service means to you. Unfortunately I didn't find out about this until right now to let you guys know about it so you can enter (the deadline is in 12 hours! you can still do it!) and win, but watching the results might be interesting (as of now no one has uploaded their submissions onto the YouTube Inaguration page that I can see). The winner of the best video will recieve a call from Michelle Obama!

Checkout USAtoday's article on their prediction that Monday will be the largest day of service in the US ever.
What are you doing to participate? I will be helping organize the volunteers that come to Met Council to brighten our hallway with new paint, sort through donated clothes and make our Crisis Services waiting room more family friendly.

Invisible People: Sandy

Sandy from invisible people on Vimeo.

Following us on MLK Day

On MLK Day we will be tweeting our progress and activities to Twitter MLKDay. This a nation wide activity with many volunteers participating in sharing their activities with the rest of the country. It is also going to be a highly watched event, with CNN and the Inauguration Commity following the tweet updates and checking out the photos on Flickr. Updates will also be posted on the MLKDay Facebook page. This is pretty exciting! January 19, 2009 is shaping up to be the largest National day of service the US has seen. Follow our progress, and the progress of thousands of other volunteers!

Places to go, people to meet

For those of you with time and/or money, you may be interested in attending The First International Social Action Film Festival held in Hollywood, in February. Since this is the First International Social Action Film Festival to be held, I can't really speak to how amazing it has been in the past, but if you go you could be a part of Social Action Film history!

Also, the IMPACT conference is coming up in March at U of Maryland, this has been around for a while (24 years), under different names (COOL Conference, Idealist Campus Conference). The conference brings together college students, nonprofit professionals, campus administrators, and year of service members involved in service, activism, politics and advocacy to share their experiences, stories, and resources in their work for social change. Sounds cool!

1/8

National Coalition for the Homeless

It can happen to anyone.

New MLK events

In addition to the previously mentioned MLK Day events we are also going to be painting! Join us to paint our hallways with a new clean bright coat! We need painters on the 21st Floor (80 Maiden Lane, Manhattan) from 2-4:30pm. Let Stefanie Greenberg know that you will be attending. She can be reached at 212.453.9619 or sgreenberg@metcouncil.org

Take Action Round UP: January 12

• The Human Kind Project is trying to inspire good deeds around the world. Has someone done something unexpected and kind to you? Have you done something to brighten a stranger's day? Read other people's experiences and get inspired.
  
  
• The Giving Game, marketed towards kids and teachers who want to teach altruism, also hopes to inspire a good deed cascade effect.
  
  
• The Give List has compiled a large amount of ways to give without spending money, or spending less money. Do good while staying frugal.
  

Willie Rapfogel answers your questions!

Willie Rapfofel, Met Council's CEO will be answering questions about food assistance programs and eligibility this week in the NY Times. Get your questions answered!

Volunteer Event: MLK Day

Get inspired by the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.! This MLK Day, Met Council is cleaning up our Crisis Intervention Department. Crisis is one of Met Council's most important programs, helping struggling individuals and families get back on their feet before they fall through the cracks.

On the 19th we'll need three groups of volunteers to help us accomplish our MLK Day dreams.

• Handy Wo/Men: Have you never nailed your own foot to the floor with a nail gun? No? Then we need you to install shelves, move boxes and secure bookcases to walls.
  
  
• Craftsters: If you are not color blind or allergic to glue we need you to paint cork boards, laminate flyers, frame photos and help make the Crisis waiting room look good again.
  
  
• Organizational Masters: For this job we need all you volunteers who have their paper clips sorted by size and color! The Crisis Program has tons of donated clothing that needs sorting and organizing. We need you to decide what clothes are good for our clients and then put them all away nicely in our closet.
  

Please pick one area that you would like to help out in and let Stefanie Greenberg know that you will be attending. She can be reached at 212.453.9619 or sgreenberg@metcouncil.org

My First Night Homeless

Written by Mark Horvath for the End Homelessness Blog on Change.org.

There are first times for everything. The first time I drove a car, first time I broke my leg, first time I ate sushi, the first time I went to work, the first time I was fired, and I'll never forget my first kiss. 'Firsts' are memorable parts of life and growing up.

Well, the same goes for that first night spent on the streets or in a homeless shelter. The first time you're homeless, the intense feelings of fear and uncertainty are impossible to forget.

I recently started working for a seasonal homeless shelter in Glendale, California. My job is to monitor a bus pickup five nights a week. On New Year's Day, a girl in her early 30s showed up and it was clear that it was her first night homeless. She looked so alone and scared. She told me she lost her job a few months back and was living with friends, bouncing from couch to couch, until all welcomes had run out. She called 2-1-1 (a phone number for social services) and the operator told her about the winter emergency shelter.

If you've never been homeless, it's tough to describe that first night sleeping on the street. The fear and disillusionment is almost paralyzing. You just go through the motions, but at the same time you're beating yourself up for being in this situation. It is very surreal because no one ever thinks they will become homeless. No one.

Change Your Government

Change.org has responded to President-elect Obama's call for more citizen involvement in government by asking people to submit ideas about what they would like to see changed about America in the upcoming years. You have been able to vote for these ideas, and the second round of voting has begun! The top 10 ideas will be presented to the new Administration on January 19th at the National Press Club. Voting ends on the 15th! Tell your new government what you want.

Mentoring

January is Mentor Month! Mentoring can involve all manner of relationships; business help, career coaching, friendly assurance. But perhaps the most important mentoring relationship is that involving an adult sharing time with a kid who has no one to listen to her to or who's family situation leaves little opportunity for him just to be a kid.
Mentor, an organization committed to "expanding quality mentoring, with the hope that with the guidance of an adult mentor, each child can discover how to unlock and achieve his or her potential," says that over 17 million young people in the US want or need mentoring. Many kids from low income families don't have the support that they should be getting or have unstable family situations. This can lead to poor school attendance, low grades, high dropout rate and greater risk for getting involved in all those other negative things that happen when nobody believes in you. Mentoring has proven benefits for everyone involved; the kids' GPAs rise, attendance and self esteem improves, you make a friend.
What do you have to do as a mentor? What do you have to do to change a life like this? Big Brother/Big Sister, one of the largest and oldest mentor matching organizations in the US says that really all these kids need is someone to hang out with. They suggest taking your ment-ee along to do what you normally do. Going to the Met, volunteering, playing basketball, watching a movie, whatever, these kids will appreciate anything you do together, and doing something even that simple can make a world of difference. Even though I grew up in a nice urban neighborhood with a relatively stable family, this sounds about right, when I was 14 all I wanted was someone to pay attention to me.
Mentor will help you find an organization in your area that can match you up with a ment-ee.

Did you ever have a mentor? Have you ever mentored? What kind of impact did your relationship have on your life?

New Bloggers

Change.org has taken on new causes. I have been following their blog about ending homlessless, written by Shannon Moriarty, which I really like. I think their new Poverty in America and Sustainable Food blogs would also be important and/or interesting to read. Check out all their old and new blogs at Change.org.

Do you read any blogs that help you do your job? Do you read blogs about causes that you find important?

Take Action Round up: January 5

Volunteering is the best way to start the New Year!

• Martin Luther King Jr Day is coming up fast. In 1994 Congress initiated the King Day of Service, encouraging people to "Make it a day on, not a day off." Find a near you to celebrate Dr. King.
  
  
• FeedaNeed.org doesn't want money, they want you to volunteer a couple hours of your time. Your skills will be matched with a charity, and if you volunteer 2 hours before February 14th you will be entered to win awesome prizes!
  
  
• Architecture for Humanity involves architects and designers in creating designs for struggling communities all over the world. Have an idea for a sustainable structure? Know how to lay a foundation? Interested in going to Mali?
  
  
• Kaboom recognizes the importance of unstructured play in child development. They aim to help motivated communities build play ground in their neighborhoods. If you're not ready to spearhead the whole playground building thing yourself, find a group who is and volunteer with them, or volunteer to spruce up an existing playground.
  

Oh Yeah...Happy New Year!

Here I am being all business before I wish everyone a Happy 2009! Yay! What did you do to celebrate? Do you have any special plans for this vast year that lies ahead of us?

HOPE Homeless Count

The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) needs 2,500 volunteers across New York City to assist with the 2009 Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) on Monday night, January 26th. This will enable the DHS to obtain an accurate assessment of the city’s street homeless population. Volunteers are needed in every borough from 10:30PM to 4AM to conduct this survey. Volunteers will receive training before the count.

For more information or to participate please contact Stefanie Greenberg at sgreenberg@metcouncil.org or 212.453.9619.