The New Service Catalyzing citizen service

Time 2021-11-22 12:06:11

Web Name: The New Service Catalyzing citizen service

WebSite: http://thenewservice.org

ID:245623

Keywords:

Service,New,The,service,citizen,Catalyzing,

Description:

keywords:
description:Catalyzing citizen service

The New Service Catalyzing citizen service

01.04.17 by Amy Potthast

Volunteering with Kids

Joe Shlabotnik

My college friend Laurie asked for recommendations best places to volunteer with her kid. Too many thoughts for a quick Facebook response, so I wrote this post!

If you want to volunteer with your child, here are some questions to start with.

What can your child do and what do they like to do? 

If your child can do something, they can volunteer that skill. Bonus if they enjoy it.

Read, paint/color, fold laundry, play games, bake pies, pick up litter, sweep, vacuum, rake, tell knock-knock jokes, write letters, run, bike, sell things (stand at a busy spot, look cute, and call attention to the cause)all of these are volunteerable skills.

What places do your family members already frequent?

Volunteering where you already go is a great choice for children because they are investing in a place that has brought them joy already, and where they can return to see they fruits of their labor.

Schools always need volunteers, even children! Older kids can help set up and take down chairs for special events, help babysit younger kids during parent meetings, and run movie nights or other social events.

Libraries, after-school programs, and preschools may welcome big kid readers.

Parks and playgrounds have formal volunteering (groundskeeping, etc.), as well as informal volunteering picking up litter, toweling off playground equipment after a rain, reporting graffiti to the parks office.

Theatres and concert halls need ushers, and also people to pick up old programs and trash after the performance. Childrens productions might be more kid-friendly, and allow your child to watch a program for free.

If your family has a faith community, look for ways to volunteer through your temple, mosque, or church visiting elderly and home bound members of the community, raking the grounds, making meals for people who sleep outside, or passing out flyers for an upcoming blood drive are some examples.

What kind of issues or people are important to your child?

saritarobinson

Childrens hospitals may welcome children to come and play games or read with patients. Your family could lead or participate in a clothing, toy or stuffed animal drive, and donate needed items to the hospital. (Confer with the hospital prior to collecting items!)

If your child likes animals, you may find an animal shelter, zoo, or rehabilitation organization that welcomes regular and loving visits from children.

Children who have close relationships with their grandparents may enjoy creating colorful cards and greetings to share with Meals on Wheels groups in your community, to distribute along with meals to home bound older adults. Local assisted-living facilities may welcome your child at certain times to spend time with the residents.

If your child has struggled to understand homelessness and panhandling on your citys streets, you might bake desserts to bring to a nonprofit that feeds people for free (ask for guidance first), or get together with friends to assemble care packages to distribute on the streets.

What values would you like to demonstrate or strengthen?

While the suggestions above are child-centered, you as a parent might be interested in broadening your childs horizon, sharing with them something you care about.

Parents with a deep sense of environmental justice might want to introduce their children to the importance of clean waterways to protect aquatic animals from eating toxins. Picking up litter during beach or river cleanups is a way to volunteer. Or parents may help their children understand the danger posed by invasive plant species by identifying and clearing invasive species in natural areas.

Parents who care about maternal and child health in low-income communities can find ways to collect and pass along baby clothes and gear, parenting books, and other resources to high schools and community centers. Children can fold clothes, organize their friends families to donate, and help carry donations.

And of course theres the lemonade stand with proceeds going to organizations you and your child value. Similarly, there are charity fun runs and family bike rides where the volunteering is an athletic contest, and the benefit is the financial support of an organization you value. Some friends of rivers organizations even offer canoe rides!

Do you want to volunteer with a group, DIY, or with an individual organization?

A final question to ask is whether you want to volunteer with a group like the Scouts or a youth group, OR whether you want to create your own volunteer gig, or whether your child wants to become a regular/formal volunteer with a specific organization. Asking this question can help you narrow your options and hopefully help you pick a way to start!

Rate this: 11.13.14 by Amy Potthast

You love the people + things you give to: Creating a nation of servantleaders

Something Ive noticed lately is that the more time and energy you invest in a person or an activity, the more you grow to love it.

Something about your brain devoting more wiring to them

or maybe something about your learning so much about them that you can easily take their perspective (seeing something from someone elses point of view is the bedrock of compassion)

or maybe about feeling satisfaction from your efforts, so that you are shaped by the care you give.

So this morning, reading about the new American rite of passage, which is meant to be a year of national service, my imagination automatically takes me to a time when every U.S. citizen has the chance to invest time and energy in their community (or any community).

I see faces of adults (national service alums who are now parents, teachers, bankers, florists, landscapers, librarians, mayors, bakers) who have struggled to understand the points of view of diverse people and systems, to affect change in the lives of others, whove created wiring in their brain for people and places on the margins. Whove been transformed, or ruined for life as Former Jesuit Volunteers claim theyve been. I see individuals passing their learned insights onto their children, their value of giving.

The Franklin Project (an initiative of The Aspen Institute, and of John Bridgeland Alan Khazei), published a plan of action that says it this way:

Service makes citizens. In every generation, Americans who have undertaken national service—in military and civilian capacities—have emerged more connected to their generation and more invested in their country.

The name of this blog comes from the notion that The Service is a nickname for military service, and that new generations of citizens have the chance to form a new service meaningful direct and indirect service here in the States and elsewhere. My grandfather, a WWII vet and internee, said to me when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in China, that he was proud of me for serving my country. I cant describe how much his words meant to me.

Naturally there are many subcultures in which service looks exactly like being a member of a community service isnt always joining a program, moving to a new place, tracking your hours, and following a Federally approved position description as an AmeriCorps member.

That said, Im excited to see what comes of  the movement, both what comes next and what comes in time for the current generation of children when they are ready to come of age.

Rate this: 05.18.11 by Amy Potthast

Graduating AmeriCorps Members and Career TransitionNeeds

For a course in training needs assessment, I have been researching the career transitions needs of AmeriCorps members in Oregon the past couple of months.

Happy AmeriCorps Week! Drawing by Matt Honore - Oregon State Service Corps staffer + AmeriCorps alum

So far Ive:

looked at extant data, including past pre-workshop surveys, interview transcripts, and studies like Diana Epsteins The Long-Term Impacts of AmeriCorps on Participants andconducted a pilot study, specifically a survey of 41 Oregon AmeriCorps and VISTA members who are within four months of ending their terms of service.The pilot study focused primarily on career pathing and networking — skills, attitudes, and performance needs. Its interesting what is rising to the surface.abcdefThe first thing that jumped out at me in general was that members are thinking about their post-AmeriCorps plan far earlier than I had anticipated. 81 percent were thinking about next steps by Day One of their term. I was thinking the majority would hover around the 6-month mark, once they got a handle on their service project.NetworkingA paradox emerged from the data on networking. The majority of members who responded to the survey rely on networking (with people more established in their careers, as well as with friends and family members) as their top strategies for investigating next steps.abcedHowever, the vast majority of members also find networking problematic in a range of ways — from not knowing whom to network with, to feeling like they are bothering the people they want to network with. In fact, only 24 percent of members said networking was unproblematic for them.abcdStrikingly, networking skills correlate with a more positive attitude toward the transition. For the 24 percent of corps members who find networking unproblematic:88 percent are optimistic/hopeful about the end of their term and their transition to next steps (compared with 65 percent who find networking problematic, and 70 percent overall).50 percent are “anxious/worried” (compared with 59 percent who find networking problematic, and 56 percent overall).Id love to know whether people with a good attitude towards their next steps also happen to have a good attitude towards networking — or if theres a causal relationship (in either direction) among the two.Career pathingThe other skill area I looked at included career pathing. I started by looking at survey results for people who report having their plans firmly in place — but the arc of their responses for all other questions looked really similar to overall responses.abcdefFor people who are thinking primarily in terms of the role or job function theyll play:More are optimistic about the impending transition — 91 percent vs. 45 percent who arent thinking in terms of role (and 70 percent overall)Most plan to search for jobs after AmeriCorps (versus planning to go to grad school, travel, or do another term of service)The overwhelming majority — 92 percent — plan to find a job when the term ends (versus 36 percent of others)58 percent started thinking about their post-AmeriCorps career move before they started their term (versus 39 percent of others)More than any other strategy to prepare for next steps, this group relied on reflection (92 percent — most other groups relied most on networking)This group also relied on the widest variety of resources — 8 of those I listed as options in the surveyWhats fascinating to me about this set of numbers is that if I just look at people who are planning to get a job after the corps, a huge number are anxious (72 percent for job seekers overall; 54 percent for those focusing on their professional role) or at least uncertain (64 percent for job seekers overall; only 45 percent for those focusing on their role).abcdabcdOn the other hand, among members who are focusing more on the issue they care about in their career:69 percent are excited about the transition! No one else is excited about it. Well, only 26 percent of others are excited about it.69 percent are heading to grad school (might explain the excitement) — whereas only 19 percent of others are going to grad school100 percent started thinking about next steps by Day One in the corpsHmmmIt appears that focusing on the role youll play in the workforce aint a bad strategy — at least if attitude is a good indicator. It may be that when you focus on role, youre relying more on yourself and leaving less to chance or others.abcdLiterally, this group relied relatively less on networking (though they did network!), more on reflecting on their own strengths and weaknesses, and took advantage of a wider variety of career resources available.abcdefAn area for further investigation is, do the frequent opportunities for in-service training offer additional benefits to people entering their career through the lens of role? — because training is often more tied to specific job skills (like grant writing, for VISTAs) than issue.abcdefThese initial findings are really tempting me to keep researching (beyond the scope of my class).abcdefHappy AmeriCorps Week, by the way!Rate this: 05.17.11 by Amy Potthast

Three financial aid resources for people in publicservice

If you are in a public service career and carrying—or considering—student debt, your life just got a little easier.

Youll make it through these piles! (Photo from troismarteaux on Flickr/Creative Commons

Here are three resources to help you navigate your repayment options:

1. AskHeatherJarvis.com

Heather Jarvis is a national expert on public service loan forgiveness who contributed to student debt relief policy for the House Education Committee and others in Congress. Her new site is a clearinghouse of information about managing your debt while working in a mission-based career.

Features:

Free, interactive webinarsClear (clear, clear) FAQs and steps for accessing public service loan forgivenessA blog with topical news and timely advice A forum for you to connect with Heather and others who are paying attention

2. IBRinfo.org

IBRinfo is an independent information hub about income-based student loan repayment and public service loan forgiveness – two relatively new federal programs that help student borrowers afford an education.

Features:

Explanations of both programs passed as part of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007Snapshot of who is eligible to participate in the programsTips for accessing loan relef through the programsAs-needed email alerts with news that counts. When an email appears in my inbox, less than monthly, I read it. It’s always valuable information. If you don’t believe me, you can also just read the email alerts on their site.

3. EdAward.org

For former AmeriCorps, VISTA, and NCCC members out there, check out the official CNCS website on the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award. The Education Award—around $5,000—can be used to pay back student loans and/or to pay tuition at qualifying schools.

Features:

Multimedia stories explaining how different AmeriCorps members and alumni used their Ed AwardsHow to make the most of your Ed Award when you go to school and to pay back loansStrategies for dealing with the extra taxable income (the Ed Award is fully taxable)Insights into income-based repayment and public service loan forgiveness for AmeriCorps folks

If youre thinking ahead about financial aid for grad school, consider these additional resources from Idealist:

Idealist Grad Fairs: Meet grad school representatives in cities across the United States and listen to panel discussion on admissions and financial aidGrad School Resource Center: Advice about ways to pay for schoolGraduate Education: Financial Aid Myths, Ins and Outs

Cross posted from Idealist.org.

Rate this: 04.25.11 by Amy Potthast

Podcast: Lara Galinsky of Echoing Green, Heart + head =hustle

This week, Lara Galinsky, Senior Vice President of Echoing Green, is launching an inspiring career guide for social impact work called Work on Purpose.

We interviewed Lara about her new book. Click here to listen now!

Each chapter of Work on Purpose asks key questions for career seekers; illustrates the impact of these questions in the lives of Echoing Green community members; and offers a place for notes at the end for you to jot reflections from your own life.

In this episode of the Idealist Careers Podcast, Idealists Amy Potthast chats with Lara Galinsky about the central message of Work on Purpose: finding work that uses your Heart + Head = Hustle.

Click here to listen:
http://player.wizzard.tv/player/o/i/x/130357654730/config/k-e70ce4f1f0cc058e/uuid/root/episode/k-4d9e55e43cfbe69a.m4v

p.s. In the podcast, Lara shares the stories of the five people who illustrate this message:

Cheryl Dorsey, President of Echoing Green, who graduated from medical school and Kennedy School of Government, and chose social-justice over medicine.Mark Hannis, founder of the Genocide Intervention Network and the child of Holocaust survivors, who discovered as a college student that genocide still occurs, and that he could mobilize action to end it.Mardie Oakes, founder of Hallmark Community Solutions, combined her background in architecture, community housing, and finance to develop housing for people with special needs.Socheata Poeuv, creator of the film project Khmer Legacies, which documents interviews between Khmer Rouge survivors and their adult children.Andrew Youn, Founder of the One Acre Fund, who started out in a corporate consulting job but later used his business skills to develop a market system for farmers in a region of Kenya to prevent annual famines.

Click here to learn more about Work on Purpose.

Cross posted from Idealist.org.

Rate this: Archives January 2017 November 2014 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 November 2010 October 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 Meta Register Log in The New Service Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Follow Following The New Service Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now. The New Service Customize Follow Following Sign up Log in Report this content View site in Reader Manage subscriptions Collapse this bar Loading Comments...

TAGS:Service New The service citizen Catalyzing 

<<< Thank you for your visit >>>

Catalyzing citizen service

Hot Websites