Michelle Nunn
In a parking lot in Far Rockaway, New York, a school bus is the volunteer staging site.
Volunteers check in and get their assignments. Then, with computers and maps of the neighborhood, they fan out to "muck out" homes, a critical first step to restoring power and starting the rebuilding process after Hurricane Sandy. Wearing protective gear and facemasks, they tear out the flooring and remove the debris and paneling in homes to eradicate mold.
There’s often a fine line between individual acts of caring and systemic change – a line we cross often in a world that needs both compassion and justice. That line took center stage last week at the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) conference in London, where I worked with 400 attendees from 70 countries -- all of whom engage volunteers to help meet critical needs, all of whom end up developing solutions to larger issues in the process.
Today's post is republished from Citizen IBM on Nov. 19. This blog is written by Michelle Nunn, CEO of Points of Light, the largest organization in the world dedicated to volunteer service.
You may have suspected that IBM was the nation’s most community-minded company. Now you have proof. Last week, BloombergBusinessweek published the first-ever Civic 50, a groundbreaking national initiative to identify the 50 companies having the greatest community impact. IBM was ranked No. 1.
Post written by Michelle Nunn, CEO of Points of Light and author of Be The Change.
Over the next five years, more than one million veterans will transition out of the military and rejoin communities and families across America. Many politicians speak of them as people with needs, but that’s only half the picture.
Our veterans – steeped in discipline, steeled with the hardships of serving in two overseas wars and equipped with vital skills and broadly applicable experiences – offer the nation an extraordinary reservoir of human capital and talent.
How can the nation capitalize on veterans’ talents? Take a look at these three initiatives, led by veterans, for some of the answers.