A Disaster is a Disaster Although this title may seem redundant, it is meant to demonstrate that often people do not associate small events like floods or electrical outages as a disaster. While preparing for a disaster, it is easy to forget about some of the less drastic personal emergencies people deal with all over the United States. Since the April article covered my own history with a minor disaster, this month I broaden this topic by featuring a “Stellar Disaster Initiative” that is taking steps to prepare for all disasters, including floods. The Volunteer Center of Lewis Mason and Thurston Counties, Washington
The Volunteer Center is part of the county's Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. The VC’s essential function is to handle emergent volunteers as well as pre-registered volunteers. During a disaster the Red Cross chapter would set up shelters and the Volunteer Center would set up "volunteer staging areas" at Red Cross shelters. Since the inception of disaster assistance work in 1999, the Volunteer Center has successfully completed every disaster assistance request from the Emergency Office. Forty-six homes in Thurston County have been saved from flood damage because of their volunteer disaster assistance project. For more information on how to prepare for floods, please go to this website: http://www.fema.gov/hazard/flood/fl_before.shtm Disaster Trivia The Young and the Faithful Be it out of love, obligation, pride, compassion or spirit of spreading the word, nearly every practiced religion teaches the principles of service and outreach for the betterment of society and the fellow man. An estimated 80 million people perform volunteer service each year—about half do so on the basis of their faith. Faith-based service is defined by the Points of Light Foundation as community action or service conducted by organizations for whom a primary concern is not merely the good work itself, but that it is done because of, or on behalf of, or to further, a religious understanding of the world. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), 34 percent of teens ages 12-18 who volunteer report doing so primarily through a religious organization. Faith-based organizations are the largest beneficiary of teen volunteers as compared to 18 percent who volunteer with school-based groups and 12 percent through youth leadership organizations. This Youth Volunteering and Civic Engagement Survey conducted by CNCS found the likelihood that young people will volunteer is directly related to their involvement in and encouragement from the social institutions of family, religious congregations, and schools. Corporation CEO David Eisner says, “Youths who attend religious services regularly are one and a half times more likely to volunteer than those who do not attend religious services," Survey results show “74 percent of youth who volunteer do so at least in part through a religious organization, a school-based group, or a youth leadership organization. In addition, among youth who attend religious services regularly, 64 percent also volunteer.” These results illustrate that tapping the youth population of your faith-based partner organizations can be an extremely valuable resource to engage and expand your volunteer base. This includes the possibilities of interfaith youth projects, which, as described in the April 2006 VISTA newsletter, can be a powerful component to creating lasting social change in the world. Click here <insert link to April newsletter> to see a copy of the April 2006 Strengthening Communities newsletter and read the article about World Peace and interfaith development. Portions of this article were reprinted from the Summer 2006 edition of the “Young Heroes” magazine article “The Faith and Service Movement and Your Young Heroes” by Kristen Cambell. Searching the Web for Service No matter where we go — conferences, workshops, trainings — there’s always a lot of talk about service-learning. We hear about how it’s a great new revolution in volunteering that can help both volunteers and volunteer managers find new and effective ways of being engaged in communities. But what is service-learning, really, and where can we find out more about it? Basically put, service-learning is as simple as it sounds — service and learning, volunteering and education together. Instead of just going to a soup kitchen and ladling out dinner, people who are engaged in service-learning may find out more about the poverty statistics in their area, sit down and talk with people who are eating there, or discover the impact that the soup kitchen has had on their community. Rather than doing something good just to say you’ve done it, service-learning is about learning how and why the people, places, and things involved in service-learning are important. Now that you know a little about service-learning, you may want to find out more or share this info with your volunteers. The easiest place to turn for information about service-learning is the Internet, but it’s hard to narrow down what’s useful info and what’s not. For example, if you Google the phrase “service learning,” you come up with 29,400,000 results. That’s a little more info than we have time to go through, especially in our one-year terms! So here are a few websites you may want to check out. They’re geared towards a wide variety of audiences, from those just discovering service-learning to experts in the field. Take a look around and see what’s best for you and for the people you serve. www.servicelearning.org http://www.pointsoflight.org/resources/details.cfm?ID=10023 http://www.service-learningpartnership.org From the Quill of McGill Greetings from the traveling redhead. It is good to be back in the country, and I know that Michelle, Abbey, Brian, and Kristen kept everything under control while I was away. Many of you may already know this, but we are in the middle of the renewal process for Year 3 of the Strengthening Communities VISTA Initiative. Though no decisions have been made about which sites will receive VISTAs, it can be safely assumed that many of your sites will be facing the task of recruiting VISTAs to replace those of you that are rolling off this summer. Over half of us in the program will end our year of service between the months of June and August. So what does this mean for you? It means that you need to help your site find a good candidate to continue the work that you have done. Everyone should take 20 minutes and make a list of everyone you can think of who might consider becoming a VISTA. Are there any regular volunteers who might be willing to accept this full-time postion? Any residents from the low-income areas you are working with who might be ready to step up and serve their community in a more substantial way? Are there any college students you know who are about to graduate (or who are still in school but could take time off to earn the educational award) and are eager to channel their energy into helping others for a year? Reach out to the people on your list and let them know that they should consider this opportunity to be a VISTA. We as VISTAs are in the best position to be champions of our own cause. So I challenge each of you (and myself, too!) to be ambassadors for the work that you do and work diligently with your supervisors to make sure that your site identifies the best people out there to continue Getting Things Done. One of you asked about the history of April Fools. Since I was curious too, I researched it online. The origin is somewhat uncertain, but there is some interesting history that it coincides with. Prior to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1564, the same date was observed as New Year’s Day by cultures from the Roman to the Hindu. The date may be related to the festival of the vernal equinox, which is March 21st. Most likely the popularity of April Fools comes from the fact that the English made it a widespread celebration during the 18th century. Now, here are some of your jokes! Scott MacLaughlin: Tallahassee, FL
Rhona Colbert: Muskegon, MI Since April Fools fell on a Saturday, a day we always get together with our son and daughter, the inlaws, grandkiddies and grandpuppies for a meal. Well, my son brought up bratwurst and asked his father to grill them. My husband went out to light the grill and just about had a heart attack. In the grill was a snake. Now we live way out in the middle of the woods between a creek and a river so snakes are abundant in the spring, which freaks my husband out. We have all kinds of wildlife around but snakes do him in. Come to find out my son and his sister stopped at the local dollar store and found a fake snake. Needless to say we now have a family law that April fools can be fatal to elderly family members over the age of 40 so pranks are off limits to us. But we said nothing about kids. We can't wait for next year. Kristen Cambell: Washington, DC When I was in college, I served as the student assistant for all the professors in the Communication Department. One of them was very young and he liked to act like he was hip and friends with all the students. He would tease us and act like he was just so cool. So one year on April Fools Day when I was giving him his messages, I put a fake one in that said Mr. Elk called from the Chickasaw Nation (the very prominent Native American tribal office in the area) and was looking for student interns for a big project they were putting on and Dr. Jones needed to call him back. But I put the number for the local zoo on the message. So my hotshot young professor called the Zoo and asked to speak with Mr. Elk. Barbara Manning: East Lansing, MD On April first I took all of my sons but one to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. This son doesn't like to travel long distances so it was OK with me. After our caving adventure I was then headed to Tennessee to visit my about-to-be in-laws when suddenly I got service on my phone. My son James had left a voice mail stating, "Mom, I am in jail!" My heart sank—I was three states away from my home of Michigan and I needed to get some rest; going back to Michigan would be impossible right now. I then listened to his message in more detail; his girlfriend or her parents couldn't get him out of jail because they weren't his guardians. Frantically, I called the number to reach my son. When I asked where my son was, laughter came ripping into my ear. My son said "Gotcha! April's Fools!" My family is filled with jokesters, but they get it from their Momma. Last night I waited in our very dark hallway for James to come out and go to the bathroom, and when he did I jumped out and growled at him. My 5'10", 16-year-old son fell to the floor screaming like a little girl. I guess he forgot that momma always gets the last laugh. Remember to always leave them laughing! Barbara Taylor: Richfield; UT In our small town we have a Search and Rescue team and each April 1st they have a jail set up in the park and you can call and have anyone arrested and then they have to be bailed out and the money goes to help the team...this year we raised $29,000. It is fun to have your boss arrested and then let her sweat over getting someone to pay to "FREE" her. Most everyone looks forward to the event This month’s Featured VISTA is Hillsdale, MI’s own Ami Wilson. We decided to pick Ami as our Featured VISTA as soon as we read her March 2006 monthly report — she spent a good portion of the month jetting around her community, introducing herself to and sharing ideas with 32 separate agencies! It’s not just about introducing herself to the community, though; Ami’s contacts are serving her well as she works on creating a Youth Volunteer Core, a program that’s totally new to her Volunteer Center. Ami’s dedication to getting out into the community and promoting her Volunteer Center, the Youth at Risk program, and the VISTA initiative is something that we really admire, and we’re proud to spotlight her as this month’s Featured VISTA.
Volunteer Center Resource Development Toolkit Announcing the new Volunteer Center Resource Development Toolkit – a resource for your VISTA sustainability efforts. The purpose of the toolkit is to help Volunteer Center directors, staff, development officers and volunteers present your Volunteer Center’s important story for community investment from corporate, foundation, individual and government sources. The toolkit includes sections on individual solicitations, grants, special events, and earned income It is hoped that the information, tips, examples and sample tools from Volunteer Centers included will build your capacity for effective revenue generation. Please review and utilize this tool as you continue to sustain the wonderful work happening through your VISTA efforts this year. It has been sent to Volunteer Centers and is available online. If the Center did not receive a hard copy in the mail, please contact Jamila Silvera via email at jsilvera@pointsoflight.org or phone (202) 729-8135. Disaster Trivia Question: What time of year do tornadoes occur? |
