This blog post, written by our CEO Tracy Hoover, is part of the #Recommit2Kids campaign, marking the 20th anniversary of America’s Promise Alliance and calling the nation to recommit to action on behalf of children and youth. It was originally published on the America’s Promise Alliance blog and appears here with permission.
Photo: America’s Promise Alliance
Photo Credit: Corporation for National and Community Service
Senior Corps Foster Grandparent Virginia McLaurin volunteers at a school in Washington, D.C. She was awarded the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her nearly two decades of service.
With spring quickly approaching, so is the season for giving back to volunteers who dedicate their time to serving others.
kicks off on April 23 – an opportunity to recognize and thank volunteers who lend their time, talent, voice and support to causes they care about in their community and around the world. What better way to acknowledge a volunteer than by giving them the opportunity to have presidential recognition? The President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizes the importance of volunteers to America’s strength and national identity, and honors the positive impact of their service on communities across the country. The PVSA is awarded based on the number of hours volunteers have served during a 12-month period, or over the course of a lifetime. The awards are offered in various levels to recognize different milestones of service achievement. Levels include bronze, silver, gold, and the highest honor, the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award, for those who have contributed more than 4,000 hours of service in their lifetime.
Each honoree receives an award package, which can be customized to include the official PVSA pin, coin, or medallion, a personalized certificate of achievement and a congratulatory letter signed by the President of the United States. Established in 2003, PVSA is an initiative of the
Corporation for National and Community Service
, and is administered by Points of Light. Awards are issued by Certifying Organizations and Leadership Organizations, which help uphold the program’s integrity, and assist in identifying and recognizing Americans making a difference through volunteer service. Order by April 5, 2017, to receive President’s Volunteer Service Awards for your volunteers in time for National Volunteer Week!
Did you know that 1 in 6 Americans face food scarcity? That includes 15 million kids under the age of 17 who are not getting the food they need.
But kids and teens also have the power to provide solutions to hunger-related issues – which is why generationOn, the youth division of Points of Light, is launching the third annual Make Your Mark on Hunger campaign. Sponsored by C&S Wholesale Grocers, the campaign challenges kids and teens to fight hunger through service projects in their communities.
To support this work, 22 grants were awarded nationwide to innovative youth-led service projects that are helping to solve the real hunger-related issues our communities are facing. Here are just a few of these incredible grantees:
There are so many ways for kids and teens to make an impact, help the hungry and learn more about the needs in their community.
The Make Your Mark on Hunger campaign runs from March 15 through April 30. Visit www.generationOn.org/hunger to sign up, download materials and share your story for a chance to win grants.
Good Deeds Day is a global day of service that unites people from more than 89 countries to do good deeds for the benefit of others and the planet. Now in its 11th year, Good Deeds Day was created in 2007 by Points of Light global affiliate Ruach Tova. As an event partner, Points of Light encourages our community of changemakers across the globe to participate in Good Deeds Day on April 2, 2017.
Good Deeds Day 2017 can happen in any office, anywhere – all it needs is you! This year we are celebrating our 11th year doing good, and we’ve more than got you covered with ideas, tools, guides and resources to make your Good Deeds Day a golden one.
1. Have the desire to do good. We have a feeling you’re reading this right now because you’re a good person who aspires to be even better. Having the drive to do good is all that it takes to join in the largest celebration of the year devoted to good deeds.
2. Save the date. And this one is a special one as we are celebrating our 11 years doing good deeds worldwide. Last year, more than 1.5 million people took part, and hopefully many more will join this year. You, along with at least 1,499,999 other awesome humans, will unite as one philanthropic force on April 2, 2017, to do good and create large scale positive impact. Go you!
3. Get approval from above. It should be pretty easy if you share all the benefits you get, personally and professionally, from volunteering. From health benefits for employees to increased job satisfaction and productivity at work, this opportunity is a win-win-win for all parties involved. And just in case, send your HR head or manager this kit for companies to explain it all.
4. Decide how you can help. There are countless ways in which you could be of service in your community, especially if you’re bringing the whole office along! Browse our how to guides to doing good, brimming with various ideas and activities to suit everyone in your office. Reach out to your coworkers to vote, or see if someone has a special cause to rally around to build office rapport.
We’re also happy to work with you to brainstorm a volunteer program for your community, so get in touch!
5. Rally the team. This is the perfect opportunity to connect with your co-workers, do something fun, and create better bonds with the people you may not get the chance to chat with in your office. Get everyone on board by emailing them this fact sheet, sharing all the added value benefits for doing good.
6. Register your group. Fill in a short form and join close to two million people in over 75 countries in sharing your Good Deeds Day tales. Tell us about your project and ideas by registering. Want to match? Make sure to mention you want to order t-shirts with your logo!
7. Promote your event. Now that we know you’re doing good, you should share it with the rest of the world! Not only will this benefit your team, but it’s also good business. Use our ready-to-go media kit to handle any communications you need, and update your social media channels with our cover photo and sweet social media graphics.
8. Get excited! You should be proud of yourself, friend. You and your office are contributing to a global celebration of goodness! Good Deeds Day 2017 is a dedicated day which proves that millions of small changes can do a world of good. Thank you for joining in our efforts, for believing in good, and for helping to change the world – one good deed at a time!
You can get the complete toolkit on how to participate, scour worldwide projects you’re interested in, or sign up here!
This article was originally published on Good Deeds Day and appears here with permission.
Imagine creating a nationwide volunteer coordination program from scratch, with no formal statistics on how many people in the country volunteer and no existing network of nonprofits towards which to direct volunteers. This was the challenge faced by Voluntarios de Panamá, a Points of Light global affiliate. Now, just four years later, they have successfully engaged more than 5,000 volunteers in 1,500 volunteer opportunities with 185 nonprofits through their online database,
, the only of its kind in Central America. The secret to this rapid growth has been a variety of strategic volunteer engagement tactics.
In 2012, shortly after the organization’s founding, Voluntarios de Panamá conducted the first National Volunteer Survey, in partnership with the
International Association for Volunteer Effort
and
. The survey found that 75 percent of the country’s volunteers began volunteering in their youth – leading the organization to focus their engagement efforts on youth to help build a sustainable base of volunteers. Voluntarios de Panamá assembled a group of 15 community members to be volunteer leaders. This group is responsible for engaging nonprofit partners and creating a calendar of volunteer opportunities. Through these opportunities, the organization has been able to build a diverse community of volunteers nationwide from which they are able to recruit participants for various national days of service. On National Beach Cleanup Day – a national day of service during which volunteers participate in environmental cleanup projects across the country – Voluntarios de Panamá worked with
, a nonprofit dedicated to the conservation of the country’s coastal marine ecosystem. Together the organizations engaged about 5,000 volunteers.
In collaboration with
and
, Jewish organizations in Panamá, Voluntarios de Panamá has helped organize Good Deeds Day celebrations in Panamá each year since 2015. “We have found that Good Deeds Day is a great platform for people who want to volunteer, but have never done so, to get started,” said Ana Cristina Pérez, program manager for Voluntarios de Panamá. Last year, the event drew more than 16,000 volunteers.
After seeing how successful the organization’s Good Deeds Day efforts had been, The Ministry of Environment reached out to Voluntarios de Panamá and asked them to help organize the first National Reforestation Day in Panamá in 2015. Following a collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and other public entities, Voluntarios de Panamá designed a volunteer program for the government.
Through the program, the president, public ministers and civil servants participate in monthly nationwide service projects, corresponding to a monthly theme. In 8 months, these projects have rallied more than 17,000 government volunteers.
For example, during Cancer Awareness Month in October, the Ministry of Health set up health fairs in parks across the entire country, while volunteers from the Ministry of Environment visited the Children’s Hospital to make crafts with the children, using recycled materials.
Some of the organization’s most important work, however, has been in nonprofit development. More than 70 local nonprofits have been through the organization’s volunteer management course, which they developed with help from
. In 2017, Voluntarios de Panamá will conduct another survey to determine how volunteer service has grown in the country, but for now the staff look towards the upcoming
on April 2. This year they are playing a large role in marketing the event and in coordinating partnerships between nonprofits and schools, businesses and other institutions – a major benefit to organizations that want to participate in the day of service but don’t have the capacity. They aim to mobilize more than 20,000 volunteers, further enabling people across the country to create change in their communities.
Photo Credit: David Kennerly
AmeriCorps members working with HandsOn Gulf Coast install a new ceiling in a Biloxi, Miss., home damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
In celebration of
(March 4-11), we are recognizing the impact of
members across America. AmeriCorps Week is a time to salute members and alums for their service, thank AmeriCorps community partners, and share stories about the impact AmeriCorps has on communities and on the individuals who serve. AmeriCorps is a public-private partnership comprised of a network of local, state and national service programs, connecting more than 70,000 Americans each year in service to meet community needs in the areas of education, the environment, public safety, health, and homeland security. Members serve with more than 2,000 nonprofits, public agencies, and community organizations, in full- or part-time positions over a 10 to 12 month period. Upon completion of their service, members receive a
Segal AmeriCorps Education Award
of up to $5,815 to pay for college, graduate school, or to pay back qualified student loans. During AmeriCorps Week, Points of Light will be recognizing five of our outstanding AmeriCorps members who currently serve, or who have served, in our
,
,
, and
programs, with
. Getting involved is easy. Here are three ways you can participate in AmeriCorps Week, even if you have never served:
1. Share your fast facts about AmeriCorps in your state
. One of the goals of AmeriCorps Week is to increase overall awareness of the valuable contributions AmeriCorps members make to our communities and our country. The Corporation for National and Community Service provides several
you can share to help elevate the value of national service, using
.
2. Share your AmeriCorps pride on social media
. Raise awareness of AmeriCorps Week by changing your profile picture this week to this
.
3. Invite someone to apply for AmeriCorps
. One of the main reasons why people don’t serve is they are not asked. If you know of someone who is looking to make a difference in their community and willing to devote 9 to 12 months to a term of service, encourage them to apply for an open
. If you served in AmeriCorps, here are three ways you can celebrate AmeriCorps Week as an alum:
1. Share a picture
2.
Share your story.
AmeriCorps Alums wants to hear your story beyond AmeriCorps. How were you “Made in AmeriCorps,” how are you living out a lifetime of service, and what are you doing now?
.
3.
Stay connected
. Register with
, the only national network that connects alumni of all AmeriCorps programs to the people, ideas, and resources that support their commitment to a lifetime of service.
to gain access to professional development resources, discounts, networking opportunities and policy updates on the state of AmeriCorps.
No matter what your connection, celebrate AmeriCorps Week by sharing your “AmeriPride” with friends, family, and people you come in contact with throughout your day! Follow the festivities with #AmeriCorpsWorks
on social media.
Blessed with an industrious and self-disciplined spirit, Susan B. Anthony persevered through the prejudice and culture of her time to emerge as the architect of a movement that secured the passage of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. Her belief that U.S. citizenship entitled everyone to the same rights under the constitution formed her platform for lifelong activism.
Anthony is featured on the Points of Light Monument, a one-mile walkway in Washington, D.C., that honors the actions and service of famous Americans who have transformed our nation and the world. During Women’s History Month, we recognize and celebrate the significant contributions that women have made throughout our history, honoring their achievements and the great economic, social and political causes that these points of light dedicated their lives to. Learn about some of the other influential women featured on the Monument:
Harriet Tubman escaped a life of slavery only to return south, at her own peril, time and again, to lead more than 300 fugitive slaves through the Underground Railroad to safety and freedom. After the Civil War, Tubman raised money to clothe and educate newly freed African-American children and established a home for and indigent African-Americans.
Clara Barton lived a lifetime of tireless service to others. During the American Civil War, she became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield,” delivering supplies and caring for the sick and wounded. After the war, Barton organized a campaign to locate missing soldiers. Her enduring legacy was the 1881 founding of the American Red Cross, an organization whose name became synonymous with disaster preparedness, response and relief.
In 1889, Jane Addams, along with Ellen Gates Starr, founded Hull House in Chicago – one of the nation’s first settlement houses. It served as a community center for the poor and its success helped lead to the creation of hundreds of similar organizations in communities across the country. An active reformer throughout her career, Addams was a leader in the women’s suffrage and pacifist movements. She was the first American woman to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, in 1931.
Ida Wells-Barnett crusaded aggressively for civil rights her entire life and was unafraid to exercise those rights when custom ran contrary to the law. Involved in many civil rights causes, she played leadership roles in the women’s suffrage movement and in the founding of the NAACP. Ida Wells-Barnett became the era’s most outspoken crusader for ending the practice of lynching African-Americans.
A blind and deaf writer and activist, Helen Keller was the guiding force behind the American Foundation for the Blind. Keller devoted her life to expanding possibilities for people who are deaf-blind, blind or have low vision. She also campaigned for women’s suffrage and workers’ rights.
These women pioneers were influential in achieving progress for some of our country’s most pressing social and political issues. From the fight for equal rights to establishing important disaster relief and social services, their work and leadership left a lasting impression on the nation and continues to influence social movements today.
Learn about other extraordinary changemakers featured on the Points of Light Monument, and get involved with a cause you are passionate about in your area at All For Good.
There are a variety of ways companies support education initiatives across the country, from philanthropic investments and fundraising to employee engagement activities and skills-based volunteering. For 2016 Civic 50 sector leaders KPMG and Freeport-McMoRan, investment in education translates to a firm-wide commitment and strategic business opportunity. Not satisfied with one-and-done service opportunities, these companies are using strategic corporate citizenship initiatives to ensure maximum impact for students in the communities where they do business.
For KPMG, Civic 50 industrials sector leader, an emphasis on youth and education has always been a focus of their philanthropic and foundational work. In an effort to improve reading levels across the country, KPMG established its signature community involvement program, Family for Literacy, which provides families and children from low-income areas with books. Since 2007, the program has engaged employees across all levels of KPMG – interns, its partners and professionals alike – to donate books to local schools and education centers. KPMG also finds ways to engage key stakeholders – including clients, alumni, and family members – in their community involvement initiatives. At KPMG, supporting learning and literacy is more than just providing books. For example, after realizing a lack of diverse representation in children’s books, KPMG worked with an outside publisher to create a children’s book about a disabled man in Ghana. Through its work in education, KPMG is striving to ensure all children grow up with a love of reading.
Freeport-McMoRan saw a different opportunity to strategically align philanthropy efforts with the needs of educators and students. After identifying a recruitment gap, the Civic 50 materials sector leader decided to work with universities around the country through their University Teams program. The company sent representatives from key business areas to eight universities with strong mining engineering, metallurgy and geology programs to create high-impact partnerships. This mutually beneficial program helps the company identify and cultivate a new talent pool and also gives the University Teams a chance to work hand-in-hand with schools to identify opportunities for grants, educational programs, scholarship needs, and more. The program also ingrains a strong culture of service at Freeport-McMoRan by offering employees an opportunity to be key players in the recruitment process and see first-hand how investments are helping students across the country.
By investing time, money and other resources in education programs, and connecting community engagement initiatives to key business functions, KPMG and Freeport-McMoRan demonstrate a strategic commitment to students across the United States. As sector leaders of The Civic 50, they scored highest in their industries in the annual Civic 50 survey, a benchmarking effort to recognize and honor the 50 most community-minded companies in the nation.
Do you work with a company that excels in community involvement and exemplifies the ideals of The Civic 50? The Civic 50 is currently looking for the next cohort of community-minded champions to take the 2017 Civic 50 survey, the deadline for which has been extended to 11:59 PM EST on March 13. The entirely quantitative survey looks at four dimensions of community engagement: impact, investment, institutionalization and integration. Any company with operations in the United States and an annual revenue of $1 billion or more is eligible to apply. For more information – including a best practices report, resources for survey-takers, and a full list of the 2016 Civic 50 honorees – visit www.civic50.org. For further updates and insights, follow The Civic 50 on LinkedIn or Twitter.
In the smartphone era, we are constantly searching for innovative ways to automate our lives and creating technological solutions to the world’s most pressing issues. Volunteer Houston, a Points of Light Affiliate, is one of many organizations joining this trend.
In spring 2016, Volunteer Houston became one of the first volunteer centers in the United States to develop a mobile application designed to engage volunteers by connecting them to nonprofit volunteer opportunities. Now, with more than 544 downloads, the app has already impacted more than 1,200 organizations in the Houston area.
Built in collaboration with Headspring, a Houston-based software development company, the app allows volunteers in Houston and the surrounding areas to search local nonprofit agencies, find volunteer opportunities based on their interest areas, and easily track volunteer hours. Volunteer Houston also leveraged the skills-based service of an AmeriCorps VISTA, Rafay Munir.
Though he was gainfully employed as a project manager for NAXION in Philadelphia, Rafay wanted to get involved in national service, while his lifestyle still permitted him to do so. His workflow management and consultant skills would be ideal for helping the technical development team turn the idea of the app into a reality.
“[Rafay] moved to Houston to actualize on that – something very powerful, something very cool when you look at the impact he had on our organization, as well as all of the other organizations that are benefitting from the app itself,” said Cameron.
The Houston Independent School District is one such organization, which Volunteer Houston expects will benefit from the app’s hour-tracking feature, beginning in the 2017-2018 school year.
Prior to this app, all hour tracking had to be done with pen and paper, creating greater room for error if students lost their hour sheets or forgot to log their service. The app is designed to provide automatic checks and balances to the process. For example, Cameron said, if a student “volunteered on the 28th of February with the food bank for 6 hours, [the app] sends it to the food bank administrator and they look at it and say, no it’s really 5.5 hours.” This reduces strain on the volunteers for tracking their own hours and provides more reliable data for Volunteer Houston to report.
With the app providing immediate access to hundreds of volunteer opportunities, there have been a number of positive effects on the volunteer process. By allowing volunteers to easily post their volunteer experiences to social media directly from the app, it has helped foster community awareness of nonprofit agencies and the opportunities they have available. It has also enabled a quicker response time for those in need – which could be particularly valuable for disaster response.
“You look at Houston and in the last several years, we had a Memorial Day flood in 2015, we had a Tax Day flood in 2016, and then we the had a Memorial Day flood in 2016 as well,” said Cameron, who expects that the app will be very beneficial in coordinating volunteer responses to natural disasters.
Coordinating with several local emergency management offices in the Houston area, Volunteer Houston will begin marketing the app during times of disaster as a better way to make volunteers aware of where help is needed and which organizations are leading response efforts.
Looking toward the future, Volunteer Houston has already begun working on plans to implement a geolocation function that will help the app track volunteer hours automatically by recording when the volunteer arrives at the physical location of the service project and when they leave. They are also working on plans to create sponsored incentives for volunteers. For example, once a volunteer reaches a certain number of hours, they might get a free cup of coffee or some other reward through email.
“It’s going to work, I think, to [create] a much larger gain than we’ve ever had in the past of connecting people with immediate need.”
Ten young changemakers from across the country came together for three days in New York City to highlight their work, learn how to expand their impact and inspire other youth to take action. These 10 young people were recognized as Hasbro Community Action Heroes for their outstanding work in their communities and beyond by
as part of the company’s
initiative.
Ranging in age from 9 to 18 years old, this incredible group shows youth and adults alike that it’s never too early to make a difference. Here are some highlights of their amazing work:
Throughout their time together in New York, the Heroes worked on a joint service project packing toiletry packs for the homeless, met with author and parenting expert Dr. Michele Borba to talk more about empathy and kindness in kids, and created a pledge to use their voice to inspire other kids.
On Tuesday, they were also honored on stage at the Hasbro’s New York Toy Fair showroom. After being presented with their award by Karen Davis, senior vice president of global philanthropy and social impact for Hasbro, these 10 young ‘heroes’ shared their pledge to continue inspiring others. The kids were also treated to a tour of Hasbro’s showroom, getting to see and enjoy all of the new toys, games and entertainment coming out in 2017. Returning to their communities, the Heroes look forward to bringing back the things they learned to help them continue to amplify their outstanding work while inspiring others to BE FEARLESS BE KIND by standing up for others, including everyone and taking action.
Recognize them by nominating them for a
.