GenerationOn Volunteers for Annual New York Cares Day

Today’s guest post is written by Mark Moravits, director of partnerships and global initiatives at generationOn—the youth service enterprise of Points of Light.

It makes sense that those who make a career out of helping people around the world to be better volunteers would themselves volunteer as often as possible.  The staff of generationOn—the youth enterprise of Points of Light—is no exception. We need to keep our skills sharp, and if we’re working with tens of thousands of people to help them be the best and most impactful volunteers possible, doesn’t it make sense for us to grow our skills by doing?

On Saturday, Oct. 13, 6,000 New Yorkers spent their day volunteering in dozens of schools during the annual New York Cares Day.  The generationOn team, most of whom are New York-based, joined New York City’s largest volunteer day, spending our day at MS 825 Isaac Newton Middle School for Math & Science in East Harlem. 

Volunteering with the team you work with is exciting and beneficial for several reasons, the most evident being that you’re doing something for your community that not might otherwise get done if it weren’t for your time and talent. Our group of 17 painted a large math-themed mural designed by a local artist, catalogued hundreds of books and prepared more than 20 bulletin boards to be re-purposed and refreshed.  It is unlikely that the work our team accomplished is something the staff of the school would be able to accomplish given their capacity, and it is likely that the projects we completed are ones that have been on the list for a while.  

Furthermore, volunteering as a team catalyzes interaction and interpersonal connections that don’t usually occur within the workplace.  You’re away from your phone, most likely not on email and hopefully not talking too much about work.  You were in the same small town in Thailand as me?  Where did you learn to paint so well? You speak French? When you’re having fun and not hunkered down working on a deadline, you learn things about your peers that you didn’t know. Of course, getting to know your team better is priceless.

Finally, volunteering as a team is a healthy stress reliever. Still irritated at your co-worker for not pulling his or her part on a funding proposal? Unable to sleep worrying about next week’s deadline? Some people might go for a massage, hit the treadmill or even pour a tall glass of wine. All perfectly fine options.  But none of them combine stress reduction with doing something nice for someone else. When you’re spending your time and applying your talents to improve your community, watch as your worries take a back seat.

Whether you work in a nonprofit or for-profit capacity, take that step you’ve been wanting to take for some time.  Get a team of your co-workers together and find a project after work on a weekday or something that allows you to use your skills on the weekend. Need resources and ideas?  Find your local HandsOn Network Volunteer Action Center.

Mark Moravits is responsible for managing generationOn’s numerous national and global nonprofit partnerships, supporting the youth programs of 250 Action Centers of the HandsOn Network and managing generationOn’s ambitious global activation plan in five countries.  Mark has helped build, launch and manage large-scale volunteer programs in 20 cities. He is a former third grade teacher and alumnus of Teach for America.

Hasbro generationOn Clubs Start-Up Grants

Three Quick Steps to Youth Service Funding

Early funding can make or break a youth service club. In fact, a lack of seed money is often the biggest obstacle kids and teens have to overcome when they want to make their mark on the world. Thanks to Hasbro, generationOn is making it super-easy for young people to get new service groups off the ground.

GenerationOn is giving out 50 start-up grants of $300 each to support newly registered generationOn Clubs as they complete their first service projects.

To become eligible, simply:

1. Join www.generationOn.org.
2. Register a generationOn Kids Care Club (ages 5-10) or generationOn Service Club (ages 11-18) between Sept. 1 and Nov. 15, 2012.
3. Submit a short online application by Nov. 15, 2012.

Clubs that receive grants must complete and report back on at least one service project before May 31, 2013.

To learn more about generationOn Clubs and the start-up grant program, click here. Access the generationOn application here. Applications are due by Nov. 15, 2012.

Apply for a Hasbro generationOn Clubs Start-Up Grant today!

Walk, Talk, Drink Coffee: Creating Community Spaces in Seattle

Seattle is actively creating and cultivating spaces for community connections.

Two of my Seattle meetings took place on strolls through the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park, which used to be a petroleum transfer and distribution facility. Today, thanks to philanthropic and volunteer leadership, the site has been transformed.

With unobstructed views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains, the garden circles a bold, red Calder sculpture, “The Eagle.” The park is dotted with chairs to facilitate conversations in any and all groupings.

My Seattle hosts said the Sculpture Garden has become a gathering point, offering free yoga on the grass, food trucks and farmers’ markets, art classes, performances and family festivals like the Salmon Return Celebration.

The theme of creating community connections was a thread throughout my visit. Seattle is, of course, home to Starbucks, the leader in creating “third spaces” – gathering points between work and home. In my meetings with the Starbucks team – Cliff Burrows, Rodney Hines and Anna Cunningham – I was reminded of the way Starbucks has literally created a double bottom line, advancing community good and financial returns simultaneously.

Starbucks’ most recent “Indivisible” campaign tackles one of our nation’s toughest challenges – joblessness. For every pound of its Indivisible Blend purchased, Starbucks donates $5 to the Create Jobs for USA Fund, helping get Americans back to work.

As if to reinforce the lesson, most of my meetings in Seattle were held at Starbucks. I drank a hot chocolate with Paul Shoemaker, the founder of Social Venture Partners, and learned about his success increasing the impact of area nonprofits. I shared chocolate almond cake with Jessica Markowitz, the 17-year-old founder of Richard’s Rwanda. When she was only 11, Jessica listened to a Rwandan man named Richard Kananga and was inspired to help Rwandan girls complete their educations.

Points of Light’s two Seattle affiliates, Seattle Works and United Way of King County, are demonstrating strategies for volunteers to give in new and more powerful ways. The United Way Volunteer Impact Program expands nonprofit capacity by training leaders to more effectively integrate high-value volunteers into their strategic work.

Through Points of Light’s Innovation Hubs program, Seattle Works is piloting a program to bring together new donors to collectively pool their money, fund projects and learn about the grant-making process. This month, Seattle Works volunteers are gathering on a rooftop patio to listen to the pitches of three organizations. A $20 entry fee buys tasty treats and beverages plus four $5 poker chips to “chip in” and fund some great new projects.

Washington State has been a real leader in engaging veterans to help other vets transition to civilian life. The Vet Corps, made up largely of veterans and family members, supports veterans’ transition to colleges and jobs, and regularly helps first-generation members stay in college.

The Vet Corps also maintains 23 “rooms” for veterans in higher education institutions around Washington State. These rooms provide a space for veterans to connect and share their challenges and successes. One veteran spoke of the difficulties of her journey through college and how in the last 10 years, as a result of the work of Vet Corps and others, the culture of higher education has become a more welcoming place.

And finally, the creation of the 30,000-square-foot Hub Seattle in the heart of Seattle’s Pioneer Square symbolized for me the importance and promise of the creation of community space. The Hub Seattle is bringing together entrepreneurs and investors to cultivate socially conscious ventures. This unique facility aims to educate innovative leaders, fund their ideas and incubate their social ventures. HUB Seattle anticipates housing more than a dozen social enterprises, with entrepreneurs sharing amenities and choosing from an assortment of work spaces. They aim to have the widest cross-section of world-changers anywhere.

In kicking off its Indivisible campaign, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz said, “We have accomplished extraordinary things when we act collectively, with courage, creativity and generosity of spirit.” Seattle’s leaders are accomplishing extraordinary things by thoughtfully creating spaces where community connections happen spontaneously.

Civic Spark in Portland

Michelle Nunn finds inspiration in Portland, Oregon.

I am fascinated by people’s stories of the sparks that ignite their passion to change the world. When I was in Portland, Emily Gilliland, executive director of Oregon’s Campus Compact, laid three different matches on the table to illustrate the ignition points in her service journey.

• A matchbook represented her high school’s 75-hour service requirement – a quick light to get her started. While serving at the Red Cross, she discovered that adults were interested in her ideas and were even willing to take direction from her.
• A short box match signified her year with AmeriCorps – challenging, but enriching – a strong spark to further impel her commitment to service.
• Finally, Emily pointed to a long, sturdy match – the kind that might sit on the hearth of your grandmother’s fireplace and is guaranteed to start a fire. When Emily joined Hands On Baltimore’s Serve-A-Thon, she quickly moved from volunteer to staff person. Hands On Baltimore was just beginning to define community challenges and galvanize the human capital and talent to help meet those needs. This was a powerful light for Emily.

Emily’s metaphorical description of the service sparks in her life called the question about how Points of Light and the larger nonprofit sector can create the strong, reliable, readily available matches every individual needs to kindle their civic leadership over a lifetime.

People come to Portland for its open, creative, generative spirit of community. Mayor Sam Adams is leveraging that spirit of collaboration to reverse the dropout rate by creating a ladder of support and engagement. Kali Thorne Ladd from the mayor’s office told me about Portland’s Cradle to Career Framework, a civic coalition patterned on Cincinnati’s Strive model and focused on collective impact and equity in education for every student

In a roundtable with Oregon’s Campus Compact service leaders, I learned how local universities and colleges are instilling citizenship as central to the experience of higher education. Pacific University requires every student to complete at least one civic engagement course or project to graduate. University of Portland is known for its extensive “plunge” program – service learning immersions exploring issues ranging from food security to environmental justice. For the Civil Rights immersion, students spend three weeks visiting major Civil Rights sites and a racial reconciliation farm community before participating in a Habitat for Humanity rebuilding project.

All of these higher education leaders were struggling to ensure high quality and depth in their offerings, while including the broadest possible spectrum of students. They were grappling with both the increasing costs of college and how to fully integrate national service resources into the community college or university experience. They raised the question of how we might include service as a way to reduce student debt.

When I met with our Hands On Portland team, I was reminded of the power of joining together to serve and how this can inspire and sustain the spark of service. TeamWorks is a program that I actually remember from my Hands On Atlanta Days. It has spread and now runs in cities ranging from Portland to Seattle to Boston. The basic idea is that diverse people come together to work on a series of projects over a period of time and reflect upon the projects together. Some teams work together on a thematic focus like education, others focus on a neighborhood. Some TeamWorks teams have opted to stay together for many years. Each TeamWorks team has a special chemistry and becomes an introduction to fellow citizens and an orientation to community needs. It was fun to see that magic still has power. Check out a Portland TeamWorks volunteer’s amazing blog about his TeamWorks experience. It inspired one of his fellow volunteers to commit 10 percent of her waking hours to volunteering for one year. That adds up to 12 hours a week and 40 hours a month.

To light the “civic spark” in my children, we volunteered at The Children’s Book Bank. My kids did a terrific job of cleaning gently used books to be given to low-income preschool children. Children’s books are a luxury for many families – while the ratio of books to children in middle-income neighborhoods is approximately 13 books to one child, the ratio in low-income neighborhoods is a mere one book to 300 children. Dani Swope, a former Teach for America math teacher and mother of four, wanted the books her children had outgrown to go directly to families and children who need them. Dani packed up her books, took them to local Head Start programs and soon started getting calls looking for the “book lady.”

Dani began collecting books from friends and an organic effort was born that last year involved thousands of volunteers and distributed 96,000 books to kids – every Head Start preschooler in Multnomah County received a bag of 16 books to take home and keep. HandsOn volunteers account for about half of The Children’s Book Bank’s volunteer hours. More amazingly, HandsOn volunteers turn around and organize book drives and recruit their co-workers, Scout troops, faith groups, sports teams, families and friends to the effort.

For Dani, the civic spark was born out of an impulse to share her love of books and her own children’s beloved library with other kids. The spark ignited a movement of caring families and volunteers. Portland is full of civic vitality and sparks that have been nurtured into bold flames of leadership and citizen engagement. How can we help provide the civic networks and support systems that form the sturdy matches of ignition and light to propel Emily, Eric and Dani?

P.S. We expanded our ice cream quest to include donuts and discovered Voodoo Donuts here in Portland, including the Bacon Maple special that is worthy of the 30-plus minute wait.