I. OUTLINE FOR UNIT 12:
Initiatives for communities, campaigns, and NGO's.
1. Getting organized.
a. Uniting people with a similar mindset, similar values, and
similar aspirations.
b. Resources: financial strength,
membership size, political skills, organizational cohesiveness, and
prestige.
c. Vision, goals, and a plan of
action.
2. Networks and connections.
a. Improving your
chances to gain access to lawmakers.
II. EXERCISE, ACTIVITIES & PROJECTS
Volunteer for a community service.
Join a new organization.
III. QUESTIONS
●What motivates you to be part of a group? ●How would you determine if a group is credible, trustworthy, and hard
working? ●How would you define leaders, active members, and
passive members of an organization? ●What would convince you to support an organization? ●What gives an organization prestige? ●What percentage of people do you think are involved in volunteer and
community work in Turkey?
IV. BACKGROUND MATERIAL
Think about what kind of new lobbying leadership is needed in the
post-September 11 world. This new leadership must be able to understand the complexity
of problems, convey the current concerns of Turkey, work to correct
inaccurate
images of Turkey, and present the
realities of the modern-day Turkish Republic. Due to the war on terror, the portrayal of the Muslim world
is also of concern to the Turkish lobby, which must strive to present a
realistic view of Turkey as a secular nation of modern Muslims.
As a community of lobbyists, you must be able to connect people with a similar mindset, similar values, and
similar aspirations. You must also forge a collective identity
and be able to be a consensus-builder. You will need to establish a sense of
trust, present a vision and agenda that is achievable, and that people
believe will improve the current situation. If people agree with it, they
will support it. They can also convince others to support it. Members of
this community should also feel some type of satisfaction for their support, and for sharing in this collective identity.
After determining the skills needed to engage in leadership activities,
defining goals, and identifying key audiences, you will need to motivate,
inspire and organize the people around you, and not lose sight of your
guiding vision. Your leaders will also need to be effective
communicators and problem solvers. Your leaders will need energy to mobilize
groups, the ability to allocate and delegate responsibilities, and the resources of
those who share your concerns. Resources include financial strength,
membership size, political skills, organizational cohesiveness, and
prestige.
Use your growing network of friendships and connections. Begin to have
meeting in the homes of people that are well-known in the community. Or ask
a well-known and respected individual to help host an event (and at your
meeting find out who can host future events).
Create a committee in charge exclusively for planning these events. Get the Turkish
business community involved by asking them to contribute space, food, decorations, or other appropriate items perhaps with their logos and details of
their products or services. Make sure you plan similar events for the following
months (perhaps around a raffle, sports event, or special holiday). Creativity is a key to success. Once you have established a core of
dedicated people from your local network, you can get more volunteers and
support, and later tap into global
networks (don't forget about old friends from childhood, work, and alumnae
organizations). Try to attract passive members
as well as active members, since passive members can also be concerned and
contribute to your efforts in a variety of ways. Any active member, must however be
prepared to work hard and be more deeply committed.
Gather a group of friends to be your core lobby. Include a lawyer,
advertising or public relations specialist, a person with a good knowledge of
history, a person with a knowledge of the legislative and political process, a
person with good linguistic skills, a person with good research capability, a
person who is familiar with evolving technologies, and someone who is a good speaker and
capable of absorbing information quickly. This is how you can gain the tools and
background if you have not been involved in politics or lobbying before. If you are unable to gather such a group, start with just two
or three people. Once you are successful, others will want to join you.
As a group in order to be successful, you will have to have good personal
relationships, be able to reason together, draw up a short and long-term
plan, develop good communications skills, and be like-minded. Be persistent,
disciplined, and plan strategically. You must maintain the interest and
involvement of your members. One of your immediate aims is to train
yourselves, and train as a group, to cooperate and learn the importance of
communication skills and how to be convincing.
Remember, there
is no reason to elect yourself as leader once you have set things in motion.
There may be others aspiring to lead, who have a sense of responsibility and
sense of duty towards the group. So try to determine which individuals receive
respect, and demonstrate leadership qualities that are rooted in a sense of service (try
to avoid those who might be opportunistic and use power for private purposes
rather than the common good). The visible commitment shown by one or a few
people, should justify and legitimize the power given to them. Whether you
wish to lead, or only to provide guidance, it is best to
set rules from the beginning, and avoid any tensions that may result from
inequalities of power in the group. There should also be an understanding of
how it will be determined in the future if a leader is
not adequately fulfilling his or her responsibilities and duties, and keeping the
people he or she represents satisfied. If any group should fail in their first
endeavors, they should keep in mind that failure is a way of learning. Keep
focused on your goals. Once you have a strategic plan you will be able to plan
activities. You may want to seek private sector involvement.
Now try to include in your group someone who has had
experience in local politics. Perhaps with their help you can find people to
help in image building for your group. This will improve your chances to gain access to lawmakers
and be involved in political activities. Such people understand the political process
better than those who have not worked in politics or policymaking. With
their advice select speakers you can invite from various fields, such as public relations, advertising, media
relations, and fund-raising. Invite members of non-governmental organizations
and other lobbying groups. With these credible advisors, plan for action (action
can include direct or indirect lobbying, grassroots, letter writing
campaigns, fund-raising for a candidate, etc).
Try to make a list of names of people who want to help you raise funds and
influence policies or public opinion. Try to attract individuals who are
already part of local organizations and are involved in their community. The
ability to mobilize support may take some time. With money a group can
purchase the necessary skills needed for successful lobbying. Since
resources are limited in many Turkish communities abroad, different
approaches and methods should be considered. Online fund-raising web sites
can reach for support beyond your geographic area. Web sites can give
visitors the option of either submitting a payment with a credit
card through a secure transaction online, sending money to suggested
organizations, or printing out a form and mailing it with a donation to the
organization they choose.
If your group is respected in your community, it will be involved in face-to-face direct contact
with officials, it will be able to contact media representatives, and
affect public opinion.Because your group will be involved with
different types of relationships (perhaps business to business, people-to-people,
or government to government) it is good that you select a spokesman for your
group. Also have a media spokesman who can be ready for interpreting the impact of
current events.
Read about civil society developments and NGO's that are successful. Find
new approaches to expand your audience and ways to communicate with them, such
as with informational CD's. People are always impressed with what is
professional. There are plenty of opportunities for us to use our human
potential. Now is the time to discover them and use them. Visit organizations in
your area which also try to target various audiences, and invite members of
these organizations to speak to your group. Members of travel associations,
volunteer church groups, local government officials, or educational
organizations might all be useful.
NGO's are private bodies, usually of a charitable nature and legal status,
operating on a "not for profit" basis to provide wide-ranging benefits for
individuals or societies. They are sometimes seen as pressure groups, and indeed
part of their activity involves bringing public pressure on governments and
international organizations to adopt their preferred policy. NGO's may operate
on a national level, or some such as Oxfam, are large international
organizations with large budgets, almost entirely donated by the public. They
usually have complex bureaucracies and invaluable public support and trust. Some
are partially involved with government. NGO's are often trusted more than
governments and invariably more than any commercial organization because of
public faith in altruism as their only motivation. The rise to prominence of
NGO's is in part due to the failure of governments to mobilize resources, but it
goes also to the widespread distrust of the state in civil society, and to the
inherently suspect nature of individual states acting at the international
level.
"Non-Governmental Organization" or "NGO" is a term used by the United
Nations for the purpose of recognizing and giving access to a range of
bodies other than the nation-states which comprise its official membership. The
title "NGO" confers some legitimacy, and makes it easier for an NGO to operate in
several different countries where there might be considerable resentment at the
intrusion of an agency formally tied to another state. For example, it is easier
for a country to allow a team of a human rights group such as Amnesty
International to inspect conditions in its prisons than to allow another state,
or even the UN itself. "Because the NGO is, precisely, non-governmental, no
precedent is set which allows future incursions on national sovereignty. There
is a problem arising from the public's faith in the motives of NGO's, namely
that they also seem to take on an authority that may not be appropriate. If an
environmental lobby organization denounces government policy on pollution
control, it is very hard for the government in question to establish its own
credentials, because whatever it says it is always seen as suspect when compared
with the apparently impartial and 'innocent' views of the NGO. Furthermore,
NGO's inevitably concentrate on a single issue, with no responsibility for the
impact that their undoubtedly good work in one policy area may have to
resources, or even policy plans, in another area."
(excerpts from the "Dictionary of Politics" by David Robertson, Taylor & Francis
Group, London, 2004)
Lobbying is about information and communications.
Leadership is about imagining new possibilities. It is about convincing people
that things are possible. That they are necessary. It is about having the
ability to seize the moment. It is about seizing the opportunity. It is also a
belief that you can change things. Yes, things can be different. The answer is
taking action. It is about being part of something bigger than yourself. Now go
ahead and have an historic impact.
Turkeyis home to approximately 90,000
associations and 5,000 foundations. The concept and term of "foundations" dates
back hundreds of years to the Ottoman Empirewhen there was a
significant proliferation of such institutions (for more information about this
topic please refer to “A History of Philanthropic Foundations: The Islamic Work
from the Seventh Century to the Present” by Murat Cizakca, Bogazici University
Press).
The
functions of foundations in Turkeyundertake more of an
"operational" role rather than a "grantmaking" role and thus this type of
activity is currently limited in terms of practice as well as legal and fiscal
frameworks. The major differentiating characteristic between these two
organisation structures (which operate under their own respective legal and
fiscal codes in Turkish law), are that associations have members and foundations
have endowments (the minimum requirement today is 400,000 Euros).
Taking into consideration the various legal and fiscal differences between these
organisations, when it comes to service delivery, associations and foundations
formed for public benefit activity such as education, health, culture, etc.
operate as non-governmental organisations (NGOs). They operate their own
programmes and receive funding support for operations from their members (if an
association), from their endowment investments (if a foundation) and/or from
external donor organisations. Community philanthropy organisations (CPOs) tend
to assume a structure of associations, and are a sub-set within the category of
operating NGOs.
These organisations exist in several towns and cities all over the country -
both rural and urban. From Gaziantep(Southeastern Turkey) to
Istanbul(which has not just one but
several CPOs at the township levels) tend to serve one or more of the following
purposes:
·
Environmental and historical preservation
·Promotion
of tourism and economic development
·Providing
scholarships to students
·Providing
support to natives of the community who migrate to larger cities
The
earthquakes of 1999 acted as a catalyst for formation and revitalisation of CPOs
specifically in Istanbuland surrounding regions. A
recent USAID project focused on networking a number of community organisations
and preparing them for disaster relief and other related purposes. This project
was limited to approximately 15 organisations and only for the purpose of
disaster preparedness.
In
tandem with the increasing role and activity of the nonprofit sector in Turkeyoverall, CPOs in different
regions of the country are experiencing similar capacity and operational
development. Nowadays, Turkish CPOs are slowly starting to engage their
communities in the so called “social development work”, which relates to
providing education, support for the poorest, to families, women and children,
etc.
In
assuming these new service delivery areas, CPOs in Turkeyshare common challenges
similar to all NGOs in Turkeyand elsewhere:
·Lack of
human, financial and technical resources;
·Lack of
organisational skills;
·Legal and
fiscal restrictions;
·Lack of
public awareness, as far as the overall value of these organisations and their
mission are concerned (which leads to lack of civic engagement).
The
specific challenges faced by CPOs are rooted in the overall lack of research and
analysis on how these organisations form their support mechanisms and their
resource mobilisation strategies. In addition, since they tend to be small and
relatively informally functioning, they have less access to resources and
networks to help them develop and foster. In a country with 70 million in
population and a vast diversity in regional needs and issues, CPOs have a value
proposition unlike NGOs that operate at the national level and therefore require
more focus and attention from the sectoral support and donor communities alike.
Eurobriefing convenes EU Commission and foundations on migrant integration
Friday, 28 April 2006
Some 40 representatives of the foundation sector, the European Commission and
other experts in the field of migration came together during an EFC Eurobriefing
on Migrant Integration to examine the potential role of foundations in
developing a set of constructive policies and practices within Member States and
at EU level, as well as to identify and address gaps where appropriate.
The Eurobriefing took place on March 20th 2006 in Brussels and was
chaired by Chaired by Sukhvinder Stubbs of the Barrow Cadbury Trust.
The discussions were a follow-up to the December 2005 European Council
decision regarding “Common Basic Principles on Integration”, and the European
Commission Communication “A Common Agenda for Integration”, which was released
in September 2005.
Participants reviewed selected foundations’ projects related to the social
and economic inclusion of migrants, policy-making and NGO capacity building, as
well as “managing” diversity and the tensions that may arise in local
communities. Participants noted that migrant integration is a two-way process.
They stressed the need for a holistic approach in addressing integration, as
well as coordinated responses to multiple disadvantages and the needs of groups
at particular risk.
EU representatives emphasised that foundations can bring added value,
particularly by identifying gaps in national or local provisions and in
promoting innovation and good practice, thus helping to steer the European
agenda. In addition they can act as bridges, improving understanding and
information exchange between NGOs and local and national governments.
The event revealed the need for greater pooling of data and knowledge on
foundation practices, the need for increased exchange among foundations, and
between foundations and public authorities including the EU. The importance of
the new EFC Diversity, Migration and Integration Interest Group was underlined
as a platform to identify occurring themes and neglected aspects relating to
migrant integration in developing future projects. The EFC and its members will
also need to look at how to boost research in the field.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF FUNDERS IN THE USA:
Different types of funders make different kinds of grants. It is important
to search all types of funders when searching for funding for your program or
project.
Private Foundations
A non-governmental, nonprofit organization with an endowment (usually donated
from a single source, such as an individual, family or corporation) and program
managed by its own trustees or directors. Private foundations are established to
maintain or aid social, educational, religious or other charitable activities
serving the common welfare, primarily through the making of grants.
Corporate Grantmakers
This includes company-sponsored foundations and corporate giving programs. A
company-sponsored foundation (also referred to as a corporate foundation) is a
private foundation whose assets are derived primarily from the contributions of
a for-profit business. While a company-sponsored foundation may maintain close
ties with its parent company, it is an independent organization with its own
endowment and as such is subject to the same rules and regulations as other
private foundations. Corporate giving programs are grantmaking programs
established and administered within a for-profit business organization. Some
companies make charitable contributions through both a corporate giving program
and a company-sponsored foundation.
Grantmaking Public Charities
A public foundation is a non-governmental public charity that operates grants
programs benefiting unrelated organizations or individuals as one of its primary
purposes. There is no legal or IRS definition of a public foundation, but such a
designation is needed to encompass the growing number of grantmaking
institutions that are "not a private foundation."
Community Foundations
Community foundations are 501(c)(3) organizations that make grants for
charitable purposes in a specific community or region. The funds available to a
community foundation are usually derived from many donors and held in an
endowment that is independently administered; income earned by the endowment is
then used to make grants. Although a community foundation may be classified by
the IRS as a private foundation, most are classified as public charities and are
thus eligible for maximum tax-deductible contributions from the general public.
Government Grants Programs
There are numerous funding opportunities from county, state and federal grants
programs. Grantseekers are encouraged to call the government sources directly to
obtain information and requests for proposals. (Updated 2006)
100,000 Americans Asked to Raise Their Hands for Civic
Leadership Wednesday April 26, 2006
Hands On Network Joins With Corporate America to Launch
National Recruitment Campaign Cultivating Leaders From Nation's Workforce to
Lead 6.4 Million Volunteers
ATLANTA, April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- "Raise your hand, America," says the Hands
On Network Corporate Service Council, an alliance of 47 Fortune 500 companies
and civic organizations committed to mobilizing the corporate workforce to be
a community change force throughout North America. The program, announced
today as part of National Volunteer Week activities, envisions 100,000
volunteers stepping forward in the largest-ever campaign to recruit and train
individuals to manage thousands of service projects over the next two years.
The Corporate Service Council is chaired by Bob Nardelli, chairman, president
& CEO of The Home Depot, in partnership with Michelle Nunn, co-founder and CEO
of national nonprofit Hands On Network.
These 100,000 Hands On volunteer leaders will come from corporate America,
colleges and universities, and the general public. Prospective volunteer
leaders can raise the hand count via application at
http://www.handsonleaders.org .
Each leader will gain project planning and project management skills taught
through online and face-to-face training; many will assist with long-term
disaster recovery, as well as be deployed during national emergencies or
disasters and work in their local communities on managing projects ranging
from school refurbishments to tutoring programs and park cleanups.
"Our goal is to create a sustainable model that will yield volunteer-driven
projects and community impact," says Michelle Nunn, CEO and co-founder of
Hands On Network. "With an unprecedented partnership between corporate America
and service sectors, we're empowered to change the face of volunteerism in
America -- starting with an army of inspired leaders. Imagine what this group
can accomplish as more and more individuals are inspired to serve as a result
of recent disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and its impact in the Gulf
region."
National and regional training and certification programs will be
accomplished through online and in-person training modules to be implemented
by Hands On Network, a growing network of 56 national and international
nonprofit organizations that act as "civic action centers." Potential leaders
will be recruited through corporate outreach as well as consumer marketing
channels, such as a national broadcast public service announcement produced by
Discovery, in-flight video programming via Delta Air Lines, retail bag
stuffers at The Home Depot, and in-store announcements at Albertsons.
By 2007, the Hands On Network Corporate Service Council pledges to achieve
a 10 percent increase in volunteerism across the nation, mobilizing 6.4
million volunteers for projects designed to have an immediate, tangible impact
on children and education, health and wellness, and the environment. The
following are among the program goals:
- Transform 1,000 underserved schools and recreation centers to enliven
and enhance their physical space and learning models, and to nurture
and teach the children they serve.
- Provide advocacy and accessibility and promote increased independence in
partnership with 1,000 individuals who have physical disabilities,
including war veterans, seniors and citizens displaced by hurricanes
and other natural disasters.
- Build or renovate 1,000 parks, playgrounds, green spaces and natural
areas, including areas impacted by hurricanes and other natural
disasters, to provide locations for communities to gather and share a
common experience.
Last September, the Hands On Network Corporate Service Council donated
810,000 hours of service in one month alone and has also implemented numerous
projects in the Gulf region, which have resulted in approximately 650 homes
being repaired since September 2005.
During National Volunteer Week, Hands On Network will undertake a range of
service activities:
- National Civilian Conservation Corps project in Biloxi
- House restoration projects
- Community garden planting
- Mentoring of at-risk children in Pittsburgh
- Special Olympics track and field events
- Homework assistance for children at Boys and Girls Clubs
- Other activities that have an educational focus
- Assistance at the Toddler Play Hour at the Salvation Army's Harbor House
in the Bay Area
The week's activities will culminate during JazzFest in New Orleans with
the launch of a new Hands On affiliate through an intensive week of volunteer
activities, including the following:
- Renovations to legendary Jazz club Ernie K-Doe Mother-in-Law Lounge
- Renovations to the home of Benny Jones of the Treme Brass Band
- Renovations to the home of saxophonist Donnie Harrison
- Large-scale volunteer project in New Orleans City Park that will feature
live music from local jazz musicians as volunteers work to renovate and
beautify the park
The Hands On Network Corporate Service Council seeks to extend and enhance
volunteer and civic action through corporate participation. In fact, each
member company has pledged a 10 percent minimum increase in its employee
involvement in community service projects.
"We will harness and focus the power of the corporate workforce as never
before to improve the communities where we live, work and play. We have a
powerful resource in millions of people, corporate Americans, who now will
have even greater support from their employers to learn to lead volunteer
teams and touch countless lives," said Bob Nardelli.
Additional companies are being recruited for the Corporate Service Council,
an engine of force that will strategically unleash the power of volunteerism
across the nation. These new companies will extend the reach of the Corporate
Service Council and create broader and deeper civic action. New members
include Anheuser-Busch, Cbeyond Communications, Countrywide Financial, Sprint
Nextel and Manning Selvage & Lee.
The founding members of the Corporate Service Council include: 3M Company;
AARP; Accenture; Albertson's, Inc.; BellSouth Corporation; The Case
Foundation; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Civic Enterprises; The Coca-Cola Company;
Dell, Inc.; Delta Air Lines; Discovery Communications, Inc.; Fannie Mae; FedEx
Corporation; General Electric Company; The Hitachi Foundation; The Home Depot,
Inc.; KaBOOM!; Masco Corporation; Nuclear Threat Initiative;
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; Qwest Communications International, Inc.; Retail
Industry Leaders Association; SAP America, Inc.; Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Worldwide Inc.; Turner Broadcasting; U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Young & Rubicam
Brands; and Yum! Brands, Inc.
About Hands On Network
Hands On Network is leading a national civic movement bringing people
together to tackle tough community problems. The Hands On movement is led by a
network of 52 local nonprofit organizations that act as civic action centers.
The Hands On approach inspires volunteers, creates leaders, and changes lives
and communities through effective volunteer action. For more information about
Hands On Network, please visit
http://www.HandsOnNetwork.org or call (404) 979-2900.
Community contributions: Students invest more than
300,000 hours
Author: Brian Whitson, Source: W&M News Community Volunteers
Date: Apr 27, 2006
William and Mary students have more than doubled the amount of volunteer
hours they provide the local community and now contribute 323,000 hours of
community service per year, according to a recent survey.
The number of volunteer hours, which is up from the previous mark of
150,000 hours per year reported by students in 2002, were calculated as a
result of a recent student survey conducted by the College’s Office of
Student Volunteer Services and the Office of Public Affairs. Seventy-five
percent of undergraduates and 50 percent of graduate students report that
they have volunteered during their time at the College. Ninety percent of
undergraduates report they will volunteer in the community they reside in
after graduation, according to the survey.
“This survey more than reflects William and Mary’s long-standing
commitment to volunteer service and the perspective students gain by
working in and with this special Greater Williamsburg community,” said
President Gene R. Nichol. “It also makes clear our students’ powerful
contributions: Multiplying their annual community-service hours by the
minimum wage results in a $1.6 million contribution in service to the
community. They make possible more endeavors than can be counted and
inspire quite a few of their elders along the way.”
The five-question survey was sent to undergraduate and graduate students
on March 22, and the College received 3,290 responses, or a return rate of
49 percent, said Drew Stelljes, coordinator of student volunteer services,
who compiled the results with Joshua Lovell, director of public outreach
at the College.
William and Mary has a strong tradition of volunteering in the community,
Stelljes said. The Office of Student Volunteer Services works regularly
with 49 nonprofit and government agencies in the Greater Williamsburg
area. Overall, the College has partnerships with 90 local nonprofit
agencies and schools. Stelljes said that the vast majority of the reported
volunteer hours—an estimated 300,000 a year—are contributed to the Greater
Williamsburg community.
“Students have integrated their service experiences into their lives,
often to the point of making personal or career choices,” Stelljes said.
“These students no longer view service only as a function of their school
experience. They strive to live a life integrated with their service work;
their commitment is consistent, and they pledge a lifetime to the pursuit
of social justice in society.”
Stelljes said students volunteer their time in a variety of ways. For
example, 75 students volunteer each semester at Sentara Williamsburg
Community Hospital; 87 students tutor clients of the Rita Welsh Adult
Literacy Program; more than 300 students volunteer each year with Housing
Partnerships, Inc., a local agency that provides home-repair assistance to
low-income families; 70 students volunteer as mentors with Big Brothers
Big Sisters; and 200 students tutor at 14 local schools through College
Partnership for Kids, a program in which students contribute approximately
400 hours of community service each week and 10,000 hours each academic
year.
William
and Mary students and Williamsburg have a long history of partnering in
terms of youth programs for local children and their families, said Peter
Walentisch, director of Williamsburg’s Human Services Department.
“This partnership has provided not only experimental opportunities for our
college students but valuable role-modeling opportunities for city teens
as well,” Walentisch said. “Our middle- and high-school youth have been
introduced to college students from all over the country, if not the
world, who have shared their values, experiences, goal-setting and their
commitment not only to learning but also to giving back to the community.”
Some students, such as senior Catherine Schwenkler, develop their own
community-service programs. Schwenkler founded a night resource program
for students and parents at James River Elementary School. The program
provides residents, many from the local Hispanic community, with community
counseling, health care, tutoring and English-as-a-second-language classes
for families living in the Grove area of James City County. In 2003,
Schwenkler organized a student trip to Reynosa, Mexico, to help build
housing for deserving families. The Reynosa Project is now a twice-annual
campus service trip.
“I think that in whatever capacity, William and Mary students who are
engaged in service create an unparalleled level of mutual trust and
appreciation in the wider community,” Schwenkler said. “People in
Williamsburg, as well as other communities both national and international
where we serve, see that unlike the archetypal college students, we
sincerely desire to think beyond ourselves and make a positive difference
in the world. Not only are people’s needs met through service, but
relationships also are built that bridge age, social class, gender, race
and national origin. Community members and students alike experience that
we are all people and are designed to learn from one another and
appreciate one another.”
Senior Jason Starr helped to found William and Mary Medical Mission Corps,
a group that recruits William and Mary undergraduates to assist in
medical-mission trips to impoverished villages in Latin America. In 2005,
the group served approximately 250 patients in two villages in the
Dominican Republic. In 2006, the group traveled to the village of Villa
Mella and treated 730 patients.
“For me, service has been the most pure form of leadership training to
which I have ever been exposed,” Starr said. “No class, no seminar, no
group discussion has prepared me to take an active role in the
community—no matter how large or how small that community is—than
interacting with its members in an honest attempt to help. The service
community at William and Mary is so strong because it encapsulates the
entire campus community.”
The students’ volunteer efforts also provide a critical service to the
local community, said Nancy Fazzone, executive director of the Rita Welsh
Adult Literacy Program. The literacy program, she said, has benefited from
thousands of hours of instruction by volunteer tutors from the College and
community.
“This year the student-led Crossing Language Barriers Club recruited a
large number of college tutors for the program,” said Fazzone, adding that
without the students’ efforts, “many learners would not have received
instruction.”
The survey on student volunteerism is part of a second phase of a review
of William and Mary’s local and statewide economic impact. The first phase
of that report, which was released in February, examined the College’s
direct impact on the economy and job market of the Greater Williamsburg
area, the Hampton Roads region and the Commonwealth of Virginia. The
second phase will examine William and Mary’s indirect economic impact on
the region.
“Our estimates of William and Mary’s direct economic impacts showed that
the College adds over half a billion dollars in economic activity to the
Commonwealth each year,” said Jim Golden, director of economic development
and corporate affairs. “But that does not count the indirect impacts of
our programs, including the academic programs, research, technology
transfer, outreach, support for businesses, assistance to state and local
economic development organizations or special projects. Student volunteers
make up a significant part of our outreach efforts, and this survey
demonstrates their growing participation in support of a wide spectrum of
community activities.”
Below are some advocacy & interest group links which can give you an idea of
what other people and communities are doing.
