[Community-service] Discussion Starter.

Tue Apr 14 18:03:37 UTC 2015

Hi all,

Thanks for sharing this, Darian. I will second the comment that the division’s Twitter is a great source of information on all things community service.

I really like this article, and I think its author has some really good things to say about getting involved in service and finding out what you truly enjoy doing. The main thing that struck me is the point the author made about being open to new experiences and just getting out there and trying something you think you’re interested in, even if you don’t think you know enough about how to do it. Often you do end up learning the most valuable information through emersion. I know this is one of the biggest struggles I’ve had personally in getting more involved in service. I’m a very structured person. It’s a lot easier for me to go and do something if I know exactly how it’s going to go and what is going to be asked of me. What this author is saying, though, is that the key is just to get out there and you will learn what you need to learn as you go along, and that’s okay. I know thinking like this makes me a little nervous, and I would imagine that this fear of the unknown is what ultimately leads many blind people to decide not to serve because we worry that we won’t know how to perform the tasks that are needed. This article stresses that the key is just to say yes. Don’t think too much about it. In full disclosure, I’m not saying that this is easy. I’ll be the first to say that it’s certainly not for me, but I think it’s advice worth trying. And what better time to try than during the 75 Days of Service, when there’s a whole group of people there to support you and talk through any worries or challenges you might have.

The author asks us how we move from passively skimming headlines to caring to actively doing. This is a question I’ve wondered about for some time, and it’s why I love what we’re doing with the 75 Days of Service because we’re not just talking about what issues are important to us and what we’d like to do about them or what we wish someone else would do about them; we’re actually making plans and taking an active role in giving back to our communities.

The following passage from the article resonated with me the most: “By living fully—not turning away from things that are different, complex, messy, intense—you will find how you are capable of doing meaningful work.” This speaks to me not just as a person who wants to get more involved in service, not just as a blind person, but as a person in general, and I think it’s something we can all take to heart in our lives.

Chris

From: Darian Smith via Community-service 
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2015 11:25 AM
Subject: [Community-service] Discussion Starter.

The NFB Community Service Division twitter is a great source of   information, resources and ideas from all over the service community. 
A blog post from the “Great Non-Profits”  blog  seemed like something too good not to share and we hope you find it too  good not to respond to.
below is the text from the blog entry.
  Darian  
 What’s the Most Important Question in Your Life?
Posted by Jessica on Apr 13, 2015 in Uncategorized | 0 comments
What’s the Most Important Question in Your Life?

Aaron Schwartz, the famous programmer and internet activist who died before his time, said: “You should be asking yourself all the time what is the most important thing in the world I could be working on right now, and if you are not working on that, why aren’t you?”
These days in Silicon Valley, I meet people who are smart and working at a company “changing the world.” I don’t want to rain on their parade, but developing another instant messaging service is not “changing the world.”
It’s not that these people are intentionally neglecting the larger issues in the world, or that they don’t care.
I believe it’s because some people don’t yet know what is important to them and what they can do about it.
How do you move from skimming news headlines to caring about the issue? And then from caring about the issue to wanting to make it what you want to spend your time working on?
How to Find Yourself and Change the World
I encourage people to take this into their own hands. To learn about yourself and what you are capable of. Take the initiative and open yourself up to the broader experiences of the world—to experiences that might be new, exciting, emotional, and sometimes physically uncomfortable.
One of the most meaningful experiences of my life was volunteering at a human rights nonprofit and interviewing refugees in a camp on the Thai-Burma border. There was no running water, no electricity.  We sat on the bare floors of their thatched huts.  I listened to their stories of their lives.  Family members would pick up the guitar and take turns singing traditional folk songs.
I came back to my last year of Harvard Law School and felt no temptation to go to the recruiting events of the big law firms.  I was one of the very few who did not have a job upon graduation.   I continued to write and eventually fell into journalism.  I was so grateful that I had found something that was important to me, that I could call my work.
To truly realize what is important to you and what you can do to make a difference—learn by doing. Don’t worry if you don’t know enough yet about the issue—you will learn it by doing it.
Be Curious—Say Yes
If you are invited to visit a low-income neighborhood in Oakland and tour their community garden, do it. Go and don’t be afraid to talk to the people who live there and learn about their community. If the Rainforest Action Network has a public talk about orangutans in the Sumatran rainforest threatened by loggers, go listen and meet the people involved. If there’s a screening of Power of Two, an award-winning movie about cystic fibrosis and discussion with the producers, go to the movie and stay for the discussion. If your local open space preserve has a family day with guided bird-watching tours, go check it out and hear from the guides about how they are building more public access trails.
There are so many public events open to all who are curious to learn more about social causes. Say yes to these invitations.
Volunteer with a Nonprofit 
Do you have an interest in children?  Volunteer with CASA, a national nonprofit, to visit a young child near you who is placed in foster home. Get a huge smile from your foster-child when you offer to take them to see a movie.
Do you want to learn more about health on the frontlines? Volunteer at the local free clinic that serves the poorest of our society—help people get screened for high blood pressure or get training to be a peer counsellor to at-risk young people.
Do you have skills such as writing or design? You’ve got a valuable skill that almost any nonprofit could use. Take action and call them up even if you don’t see a volunteer posting.   Ask them if you could help them with their email newsletter, brochure for an upcoming fundraiser, or their website.
Bono was asked about how he became an activist for Africa.  Once I visited Africa, he said, “I saw it, I heard it and I felt it.”
You will gain knowledge and confidence. By living fully—not turning away from things that are different, complex, messy, intense—you will find how you are capable of doing meaningful work.
Keep asking yourself along the way: “What is the most important thing in the world I could be working on right now, and if I’m not, why aren’t I?”      

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Community-service mailing list
Community-service at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/community-service_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Community-service:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/community-service_nfbnet.org/christine-parsons%40sbcglobal.net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/community-service_nfbnet.org/attachments/20150414/4db60030/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: article-pic-500x312.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 42406 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/community-service_nfbnet.org/attachments/20150414/4db60030/attachment.jpg>