[Community-service] On the "Hill" and in the community.

[Darian Smith]

Hi all,
 Chris, you bring up some strong thoughts.
 I would agree  with your  views on the difference between service and advocacy. 
   obviously  we in the Federation do much in the way of  advocacy  and what we do at  Washington Seminar certainly  falls within that category.
 I wonder if it is possible to get to know  the issues  that are near and dear to our legislators and do a service project around that   issue?
 For example, if there is a member of congress I know we tend to visit in California, I might try to find out what were the things that they found to be of interest to them (are they a former teacher?  do they believe in after school programs for  intercity youth? do they care about the environment?) once finding out this  piece of information  maybe me and my buddies in the federation put together  a project based  upon that information (tutoring in a school, mentoring youth, planting trees or  park clean up).  when   explaining who we are we can talk about how we believe so much in our capacity that we  believe in volunteer service and recently took on a project on whatever the issue might be about. 

 On the idea of a service project at   Washington Seminar, I believe it to be a bit of an  ambitious idea, if not a idea certainly worth considering.
 such an idea would need to be planned out well enough and well in advance.
  it is certainly worth keeping in  mind that the majority of the things that get done during the few days in DC are related to legislation and  visiting our lawmakers, so there might be some pushback for that  reason.  Again, if someone believed  enough in that idea to want to plan it, and see it through to completion, that would be great, and worth taking from  the list serve to live planning and work through.
          
 
  
                

On Jan 30, 2015, at 7:14 PM, Chris Parsons via Community-service <community-service at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Darian and all,
> 
> Darian, I find this to be a really interesting question. Thank you for asking it; it has definitely got me pondering.
> 
> So far in my pondering, I've had difficulty coming up with a direct link between us engaging in community service/volunteerism and our lawmakers becoming more aware of us and our ultimate goals. I think this is because the things we typically think of doing that more directly raise lawmakers' awareness of us--volunteering with political campaigns, participating in the education that happens during Washington Seminar and the state legislative days, and even joining a local council dealing with particular issues, such as transportation--are considered advocacy rather than community service. All of these things are important components in our effort to raise lawmakers'--and the general public's--awareness of us, the issues that matter to us, and our ultimate goals, but they are not community service as I think it is typically understood.
> 
> So then I started thinking how our involvement in those activities which we do typically consider to be community service might help to raise lawmakers' awareness of us. As a bit of a stretch, I think that if one of our lawmakers happened also to be participating in a service project in which one or some of us were participating, this would be a great opportunity to educate them--both through our actions and our words--about our true capacity as blind people and our ultimate goals. In some ways, I think something like this might even have the possibility to serve as a stronger testament to our true capacity as blind people than visiting our lawmakers in their offices, talking to them about the issues that are important to us, and sharing our stories because they would see us directly engaging in efforts to give back to and be active participants in our communities.
> 
> However, I would imagine that in general, lawmakers are unaware of a large majority of service projects and volunteer work done by their consstituents, unless the project or work receives media attention for some reason. As a result, I think that our advocacy efforts as individuals and as members of the National Federation of the Blind probably do more to raise lawmakers' awareness of our capacity and our goals than do our community service efforts. However, as I said at the beginning of this message, I find this to be a really interesting question, and I'm really curious to hear others' thoughts about how these two things might be linked.
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: Darian Smith via Community-service
> Sent: Friday, January 30, 2015 3:25 AM
> To: Community Service Discussion List
> Subject: [Community-service] On the "Hill" and in the community.
> 
> Hi All:
> 
> I’m sure many of you are    returning from Washington Seminar having  had a  successful experience educating our lawmakers on the issues that mean the most to us as blind americans, the issues  that when  addressed will get us one step closer to living the lives we want.
> I was contemplating the idea of community service/ voluntarism and  if involvement both  as individuals and as members of the NFB can somehow help those public servants on the “Hill”   gain an understanding of our true capacity and what we need to get to our ultimate end goal?
>  thoughts?
>  Darian
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