[Community-service] Discussion starter

[Cindy Ray]

I actually think that a community is any group of which you or someone is an
integral part. Eerybody is calling every group either a community or a
family these days. But anyway, I think that if I am doing something for the
others who are blind, I am performing community service. If I am helping at
the homeless shelter, I am doing community service. If I am packaging meals
from the heartland, this is community service. I think there is no room to
be concerned with stereotypes in this community service. You help because
you want to volunteer to do community service. If you are working at a
women's prison, that is community service, and to be a genuine volunteer, I
think we have to set most of our own feelings aside and do these things. I
don't mean to say that if it is hard to do that you are less, but I think
community is an equal opportunity thing. I think that may be enough babbling
on my part.
Cindy


-----Original Message-----
From: Community-Service [mailto:community-service-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Miranda via Community-Service
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2017 3:24 PM
To: Community Service Discussion List <community-service at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Miranda <knownoflove at gmail.com>; Darian Smith, President, National
Federation of the Blind Community Service Division
<president at nfbcommunityservice.org>
Subject: Re: [Community-service] Discussion starter

Hi,
I believe that community service should benefit others, no matter whether
they have a disability or not. For instance, I am visually impaired, but I
take the opportunity to volunteer in my local community in a variety of
roles that have nothing to do with blindness or disability. In fact, I do
not typically hold any volunteer positions related directly to visual
impairment or disability as a whole, as this is not the only area of service
that I am passionate about. I believe that limiting oneself to volunteering
within the disabled community (unless you have your own personal reasons as
to why you do so) is just that, limiting. Society already places us in the
blindness or disabled box, so why should we help to continue this stereo
typical trend? It is my belief that we are just as capable of volunteering
outside the disability community as we are volunteering within it.
Thanks for starting this discussion, and have a wonderful week!

Best wishes, Miranda

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 24, 2017, at 2:08 PM, Darian Smith, President, National Federation
of the Blind Community Service Division via Community-Service
<community-service at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> Just figured I would put this out there to get  some debate going.
> In a general  sense, the definition of community service can basically be
boiled down to doing something for the benefit of a group of persons.
> In the NFB, we might consider community service  as anything we can do for
the benefit of blind people, both within our membership and outside of it.
> In the Community Service Division, we tend to look at community service as
a thing that a blind person might do that would benefit the larger
community, not just other blind folks.
> We believe this distinction is important to make because often society
believes that the only way that a blind person  can do good  is  if they are
doing that  good within the bounds of blindness and the blind community.
> Do you agree with this assertion? Disagree? why or why not?
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