[Community-service] National Federation of the Blind Community Service Division January Service Snippets

Tue Jan 3 16:57:09 UTC 2017

National Federation of the Blind
 Community Service Division
Service Snippets
 January 2017
 Darian Smith, President
president at nfbcommunityservice.org 

	Happy new year, Federation family!
We in the NFB Community Service Division are hopeful that you had a very enjoyable  end to 2016 and are as excited as we are for what is to come in 2017.
This year is destined to be  filled with new opportunities to take our message in the National Federation of the Blind of love, hope and determination to new places by leveraging the power of Community Service to make ourselves, our community and our movement better.
 It is this  reason why our division leadership puts so much time, effort and energy into building programs,bringing ideas, and being as much a  source of encouragement to each person in this division and larger movement as possible.
 Of course, this division’s success is not possible without each of you, reading this, who contributes thoughts on our list serve,experiences on our blog, energy on our service projects and support at our business meeting and trivia night.
 So, Thank you to all of you, and thank you to the afore mentioned leaders(Dacia Cole, Chris Parsons, Jonathan Franks, Tara Abella,Ronnie Bellomy, Kyra Sweeney and Johna Wright), your work, while not always obvious,,is obviously important and  appreciated.

 here are the customary updates from the board’s committees as brought to you by their chairs.
note: announcements are presented as submitted.
Service Engagement Committee:
Hi everyone I hope the beginning of the year has been a good start to you. The service engagement committee of the Community Service Division will be hosting a conference call sometime in the near future focusing on how to get involved.  We want to know what questions do you have about getting involved in community service? Plq send any questions you have about getting involved to myself and we will figure out how to answer them on the call. More information about the specific time and date of the call will be coming soon.  You can reach me by email at dacia.luck at gmail.com <mailto:dacia.luck at gmail.com> or by phone  at 573-289-2912
Dacia Cole 

Website / Blog Committee:
This month, I posted an entry with even more reflections from participants in the division’s service project with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Orlando at this year’s National Convention. In the coming weeks and months, be on the lookout for our annual year-end recap, one more entry about the Habitat build, and some other exciting entries from fellow division members doing community service. If you haven’t checked out the blog yet, we invite you to do so at http://www.nfbcommunityservice.org/blog <http://www.nfbcommunityservice.org/blog>. If you have any ideas for entries you’d like to see on the blog or if you’d like to write one yourself, send me an e-mail at blog at nfbcommunityservice.org <mailto:blog at nfbcommunityservice.org>.

On the Web site front, we’ve been doing some ongoing background work and making some small updates. Definitely check out the Web site at http://www.nfbcommunityservice.org <http://www.nfbcommunityservice.org/>, and let us know of any new features or information you’d like to see.

Chris Parsons

Fundraising Committee:
The Fundraising committee is working hard by contacting businesses to
collect donation items to use for a raffle or auction during our
business meeting, if we choose to have a table in the exhibit hall and
our trivia night at our National Convention in July. We are working on
finalizing a donation letter to submit to each of the businesses.
Jonathan Franks

Letters For Troops:
. 
We sent out 21 letters from everyone from middle schoolers to grandparents. Letters were sent to new recruits, veterans, first responders, deployed troops, and wounded warriors. The letters gave encouragement and thanks to soldiers for the holiday season, as well as funny personal stories and summaries of the participants lives. Several participants over the age of 18 included their contact information, so soldiers could feel free to write back. 

Tara Abella

Outreach Committee:
The outreach committee has finished compiling the list of disability offices and community service centers on the 50 flag universities.  We decided to focus on the campus disability offices.  The committee has created a e-mail template to send to the disability offices and an e-mail template for the youth community service organizations.  
We are ready to contact the disability offices, engage students,  and host the community service scholarship call this month.
Ronnie Bellomy 

Membership Committee:
The Membership Committee has been working with the Outreach committee to plan an exciting call about how community service experience can be an important part of an NFB Scholarship application, which will take place on Sunday, January 22. We are inviting students from all around the country, many of whom may not have ever been involved with the Federation, so we need as many participants on this call as possible to make them feel welcome. We will send out announcements and reminders in the next few weeks. The membership committee's next meeting will be on January 9 at 8 PM eastern.
 Kyra Sweeney 

State Service Snippets:
From the WashingtonD.C. Community Service Division:
We have conducted several drives and projects this year. We did a coat drive in January and our annual Black History documentary screening in February. In March we asked members to Volunteer for volunteer week in April . That week we volunteered  in two organizations , brailled menus for one of our local restaurants and we also made 60 bagged lunches for one of our local homeless shelters . In May in commemoration of Mother's day. We donated women's toiletries to one of our local Women's Homeless Shelters . September we did our annual doughnuts for officers day and for December we did a New warm sock drive for men women and children. You may say sock drive but that is one of the most needed items that shelters don’t receive. What I really am proud of though is our new project. This will be an annual event. Pre-Thanksgiving out with the Community Service Division. I know is very important to give but I felt we should give inwardly starting with our members. Some members don’t have family or a lot of friends to spend Thanksgiving with. So I implemented this idea and we had over 30 people and their friends and family to come out. It was very good and we also had the chance to show the public that we do live the lives we want.

From the  Texas Community Service committee:
The NFB of Texas Community Service Committee was very excited to
finish the year strong. At our State Convention in November, was
accomplished our very first service project with the Food Bank of the
Rio Grande Valley. Eight of our members partnered with the food bank
and we worked together in helping separate food and miscellaneous
items for the organization. The Committee is also beginning to work
with our State mentoring program in developing curriculum for the
Mentor/ Mentee pairings to introduce the vast benefits of community
service. The mentees will learn how to locate and apply for volunteer
opportunities, how to utilize blindness techniques in their volunteer
setting, how to develop resumes  by adding the volunteer opportunity
to the document and how to add these experiences to college
applications. Our latest endeavor is for our committee members to
contact the various chapters throughout the state of Texas and
introduce the committee and the values of volunteering to the chapter
presidents. We plan on working with these chapters by demonstrating
how community service will build their chapters, increase
participation from their membership, build the confidence of the
volunteers and promote the altruistic values of community service. We
have tasked our committee members to contact a chapter that they are
not affiliated with in order to introduce the members to new
experiences and build strong relationships. We plan on working with
the Chapter Presidents by speaking on the agenda of one of their
chapter meetings by either traveling to the chapter meeting or
speaking on a skype or Facetime call. Lastly, we have created both a
Facebook page and group page. The Facebook page will have
announcements, pictures from our service projects, numerous resources
regarding community service and announcements of conference calls for
meetings. The Facebook group page is an open forum for our members to
discuss experiences, ask questions and provide advice about anything
volunteer related. Anyone can search for these pages by logging into
Facebook and searching for the NFB of Texas Community Service
Committee.

Darian Smith
President, National Federation  of the Blind Community Service Division

Web: www.nfbcommunityservice.org

Twitter: @NFB_CSD, at goldengateace

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CommunityServiceDivision"

E-mail: president at nfbcommunityservice.org <mailto:president at nfbcommunityservice.org>

(415)215-9809

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.
 “We need your service, right now, at this moment - our moment - in history. I'm not going to tell you what your role should be; that's for you to discover. But I am going to ask you to play your part; ask you to stand up; ask you to put your foot firmly into the current of history” — Barack Obama 
 Help drive change for the blind .
Donate your car to the National Federation of the Blind today!
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