Today’s post comes from Kenneth Tran, an AmeriCorps member serving with HandsOn Network

We cannot live only for ourselves.  A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.  ~Herman Melville

According to Webster’s Dictionary, Community is defined as “a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic, and political interest.” On the Get HandsOn website, we are catering to the service minded community who are looking to make a lasting change in their environment. The shared social interest of service is the calling that’s bringing out the great activity out of our community.

With Follow the Leader, we have seen tremendous development and participation from our network of Service Leaders. From blog posts about leading a successful resume workshop, to recruiting local volunteers for upcoming projects, members are becoming more active, not only in their local physical community, but also on their online one of over 7000 members.

Volunteer leaders on the site are successfully modeling projects that have come before them. With the easy start up projects featured in the Project Playbooks, service-minded individuals are downloading projects that have been proven successful and sustainable from the HandsOn Network library.

They are replicating similar impacts in their local environment and making positive changes for those around them. They are impacting the even larger systems when they come back on to the site, and posting follow ups to their projects – letting the other GHO leaders know how it went and passing on their experiences.

Follow the Leader focuses on people fulfilling their commitments from Tag and doing the work. So far, I like what I’m seeing! Every day, I get emails updating me about the previous day’s activities on the site, and it is very encouraging to see new members not only registering on the site, but making unique commitments and telling the community about the causes they care about. Each of them are addressing needs specific to their location and are applying the Project Playbooks to meet those needs.

There are so many events going on that can get people discouraged and feeling hopeless. But with one act of service, thoughtful citizens who care enough to make a difference can affect positive change and make a difference to those around them. At the end of the day, we all want to belong to something. What better way to feel connected than leaving a mark on your community that matters to you.

Here’s my invitation for you to be a part of our community! Check out Get HandsOn and sign up to take part in Follow the Leader. Download a Playbook, recruit members of your community, and be ready to make a difference.  You never know who is looking up to your acts of service and will model your behavior. Caring about the community around us benefits everyone involved and the rewards from it will stretch far beyond your immediate surroundings.