Jeremy Foreman poses during the 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service closing Cause Mob.
Thanks to Jared Paul, Founder, A Good Idea for organizing it!
Posts Tagged ‘National Conference on Volunteering and Service’
Volunteering is Everything
Friday, July 2nd, 2010See You in New Orleans for NCVS 2011
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010Today in New York upon the conclusion of the 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service, which drew a record attendance of 5,000 people, Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and Michelle Nunn, CEO of Points of Light Institute and Co-Founder of the HandsOn Network, were joined by Mayor Mitch Landrieu to announce that the 2011 National Conference will take place from June 6-8, 2011 in New Orleans!
With the Gulf Coast reeling from its second economic blow in five years, it was the only choice.
Both HandsOn Network and CNCS have have a strong presence there due to recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Coast continues to be a priority for America’s volunteer and service community because of the BP oil spill.
“Our volunteer network has such deep-seated ties to New Orleans and the entire region from our Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, we all feel passionately about helping to rejuvenate the communities of the Gulf Coast,” said Nunn. “Bringing the conference to New Orleans is the perfect way to spotlight residents’ needs and how volunteers can help address them.”
“Perhaps no other city in America understands and appreciates
the power of community service and the value of voluntourism to a community,” said Mayor Landrieu. “Our city, indeed our entire region, would not be as far along in our post-Katrina recovery without the time, talent and treasure of all those who were so generous in helping us in our time of great need. It is a distinct privilege to welcome this gathering to our city, where we have created a new roadmap for community service, and where the good work continues to this day, and will continue well into the future.”
It’s Up To You
Monday, June 28th, 2010
By Michelle Nunn, CEO, Points of Light Institute
We stand at a moment that brings decades of leadership to fruition.
Thousands of individuals have worked to bring volunteer participation to historic high thresholds, to pass unprecedented legislation that expands national service, and creates new platforms for investment in our civic infrastructure.
Many of you have been a part of the legion’s that have created this moment, but whether you have been a part of the history of this movement, it’s destiny is and will be up to us.
Realizing the fullness of this moment’s potential is in our hands.
Together we will determine whether this moment of civic promise is fulfilled.
As a sector, we need to think about:
- The innovative ways that social media and technology are being used to rapidly mobilize volunteers in innovative ways;
- The emerging global service movement, with a proposed International Service Impact Fund to increase capacity.
Global volunteerism is pulled towards entrepreneurial and innovative efforts as the number of volunteers and local organizations around the world increases;
- The Millennials, who are just entering the workforce, are poised to become the great service generation. They are global, service minded, and seek to make a difference. They are tech-savvy. They are the next largest generation after the baby boomers, so they will have strength in numbers to apply to causes that resonate with their passions.
We must demonstrate that we can extend the scale of our work to encompass hundreds of thousands of additional national service members and we must embrace millions of new volunteers.
We must work to ensure that through this extended capacity, we demonstrate that service is a central strategy in addressing our national and international priorities.
I believe that we must continue to both demonstrate and document how service is a strategy for healthy communities and a strategy for solutions to tough challenges.
I think it is important that we reaffirm that we know that service and civic participation are core to vibrant democracies, and that civic networks and social capital are at the heart of strong communities and fundamental to individual development.
We know that service and the quality of empathy are fundamental to human emotional and intellectual human development- it makes us smarter, healthier, happier, and live longer.
We know that service to others is the primary shared spiritual value across all faith traditions.
Service is what makes us fully human.
As a service community we must continue to expand the research that makes these dimensions of civic participation evident and well understood.
I believe that as a service community, we must also embrace a broader understanding of service and civic engagement.
Individuals don’t think about how they create change in the narrow silos that our nonprofit community often acts within.
People think about how they can use their time, their passions, their skills, their purchasing power, and their voice to create change.
President Bush 41 said that
“We can find meaning and reward by serving some higher purpose than ourselves, a shining purpose, the illumination of a Thousand Points of Light…We all have something to give. So, if you know how to read, find someone who can’t. If you’ve got a hammer, find a nail. If you’re not hungry, not lonely, not in trouble, seek out someone who is. Join the community of conscience.
Do the hard work of freedom. And that will define the state of our Union… What government can do alone is limited, but the potential of the American people knows no limits.”
President Obama said last fall at our Presidential Forum in Houston,
“In the end, when it comes to the challenges we face, the need for action always exceeds the limits of government. While there’s plenty that government can do and must do to keep our families safe, and our planet clean, and our markets free and fair, there’s a lot that government can’t — and shouldn’t — do. And that’s where active, engaged citizens come in. That’s the purpose of service in this nation.”
And his point is one I want to emphasize today: that “service isn’t separate from our national priorities, or secondary to our national priorities — it’s integral to achieving our national priorities. It’s how we will meet the challenges of our time.”
The 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service kicks off in New York City today. Visit the website for highlights and updates from the nation’s largest, annual gathering on service and civic engagement!
Join the NCVS Cause Mob!
Friday, June 25th, 2010
by Jared Paul, Founder, A Good Idea
NCVS “Volunteering is…” Cause Mob
June 30th, 2010
New York City
53rd Street between 6th & 7th
Gather at 12:50p.m.
Flash Mob at 1:00 – 1:20 p.m.
My name is Jared Paul and I’m the founder of a San Francisco nonprofit called A Good Idea (AGI).
For the past two years, AGI has served as a vehicle for positive social change ideas that connect people in need with people who want to help in our community.
Many of the ways that we connect people is through creative service events that empower and inspire individuals to get involved in a way that matters to them.
With service and volunteerism being at the very core of AGI, I believe a conference such as the 2010 National Conference on Volunteering & Service, where volunteers and nonprofits alike come together to learn about effective best practices in social service and to connect with one another is a wonderful and much needed event for our sector.
Upon hearing about the conference, I started thinking about creative “Goods Ideas” that AGI could host that would shake things up a bit in NYC.
I reached out to my friend and co-founder of Open Action, John Brennan, to gauge his interest in putting together a flash mob, or more appropriately for this conference, a cause mob.
If you aren’t familiar with a flash mob, it is when a large group of people assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, and then quickly disperse.
They’ve been done in , on the , and then there’s the .
While flash mobs are usually “pointless”, cause mobs are exactly the opposite.
A cause mob still provides the space for people to come together for an unusual event, but unlike the flash mob, these events have a point and as the name suggests, usually support a cause.
Having hosted successful similar events in San Francisco such as our Intentional Acts of Kindness event, where volunteers come together to simply do nice things for random strangers, I believe NYC and this conference are a perfect setting for a cause mob.
So after doing some brainstorming with John and members of our respective teams, we’ve decided to host our own cause mob/freeze out at the official end of the conference on Wednesday, June 30th.
On Tuesday and Wednesday during the conference, you will see a few folks wearing white t-shirts with “Volunteering is ______” written on the shirts.
Next to the word “is” will be a list of adjectives that represent our feelings about volunteering.
To me, volunteering is “sexy”, “smart”, and “fun”…but what does volunteering mean to you?
Well, you’ll have a chance to tell the world as we’ll be handing out sheets of paper with the “Volunteering is ______” written on it and each participant will fill in the blank with their own adjective.
Then, from 1:00 – 1:20p.m. on Wednesday, June 30th, we’ll all come together and freeze, holding up our signs for people to read.
We hope everyone joins us for what should be a fun, unique event in the name of volunteerism!
Click on the map below to enlarge it and see where we’ll be.
Where’s the WIFI, Waldo?
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
So you’re all prepped to be a social media rock star at the 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service, right?
Me too.
But is New York City’s 3G Network ready to handle us?
Let’s hope so!
Because, here’s the important thing, there is not any free WIFI at the conference.
[I know, I know. I am super bummed too, but the cost in the big apple was seriously out of range!]
Some NCVS sessions will have secure WIFI and the session speakers will provide the login information when you arrive.
Want the inside scoop on which NCVS sessions will have WIFI? Click here.
During some of the conference sessions there will be giant monitors showing the and Facebook Chat.
If you know you’ll want to jump in and be part of the conversation, make sure you have Twitter and Facebook apps downloaded to your phone!
Trend Lines
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
by Michelle Nunn, CEO, Points of Light Institute
As the 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service fast approaches, I want to share just a few of the trend-lines that we will be exploring and that I think will shape the possibilities for civic challenges ahead.
A first trend and imperative is to demonstrate how service can be a solution.
We believe we must demonstrate how volunteers, at scale, can create significant impact around three areas – education, the environment and economic well-being for families.
We believe that volunteer leaders are a key element of achieving this scale.
Grant Reed exemplifies the self-directing service leadership that we want to inspire and support.
While he was in college as a student at the University of Illinois, he created a student-run mobile health clinic that provides free medical screening services to the under-served and uninsured residents of Champaign County.
A significant portion of that community has severely limited access to healthcare services.
Since Grant’s mobile health care clinic began, more than 250 people without healthcare coverage have been tested and referred to local free medical clinics for further treatment.
Grant has now graduated but the mobile clinic continues, with the goal of screening 150 under-served people per term, and Grant plans to become a physician in an under-served rural community.
This is the power of volunteer leaders who are mobilizing others in service.
Imagine 500,000 networked individuals like Grant who were working in concert on the tough national challenges of our day.
The second trend line we’re seeing is a movement by corporations to leverage their unique assets to drive philanthropic goals that utilize the power of their employees and customers.
For example, earlier this year, HandsOn Network and Disney created Give A Day. Get A Disney Day.
For an individual’s day of verified volunteer service, Disney issued a voucher for a day’s free admission to one of its theme parks.
We had no precedent for this partnership and had no idea what the response would be.
In only 10 weeks, 1 million volunteers served and thousands wrote to tell us how they are now integrating service in the lives of their families.
Another partner, Starbucks held an “I’m In” campaign that offered customers a free coffee drink if they pledged at least five hours of volunteer time.
It raised 1.2 million committed hours in less than five days!
A final example, In this challenging economy, where the national unemployment rate still hovers around 10 percent, Monster.com and HandsOn Network have joined in an effort that directly benefits job-seekers and their communities.
HandsOn will be on site in many cities that are part of Monster’s Keep America Working Tour.
At these career fairs we will also share volunteer opportunities that can give job-seekers a way to acquire new marketable skills and contacts while making important contributions to community.
These are just a few examples of how corporations are re-imagining their corporate community engagement to fully deploy the human capital of their employees and customers to create change.
Finally, a trend-line that bodes well for the future- the millennials and the powerful example and new tools they are bringing to bear on change.
Let me give you a couple of examples of some of my favorite millennials:
In the after math of Hurricane Katrina, Hands On sent a young AmeriCorps Alum, Kelly Bentz, to aid in the cleanup in New Orleans, intending for her to only stay for a few weeks.
She ended up staying five years and is still working to re-build New Orleans.
She created and then ran a center where 100 volunteers slept in bunk beds in a church and worked to re-build the city- tens of thousands of volunteers came to work through what became Hands On New Orleans and is now serving as one of the central volunteer hubs for the oil spill efforts in that area of the Gulf Coast.
Kellie represents what may be the next great Service Generation.
The millennials were born roughly from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s.
According to many studies, their defining characteristics include: civic-mindedness, the desire to make a difference, love of a challenge, ease with all things tech and global thinking. They want to produce something worthwhile, they are success-driven and goal-oriented.
They are young people such as the 20-somethings who started Crop Mob Atlanta in April to support small farms engaged in sustainable agriculture.
Many of these farms are barely hanging on.
Using a Facebook page and personal networks, they have created what is now a crowd of folks eager to carpool for a few hours and then spend weekends weeding, hoeing, raking, planting, sowing in the heat in rural Georgia.
The slots on these monthly crop mobs filled up so quickly that they now have waiting lists.
That’s the power of passion linked to service and the power of new forms of self-organizing.
They are young people such as in San Francisco, who co-founded The Extraordinaries last year.
The Extraordinaries has pioneered the field of micro-volunteering, helping organizations and supporters turn short bits of spare time into social value from the bus stop, cubicle, or couch, using mobile phones. For example, you could translate, fact-check, transcribe, edit.
After the earthquake in Haiti, The Extraordinaries built a system that allowed people to help find loved ones by tagging news images coming out of Haiti and matching those images to faces of missing people.
These examples exemplify how the brave new world of social media tools allows us to mobilize people in more efficient ways, and to engage them more often and more effectively. We can now talk with volunteers, not at them, across time zones and across countries.
More importantly, social media allows people to organize themselves and each other for causes — be they sustainable farming, helping Haiti or running after-school programs — that resonate with their passions.
The youth of the millennial generation and progressive corporations and nonprofits are leading the way in creating new forms of scale and impact through service.
They are solving problems, meeting needs, and creating impact in ways that coincide with their interests and strategic goals.
At this critical juncture for our communities and nation, we have a tremendous opportunity to work together- combining resources, creativity, and new ideas to transform the world through the power of people- our most valuable resource.
Change Points: Social Media for Social Good
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
Social networks have become a new global community with Facebook users alone estimated at 400 million.
They are a powerful way to mobilize people to create change. But how can we use these new channels effectively to mobilize people to create change?
How can nonprofits leverage social media for social good? To help show us the way, we’ve enlisted a stellar panel of pioneers.
The Social Media for Social Good forum, to be held Tuesday afternoon, June 29, at The 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service in New York City, features some of the biggest names in social media: Jack Dorsey, Creator, Co-founder and Chairman of ; Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist; Andrew Noyes, ‘s Public Policy Communications Manager; Joe Rospars, Founding Partner at Blue State Digital and former New Media Director for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, and Paul Gillin, author of “The New Influencers.”
This panel of innovators will explore ways that social media and social networks are changing the nature of human interaction, and what that means for the nonprofit landscape.
You can follow the panel discussion through Twitter at and . For a complete list of conference sessions, click here.
We hope to see you in NYC, or online, during the conference!
Yours in service,
Michelle Nunn
CEO, Points of Light Institute
Looking Forward to New York!
Monday, June 21st, 2010
I’m taking a moment away from what is going to be a crazy week to reflect on how excited I am for this year’s National Conference on Volunteering and Service. Every year I look forward to this time with colleagues across the Network and the sector, but I am particularly excited this year since is where I was born and raised. It’s been a while since I called New York my home, but it’s just not a place you ever forget.
As we all scramble around this week to prepare for over 5,000 conference attendees, I salute and celebrate the hard work of my peers who are on the planning team at Points of Light Institute and HandsOn Network and applaud the staff of New York Cares, our local HandsOn Action Center. New York Cares is an amazing example of the work of our affiliates, and this Conference celebrates what they do each and every day.
So, yes, I am looking forward to time in my home town, but what I’m most excited about is learning, connecting and participating at this year’s Conference (oh, and running in ).
Change Points: Remaking American Education
Thursday, June 17th, 2010The countdown to our National Conference on Volunteering and Service has begun, and I want to highlight some of its amazing sessions and presenters every few days.
One of the most anticipated micro-plenaries is about how service can transform our schools. On Wednesday morning, June 30, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will examine The Role of Service in Remaking American Education.
Joining him will be Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education; , Director of America Reads – Mississippi; Bob Moritz, Chairman and Senior Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, which is sponsoring this micro-plenary, and Anthony Salcito, VP of Worldwide Education for Microsoft.
Providing high-quality education is critical to America’s economic future, and more than 15 years of research have shown that students involved in service are more likely to be successful in school. We also know that community engagement in schools can make a critical difference in school success.
We’re looking forward to a robust discussion about the latest developments in education policy and the role of service in driving education reform. Free registration for this one special session is available to non-Conference attendees by clicking here.
Sincerely,
Michelle Nunn
CEO, Points of Light Institute
The American Way to Change
Thursday, June 17th, 2010If you believe that every person can discover their power to make a difference, creating healthy communities and vibrant democracies around the world, then the introduction of , by Shirley Sagawa is sure to draw you in.
“We’re at a pivotal time in America. We face crises in nearly every corner.
Whole communities stuck in poverty, and middle class families slipping downward.
Public schools that don’t graduate half of the African American and Latino students who come through their doors.
A majority of people all ages suffering from obesity and related health problems and millions without insurance or a place to go for regular health care.
Conflict among different religious, ethnic, and other groups, and many Americans uneasy connecting with people unlike themselves.
The largest cohort of older adults in history threatening to overwhelm systems of care and outlive their savings.
Climate change threatening to wipe away whole cities around the world and make entire species extinct.
Many people look to government to solve these problems.
But none of these can be solved by government alone.
In fact, none can be solved without the committed efforts of the American people, taking action on their own or in concert with others.”
On Wednesday, June 30th from 7:00 – 8:00 a.m., join Shirley Sagawa for a Books & Bagels session at The 2010 National Conference on Volunteering & Service to discuss this inspirational book telling stories of people who have dedicated themselves to service and the nonprofits that engaged them.
Shirley Sagawa, co-founder of the sagawa/jospin consulting firm, was named a “Woman to Watch in the 21st Century,” by Newsweek magazine, and one of the “Most Influential Working Mothers in America” by Working Mother magazine. A national expert on children’s policy and philanthropy, she has been called a “founding mother of the modern service movement” in the United States. She is currently a fellow with the Center for American Progress.
Session Name & ID: Books & Bagels: The American Way to Change. (1650)
Twitter Hashtag: #NCVS #BKCL6
