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The Silver Lining of Disaster

9Sept05                                                                    Read other responses

A Powerful Idea

 

Karen Key, the Director of Volunteer Alliances for AARP, voiced a creative and powerful idea during a conversation with me, Robert Bisi from Youth Service America, Bob Goodwin and Andy King from the Points of Light Foundation, and Ellen Evans from the National Human Service Assembly. We had been talking about the barriers both young and old people face in offering their services as volunteers, as well as the importance of doing so.

 

Bob Goodwin observed that two critical benefits individuals derive from volunteering are an increase in (sometimes the start of) confidence and a feeling of affirmation. Both are necessary for every human being , but often the young and the old have few ways to feel worthwhile or to achieve recognition. Service to others demonstrates - to volunteers themselves - that they can be givers of help as well as recipients, and that they have skills and talents to contribute that others value.

 

That led to a discussion of Hurricane Katrina and all those evacuees sitting in crowded shelters waiting to restart their lives. Karen mused, "wouldn't it be incredible if the evacuees were given the chance to go out and do volunteer work to help others? Think of how that would turn the tables for them and return some self-esteem." Wow! What a great idea.

 

It's so easy to look at the thousands of evacuees as simply people in need. And, of course, they are in great need and truly in crisis. But once their immediate requirements for care and sustenance are met, they are sitting around doing nothing. Worse, as the days go by, they are continuing to receive charity from others in a one-way flow.

 

I'm sure that many shelter residents are finding ways to make themselves useful to others on a one-to-one basis (child and senior respite care, Internet research for those who don't know how to do it, organizing play for children, etc.). But if the organizations coordinating the relief activities would stop for a moment and really see these people as more than "in need," some remarkable developments could occur.

First, why not ask willing and able shelter residents to help in the relief effort itself? For one thing, I'll bet there are some great cooks who would love to participate in cooking the mass meals. Let your imagination go and many other types of tangible activities will occur to you - each one providing genuine service, keeping the evacuees busy in ways that affirm they still have much to give. To do this well, it would be necessary to inventory the talents and experience of shelter residents, much like compiling a "skills bank" to tap.

 

Now take this idea one step further. If you are managing a volunteer center or individual agency program that is in close proximity to a shelter, do some recruitment there. This is neither a prison nor a hospital; the residents are allowed to come and go as they wish. So figure out a way with shelter organizers to post a notice or make an announcement and publicize various volunteer position openings, both one-time chances to serve and ongoing assignments (many of these people will not be returning home for a long time).

Naturally each person can freely choose whether or not to participate, but many will welcome this as an opportunity to say thank you to the community that so willingly rescued them. In so doing, they will feel useful - a great first step on the road to recovery.

 

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