Issue 7: December 8, 2008
There are just 42 days until MLK Day 2009! Ensure that you are inclusively reaching out to both traditional and non-traditional volunteers to serve on MLK Day and throughout the year!
Reaching Non-Traditional Volunteers for Service Days
YOUTH
Youth, including young children, can be a valuable addition to service days. They bring energy and enthusiasm and generally think outside the box and bring new ideas. Involving youth is a great way to create an ethic of service that can last a lifetime.
Focus on historically disengaged youth. Young people of color, low-income youth, students with low grades, foster youth, homeless youth, youth with disabilities, youth in the justice system and other disconnected youth are historically disengaged from service opportunities throughout their communities. Yet these are the young people that Dr. King wanted to be involved in the civil rights movement, and who he had in mind to create a youth arm of SCLC. Deliberately focus on engaging them in your MLK Day activities to create a vibrant, vigorous response to Dr. King's call to service.
Create opportunities for youth to be involved in planning and leadership. Genuine leadership activities can include project planning, team facilitation, teaching others and meaningful evaluation. This can develop lifelong skills in young people and goodwill towards your organization. Also, engage youth and adults in meaningful and fun activities designed to foster positive sentiments between them.
Accept youth for who they are and meet them where they are. Dismissing technology, insulting youth culture or criticizing what youth know is no way to foster positive sentiments between youth and adults. Encourage young people to share who they are with adults they are serving with on MLK Day, and challenge adults to accept youth as partners. Engage youth in the communities where they live, learn and work every day. Involve organizations in which youth participate and connect their service to the classroom, where possible. Help them identify resources that currently exist in their own communities, as well as build social capital among neighbors by showing the positive force youth can be in their own neighborhoods.
Acknowledge disparities. All communities are not equal, and it is important to acknowledge that with youth. For young people, serving in neighborhoods where they don't live can help build understanding; for historically disconnected youth this can help them recognize how they can become key to creating healthier, safer communities.
Sustain youth engagement. Don't limit youth outreach to one day a year. Instead, use MLK Day as a launching point for youth engagement by involving them in activities throughout your community all year long. Youth can provide vital energy, creative thinking and critical reflection in a variety of ways that can benefit your program, organization or entire community! Always ask, “What's Next?”
Additional Tips for engaging youth can be found here.
SENIORS
Seniors can bring a great deal of experience and talent to service projects. If retired, they generally have the time to devote to projects that others may not. Utilizing this vital volunteer population can enhance your work and provide opportunities for intergenerational service.
Recruit through your local Senior Corps Programs and Senior Service Organizations. The Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), Foster Grandparent Program, and Senior Companion Program recruit older adults to serve in critical community needs areas. Every year, hundreds of Senior Corps projects across the country participate in an MLK Day service projects. Include them as a partner in your project. Also outreach to your local Area Agency on Aging, veteran's organizations, local AARP chapters, senior centers, and senior advocacy coalitions. Keep them informed and involved by sharing your MLK Day plan with them and including them in weekly communication updates.
Involve faith-based organizations. Churches, Synagogues and Mosques generally have social action committees or encourage service to their community. Meet with clergy and religious leaders and have them announce their support to their congregation or encourage them to adopt the program.
Provide diverse volunteer opportunities that appeal to seniors. The older adult population is composed of several generations. Have a wide range of opportunities that utilize their experience and skills, as well as consider their physical limitations.
Invite participation from activity directors at senior housing communities. Activity Directors at retirement communities and 50+ housing developments plan events year-round for their residents. Invite them to schedule events on MLK Day that include your service activity.
Just ask. Ask current volunteers to recruit others volunteers. Face-to-face recruitment is the most effective means of recruitment among seniors. These volunteers can be your best advocates and recruiters.
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
An inclusive service environment is one that proactively seeks to include persons with disabilities, ensures that everyone can make a valued contribution, and weaves access and accommodations into all aspects of the program.
Make it accessible. Paths, doors, rooms, restrooms, kitchens should meet current accessibility standards to the greatest extent possible. Accessibility should be considered when planning opening and closing events, seeking meeting space, and evaluating service sites.
Include Visual Images and Accommodations Language. Include images of people with disabilities as service providers in your brochures, videos, and other materials. Insert a non-discrimination clause in your materials and make a clear statement of your willingness to provide accommodations.
Utilize Alternate Formats and Communication. Proactively let the public know that you will provide materials in alternate formats. Make sure that any videos you produce are captioned and audio-described. Familiarize your staff with your state relay services or your TDD/TTY number.
Create Barrier Free Designs. When placing furniture, equipment and refreshments, give consideration to ensuring the continued ability of persons with mobility, hearing, visual, and cognitive disabilities to be able to use the space independently.
Treat people as individuals. An inclusive service environment understands that every individual is just that – an individual. No two people experience disability in the same way. Two individuals with the same disability may have very different perspectives, attitudes, interests, backgrounds and skills. An inclusive service environment sees individuals, not stereotypes.
The above information was taken from Inclusion: Creating an Inclusive Environment (Visit the site for more information on inclusive volunteer recruitment).
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Steps for Nonviolent Social Change
One: Information Gathering
To understand and articulate an issue, problem or injustice facing a person, community or institution, you must do research. You must investigate and gather all information from all sides of the argument or issue so as to increase your understanding of the problem. You must become an expert on your opponent's position.
Examples:
- Past and present newspaper and magazine articles, radio and television
- Organizations or groups that might have expertise in some aspect of the issue
- Public library
- Discussions with other people and interviews
- The Internet
Please help us spread these resources and expand participation, by forwarding the memo to others in your network.
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