I had the opportunity to participate as a moderator for
Dunk SB a panel on service in the age of Obama at the California Democratic State Conference on April 24. I was asked to share a few thoughts on service, excerpted here. The Women of Color Resource Center was fashioned through the power of service. Founded by members of the Third World Women’s Alliance, which had its roots in the Student Non-violent Coordinating
Womens Nike DunkCommittee (SNCC), most of our founding sisters volunteered their efforts toward the creation of a civil rights movement for racial and gender justice and equality, and without them—we would not have so many of the government protections and institutions that we take for granted
Buy Nike Dunk. What is also compelling to me is that most of those folks in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee were under the age of 30—and as we all know and will hear from many of our panelists today, there was a tremendous activation
Cheap Nike Dunksof 18-30 year olds in this recent election. Today’s Contra Costa Times reports a record high in the number of activists younger than 30 registered for the California Young Democrats’ State Party Convention, taking place as we speak. The current political moment brings some exciting possibilities for the broad concept of “volunteerism”. One, we are experiencing a gradual shift from volunteerism toward community service, with an emphasis on community.
Cheap Nike Dunk Where volunteerism may have brought with it connotations of “drop-in help” or “charitable efforts” without truly understanding the context of the community, community service opens up possibilities to deepen understanding, develop more meaningful relationships of solidarity between volunteers and community members, and ultimately create solutions and creative change that directly speaks to the needs, history and culture of the grassroots. Two, community service has the capacity to build leadership—many volunteer community
Nike Dunksmembers who turned out in record number during the election to mobilize and educate voters went on to take up further leadership roles in their communities ; there were so many stories of disenfranchised voters, especially those who historically had been left out of the democratic process, being rejuvenated by the volunteering in the past election. And for many of the long-time community leaders in faith-based, civic or cultural institutions, the current moment has emboldened their long unsung efforts, and given true validation that their
Nike Dunkwork has not been for naught. There is a lifting up of home grown solutions within communities, and hopefully this will translate in to bringing local voices to the decision making table. And thirdly, there is a co-mingling of community service with community organizing and mobilization. Community organizing finally has garnered some mainstream cache. Adding the notion of power to service to build community momentum—has really manifested in this last election. Volunteer community organizers can activate communities, particularly those made up of young people, workers, people of color, low-income folks—to build their power to impact national change and to build a critical bridge between community and government.