#Volunteering

[transformativeworks]

Do you have experience in public relations or social media? Are you good at administrative tasks and working with people? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting! Read more at: https://otw-news.org/yu5acewb

[alexa-santi-author]

A note from your cringe Tumblr mom:

Things are bad here in the States, and they’re going to get even worse, very fast.

Doomscrolling and reblogging the bad things you find will not make you feel better. It will make you feel worse.

Taking actual action will make you feel better. Set down your phone and go volunteer somewhere. Get involved in local politics. Show up at the animal shelter and offer to help. If you have physical or psychiatric limitations, there are online opportunities as well.

Doomscrolling and reblogging is what they want you to do so you stay mired in despair. Break the cycle and take action instead.

[bobcatblahs]

My Fellow Americans:

I bet like me, many of you are feeling helpless right now. You feel like you’re screaming into the void. Hopeless. Against a current designed and destined to sweep you under.

Let me be clear: you CANNOT GIVE UP.

If you need to feel like you can do something, I do have some recommendations.

Stand up for your neighbors. Do not allow people to think acting on racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia- any of it- is okay. Ever. Call them out.

Do not stay silent.

Protest. Civil disobedience.

Do good radically.

Need an example?

Call your local food bank director. Ask how they need help.

We’re exhausted and we’re scared of how funding and grants will be over the next four years and we know that more people are going to need us because food programs, Medicaid, social security income, disability income- it’s all getting cut. He made that clear.

A donation of money- OR TIME- can change everything.

Take care of one another. Please. We can get thru this but only if we do it together.

[alexa-santi-author]

If you can’t do physical volunteering outside the house to get yourself away from social media, these are great volunteer projects from home.

If you're feeling anxious or depressed about the climate and want to do something to help right now, from your bed, for free...

Start helping with citizen science projects

What's a citizen science project? Basically, it's crowdsourced science. In this case, crowdsourced climate science, that you can help with!

You don't need qualifications or any training besides the slideshow at the start of a project. There are a lot of things that humans can do way better than machines can, even with only minimal training, that are vital to science - especially digitizing records and building searchable databases

Like labeling trees in aerial photos so that scientists have better datasets to use for restoration.

Or counting cells in fossilized plants to track the impacts of climate change.

Or digitizing old atmospheric data to help scientists track the warming effects of El Niño.

Or counting penguins to help scientists better protect them.

Those are all on one of the most prominent citizen science platforms, called Zooniverse, but there are a ton of others, too.

Oh, and btw, you don't have to worry about messing up, because several people see each image. Studies show that if you pool the opinions of however many regular people (different by field), it matches the accuracy rate of a trained scientist in the field.

--

I spent a lot of time doing this when I was really badly injured and housebound, and it was so good for me to be able to HELP and DO SOMETHING, even when I was in too much pain to leave my bed. So if you are chronically ill/disabled/for whatever reason can't participate or volunteer for things in person, I highly highly recommend.

Next time you wish you could do something - anything - to help

Remember that actually, you can. And help with some science.

[leighlew3]

So...

I know a lot of people out there are feeling lost, helpless, hopeless, and especially perhaps the younger crowd wonders: what now? As someone who has taken hit after hit after hit of trauma, abuse, homelessness, suffering, struggle, loss, illness, etc in my life that at times seems never ending... dealing with perpetual trauma and finding hope in the face of devastation is uhhh sorta my specialty.

*dorky wink and finger guns*

So, first of all on my end let me explain my plans, and then get into the 'why' and what else I plan to do and how I think we all need to tackle these coming days, weeks, months and sadly -- years.

For mental health reasons on the heels of still struggling with my grief and what sadly has become chronic health issues, I'm probably going to spend the foreseeable future hyper-focused on writing, fictional ships, planning my next tattoo, the WNBA free agency, the end of the current NFL season, and doing everything humanly possible to boost my immune system for what will inevitably be the next pandemic/plague that this administration will laugh at as Americans drop dead again because "sCiEncE iSnT rEaL".

And I advise others to find what will help them survive as well.

Here's the thing though: "give up" is not in my DNA. Nor is burying my head and hiding out away from "anything negative", because that's a hella privileged position to take, and I'm not about that life.

So, I will be signing all the petitions possible, making calls to reps who actually have proven they care, protesting when possible, sharing important info on social media, volunteering, etc as well.

Which brings me to the point here: don't give up. Do what you can. But also... recognize your humanity and limitations whether they be financial, physical, psychological or otherwise. Because sacrificing your own sanity and health isn't going to help anybody. And then we're down one less soldier in this battle for the greater good.

IF there's another election in four years (never in my lifetime did I think that would even be a question), we will have a lot of rebuilding to do regarding lost progress. We need to be ready.

In the meantime, dive into something productive and/or comforting for your own life that keeps you fulfilled but also be ready and willing to do what you can help those around you, at key moments. It's that whole "put on your oxygen mask first when the plane is going down" thing. You can't help a damn soul if you can't even breathe.

Be kind to the people you love. Tell them you love them daily. Connect with like-minded individuals. Protect and defend our most vulnerable wherever possible (the disabled, marginalized communities, fellow women/girls, etc). Hug your pets and if you don't have any, consider adopting a rescue.

Vote in the 2026 midterms. Volunteer at or donate to your local women's shelters, homeless shelters, racial justice organizations, LGBTQ+ organizations, animal rescues, environmental organizations, nursing homes for the elderly, etc.

We have to find the balance between self-care for ourselves and making our own lives tolerable amidst this bs, especially any of us who belong to one or more of the above groups -- while also plugging in to help others and the community as a whole, as needed.

And trust me, it will be needed. More than ever.

You're not alone. Even if IRL you feel like you're the only person in your family or circle who hasn't 'drank the Kool Aid' and lost all sense of reason or basic human empathy.

If you're reading this right now -- please take a second to take some deep breaths, step away, and start setting both short-term and long-term goals for yourself and your life that will help you moving forward so you can continue to fight for yourself, and for us all.

Please remember, we're in this together.

I'm with you. 💜

[willpowers]

volunteering for your polling place is a good way to make a little money, get legally mandated time off work to do so, and help make sure we can keep voting tampering to a minimum

my dad (disabled ex military intelligence) volunteers every election to make sure that its not one thats 100% republican volunteers who tamper with ballots

if you want to help keep trump out of office PLEASE consider volunteering, having people in there keeping voting honest is so crucial in these times

[sunflowerhythm]

An actual angel ✨ Taylor Zakhar Perez

[sharksandjays]

PLEASE SHARE THIS POST!!!!!!!!

For the past two years I have been apart of a volunteer club that visits the United Learning Center (ULC) in Phang Nga, Thailand, a school for Myanmar migrant families. I heard so many stories there that moved me in such a way that I promised them that I would tell the world about it. I was honestly astonished that it didn’t have more coverage already. The world had seemed to forget them. So here I drew some of my interactions with them, my friends.

By sharing this post I hope to raise awareness both about the issue in general and to talk about the FED. I have worked with this organization for the past two years and they are the nicest people you have ever met. Their sole purpose is to help the people around them, the people struggling because of this war. They have changed so many lives and will continue to change more. But any and all help is appreciated, and I urge you to do whatever you can to do so.

For more information, go to FED website: fedgrassroots.org and follow them on Insta: @fedgrassroots

Thank you for reading. And to my Myanmar friends—မင်းကိုချစ်တယ်! ❤️ဘေးကင်းပါစေ။

[ghazimekawi]

Hello from the stricken Gaza to the people of the world and those with compassionate hearts.

https://gofund.me/f52d7a73

My name is Ghazi Ali Mekawi. I study fourth-level laboratory medicine at Al-Azhar University.

My family and I represent one peaceful family living in the Sheikh Radwan area in the Gaza Strip. Before the war, we were a happy family, although we lived in constant anxiety about unemployment and the difficulty of living.

https://gofund.me/f52d7a73

Sleep was elusive, and thoughts of the next day and how to make ends meet were always on our minds. But after the war, sleep became an unsafe refuge, and thoughts revolved around whether we would survive to see the next day or perish like hundreds of our friends who were exterminated. We sleep and wake up, waiting for our turn in the endless waterfall of blood.

https://gofund.me/f52d7a73

When the war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023, my relatives and uncles took refuge in our house, thinking that it was the safe house, and 5 days after their displacement to us, the occupation carried out a brutal and violent bombardment on the neighborhood next to us. On the morning of Friday, 10/13/2023, the Zionist occupation called my older brother, asking him to escape, evacuate all the buildings of the entire neighborhood, and head to the south of the Gaza Strip. It was very suspicious and scary and we didn't know where to turn. We had to evacuate. I had to flee with my family to a safe area, leaving behind my neighborhood, my home, my shops, my work, my memories, literally everything. We took refuge with our relatives in Al-Maghazi camp, and 12 days after we were displaced, on 10/25/2023, the occupation bombed the bakery opposite the house in which we were displaced, and I was injured in my foot. On the left side and an injury, my brother suffered minor burns to her face, and the house became partially destroyed, but it is the only shelter we have, so we restored what we could to live in the house as much as possible. On November 4, 2023, warplanes targeted the bakery after it was destroyed again. Thank God, none of us were injured, and nothing was done here. We were able to restore, but we cleaned and sat down because there was no other place, and on the morning of Wednesday, January 3, 2024, the occupation made a sudden ground entry into Al-Maghazi camp, and here we were surrounded and we could not leave the house. There was no water, food or any other necessities of life. We just sat and heard the sounds of shelling, bullets and missiles. We are waiting for our turn to come. Until Sunday morning, January 7, 2024, we miraculously managed to leave Al-Maghazi under bombardment and took refuge in Rafah. I had no one or relatives there, and we built a tent to shelter me and my family.

On May 28, 2024, we were displaced for the sixth time after nights and days of violent bombing on tents in Rafah’s Mawasi. They were displaced and we did not know where to run.

https://gofund.me/f52d7a73

I cannot describe the situation adequately; I think you've seen enough on the Internet. I lost my home, my shops, my family's source of income, and I was left with nothing. I have lost many friends over the past four months. However, I feel nothing but complete helplessness and inability to help my family. The feeling of helplessness is humiliating and painful, as negative thoughts dominate your thoughts, such as thinking about suicide or wishing for death to escape this feeling. But here I am breathing again and thinking of positive solutions in the face of crushing death. I'm trying to cling to life.

I hope you will read the story from my perspective, from the perspective of a 22-year-old young man trying to save what is left of his family and himself. In the end, I wish eternal peace to prevail in this world, and for every being on this earth.

Your donations will help me and my family leave Gaza, complete education, and start building my future again. We need to pay at least 50 thousand US dollars to exit Gaza through Egypt. Every donation makes a difference.

https://gofund.me/f52d7a73

Your friend,

Ghazi Ali Mekawi

[undertale-accessibility]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but we are currently looking for a volunteer 2d animator and a volunteer voice actor for flowey.

This is an example of what I'm looking for as far as Flowey.

https://youtu.be/Hi2OSeJ-Hw8?si=WPbxMK32BHtnXJtG

And attached are some examples of the animation we're looking for.

To contact me, DM me on discord. My username is "uvularbean81269"

Credit to Jockey for our Toriel design and existing animation, and credit to walkingmelonsaaa/spectroliteaaa for the frisk design.

[reasonsforhope]

"As hundreds of thousands of Californians grieve the loss of their homes and communities in the face of record-breaking wildfires this week, countless have shown up to help.

Officials report that an estimated 10,000 structures and more than 35,000 acres have been in the Palisades and Eaton fires, with over 180,000 forced to evacuate in recent days.

Aid agencies and nonprofits have stepped in to provide food, temporary shelter, and other essentials, but for many who have lost everything, the rebuilding process begins immediately.

Seconds Market, a secondhand clothing organization based in Los Angeles, normally buys gently used clothes from locals and hosts pop-up sales in the LA area for secondhand shoppers.

But in the wake of this devastation, Seconds Market decided to use its platform to connect Californians in need with clothing donors from across the country.

“Have spare clothes lying around? A Poshmark or Depop pile? We’ll connect you with someone who needs them,” the group shared on Instagram on Wednesday.

“Wearing secondhand is hot, but donating to your community is hotter.” 

Their post directs followers to a sign-up link where people can request support or volunteer to donate items. Folks are then paired up, based on clothing size, age, and gender to ensure that people get items that are appropriate for them.

Over the course of 48 hours, 20,000 donors had signed up, according to the Seconds Market Instagram page.

Iluka, the founder of Seconds Market, shared that the match program is different from a donation drop-off, helping people get their needs met by having items shipped directly to them, rather than using the labor required to sort through donated items.

That said, she shared in an Instagram story that she was hoping to set up a free “store” so that fire victims could shop for donated items in the coming days and weeks, as well.

“This match initiative was a way for me to connect friends who wanted to help LA victims directly. Helping one person would’ve been a win in my book,” Iluka wrote in a statement.

“Since ‘launch’ we’ve had 20,000 (and counting) of you from across the U.S. sign up to donate — directly from your closets — wardrobe to wardrobe.”

Donors are responsible for the cost of packaging and shipping items after being connected with someone in need — and donations are not limited to clothing, but rather anything they can offer their “match.”

Experts suggest that major influxes of donations can be overwhelming to folks immediately working to rebuild their lives, though anecdotal evidence from others who have survived house fires suggests that it helps to be given something right away instead of having to go shopping amid recovery.

It’s that immediate need Iluka hopes to fill with Seconds Market.

She wrote on Instagram: “[This is] giving 20,000 people the opportunity to have one less thing to worry about when they wake up today.”"

-via GoodGoodGood, January 10, 2025

[transformativeworks]

OTW is Recruiting for Policy & Abuse, Translation, & TWC

Would you like to assist AO3 users by resolving complaints? Do you have strong proofreading or editing skills? Are you fluent in a language other than English? OTW is recruiting volunteers! 

We really need volunteers who speak Afrikaans, Arabic, Basque, Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Marathi, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese-PT, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and Welsh.  

Help us signal boost or find out more at https://otw-news.org/53a6ncnr

[sarahmackattack]

"What does community organizing mean?!" is a question I have seen so much in the last 24 hours, & I completely understand. Last night at Teen Art Club, the kids were like "What the hell do we do now", and I was like ummmm whereeeee to begin.

It's really hard to know where to start when you've never organized before!

So, with that in mind, I decided to make a poster to hang on poles around the neighborhood with information to get people plugged into the community organizations that need help from volunteers.

People moving from (I love us Philly, but) better functioning places than my dear sweet Philadelphia often don't realize how much of the good shit happening in our neighborhood isn't from the city, it's from neighborhood volunteers. Our parks, many free events, that's all from volunteer labor.

One of the most important things that we can do to protect ourselves is building strong local community connections to weather whatever storm is coming. These groups help make those networks stronger.

My goals here are to 1) Make it easier for people to get connected. 2) Increase awareness of how much around here is done by their neighbors trying their best. 3) Help empower people to make the things they want to see happen, instead of waiting for someone else to do it. 4) Encourage collaboration!

So keep an eye out on poles around Fishtown and East Kensington if you're a neighbor 😘

Here's the link to where that QR goes https://www.dogoodshit.club/post/get-involved-in-our-neighborhoods

[mindblowingscience]

Want to hunt for black holes, but lack access to a mountaintop observatory or deep-space telescope? There’s an app for that—and you can help out astronomers by using it. Developed by the Dutch Black Hole Consortium, an interdisciplinary research project based in the Netherlands, Black Hole Finder is a free program available both on smartphones and as a desktop website. After reviewing a quick tutorial, all you need to do is study images taken by BlackGEM, a telescope array in Northern Chile tasked with searching the skies for cosmic events called kilonovas. Although launched in March 2024, as Space.com noted on August 19, the project’s recently expanded from just English and Dutch to support Spanish, German, Chinese, Bengali, Polish, and Italian.

Continue Reading.

[pratchettquotes]

"We've got to get a third witch," said Nanny, trying to rearrange the parcels. "Young Agnes has got good strong arms." "You know if we was to drag her out of there by the scruff of her neck we'd never hear the last of it," said Granny. "She'll be a witch when she wants to be."

Terry Pratchett, Maskerade