#Volunteering

[the-sacred-now]

Prompted by the fact that the leader of the organization I'm helping out just reached out to me to ask, "So how's your new role coming? How are you feeling? Is this too much work for you?" I wanted to say: unless you're lucky enough to also land someone like this, you may need to pair your offer with an exercise in holding boundaries. DO let them know if you need to step back, even if they didn't ask, and DO stick to your guns if they ask you to overextend.

The crises will continue. Ask yourself, "Is this something I could do for the next 20 years?" and if the answer is "No," figure out when, how, and how much you need to taper down. Then DO that. Do not allow yourself to be guilted into burnout by the pressures of this administration, or else the battles of the next decades will have lost a valuable asset.

PS since this is taking off (gods all bless the like/rb ratio on this post, I see Y'all caring) I will add a couple more notes. Some people have pointed out that results may vary when you reach out. Naturally. Some organizations may be too disorganized to even reach back when you hold out a helping hand. They could also accept, then proceed to make it impossible for you to follow through. It's normal for there to be some extra work for everyone when first delegating a task, you ought to be prepared to be patient and flexible for that part of the process--but if it starts turning into a Whole Fucking Thing, you have the right to say "Actually, never mind." Not your circus. Step away from the monkeys.

For others, there may be vetting processes--mine consisted of simply "zoom call us so we can check your vibes and also please tell us why you're qualified to do this," low-stakes job-interview like. Vetting process = good. Depending on what you're offering, some of them may say no regardless because they don't want to let a stranger into their back end. Respect this! Either move on and ask another group, or ask if there's anything similar you could take on that's less sensitive. Nothing here to take personally, babes. <3

Hey american tumblruser. Wanna do more about The Moment than harass your representatives (you're harassing your representatives, right?) but for any/all reasons you're not up to leaving your house to do it?

Look up your local organizations, pick your favorites. Get familiar, whatever that means in this context. Read over their website, scroll through their facebook page, watch any volunteer orientations, attend a zoom open house.

Once you are, reach out and ask if they need anyone to handle a mundane administrative task. Pick one you're familiar with, or can get familiar with, either that you can do sustainably or something that's a one-off, like building or cleaning up a website.

(I picked, "reply to emails asking questions that are already answered by your website.")

Lots of political/community orgs are getting a surge of activity right now. Good odds they're run by worn-out retirees. If they get an email saying, "I'm only available 30 minutes a week but do you need any data entry done?" or "Would you like some help line-editing your weekly newsletter?" the odds are very good they might actually physically cry with relief.

It's not glamorous, but it feels real good and it is important work. You won't make history but you'll know where you stood inside it.

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

#Repost @gogreensavegreen

You might be more than one. You might be different ones at different times. 🫶🏽🫶🏽 you might not be one of these. There are more roles 💪🏽 but this is an amazing intro.

You can’t just like the idea and envision yourself in one of these roles you have to figure out how to be about it ♥️🫶🏽

Via @deiloh & @fablefulart

[reasonsforhope]

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.

[dashcon-two]

Virtual DashCon… And A Duel For The Ages

We'll see you in the pit

We’ve got a whole host of announcements for you, but first, we need your help.

Virtual DashCon 2

Plenty of people weren’t able to get tickets to DashCon 2, but we’re looking to expand the convention into a hybrid model with live streams of DashCon 2 events, online-only panels, and a virtual convention hall in a private Discord server!

We are currently in communication with a professional livestream service in Toronto to have panels - and our upcoming announcement - streamed to the public. However, for this investment to be worthwhile, we have to get a good estimation of numbers. Please answer this poll to let us know!

While we can’t be 100% sure yet, we estimate tickets being ½ the price of in-person admission ($17.50 CAD; ~$12.50 USD or ~11.20 € at time of writing).

Please see our Virtual DashCon Poll!

If you’d like to give us some more input, you can fill out this Google Form. We’d really appreciate it!

The Duel

You’ve been waiting for this day… DashCon 2 is not for the faint of heart. Two forces of darkness will walk into a ball pit, diametrically opposed… foes.

@strange-aeons and @the-muppet-joker have been at odds for ages, but we have reached the boiling point. Lines have been crossed, and scores must be settled.

Introducing, The Duel.

Before you ask: yes, this event will be livestreamed by a professional videographer at Virtual DashCon 2.

There will be merch.

We’ll see you in the pit.

P.S. Volunteering Announcements Coming Next Friday! :)

[transformativeworks]

The OTW is Recruiting for PAC, Translation, TWC Copyeditor and Strategic Planning Volunteers

Would you like to assist AO3 users by resolving complaints? Are you fluent in a language other than English and passionate about making OTW more accessible? Do you have experience copyediting or proofreading academic journals? Or do you have experience with research methods, problem solving or nonprofit governance? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting! Read more at: https://otw-news.org/8p6fjmwj

[sunflowerhythm]

An actual angel ✨ Taylor Zakhar Perez

[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

[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။

[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.

[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.

[reasonsforhope]

"According to National Coalition for the Homeless, 40% of the country’s homeless youth population is comprised of LGTBQ+ teens. 

When New York native Austin Rivers took up knitting during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was this staggering figure that drove him towards action. 

“I don’t have the capacity to build a shelter, the network or the connections to help in that way, but what I can do is knit,” Rivers told NBC News. 

“And I know that New York City is cold, so I decided I would start knitting and create this nonprofit.”

That’s when he founded Knit the Rainbow, an organization that distributes free handmade garments to those in need. 

And nearly five years after it was first created, Rivers’ knitting collective isn’t just serving the queer community in New York City.

Their nationwide network links local yarn stores and local nonprofits with over 550 volunteers from 45 states. 

As of 2024, they have collected and distributed over 25,000 winter garments — including sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves, and socks — throughout homeless communities in New Jersey, Chicago, Detroit, and beyond. 

Once clothing items are shipped to Rivers’ apartment, he works with volunteers to unpack boxes, tag and sort donations, and pack and deliver them to local shelters that provide housing to LGBTQ+ and HIV+ homeless youth. 

Although the organization’s impact is wider, and the piles of mail have grown higher, Rivers still has a hand in day-to-day deliveries. 

“We’re going to do it whether it’s rain, or snow, or shine,” Rivers said in his NBC News interview, pulling a handcart topped with boxes. 

Those clothes could be the difference between frostbite and hospitalization, especially in cities that often drop below freezing in the wintertime. 

But Rivers also noted that every handmade item — knitted, crocheted, or stitched — has a dual impact, because every piece of clothing is made with love. 

“A lot of the times, the reason that they’re unhoused is because they were kicked out by their families,” Rivers said. 

“We’re not just providing warmth, but we’re also providing that love and that compassion that they so often don’t have.” 

To the members of the community Knit The Rainbow served, he had a clear message.

“There are thousands of people out here that are constantly thinking of you and using their hands to make things for you,” Rivers emphasized. “So don’t give up. Keep going.”

To download free knitting [and crochet] patterns, donate a garment, or sign up to volunteer, you can visit the organization's website to get started." 

‍-via GoodGoodGood, December 23, 2024

[transformativeworks]

The OTW is Recruiting for Open Doors Technical Volunteers, Policy & Abuse Volunteers, and Tag Wrangling Volunteers

Do you know SQL and want to rescue at-risk fan archives? Do you want to help organize tags to help users find works in the Archive? Would you like to assist AO3 users by resolving complaints? The OTW is recruiting! Read more at: https://otw-news.org/2p9695zw

[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.

[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