It Takes a Village

Too Busy to Volunteer this Holiday Season? Try Micro-volunteering with MAKE IT BE

November 14, 2011 By Maria Stokes Leave a Comment

Don’t let the do-gooder in you get stymied by a busy holiday schedule. With MAKE IT BE micro-volunteering, you can help out a local charity in as little as 15 minutes!

Whether you’ve got some down time on the bus, a break during lunch, or just want something productive to do during TV commercials, United Way’s MAKE IT BE has got a micro-volunteering “challenge” for you.

MAKE IT BE provides a wide selection of small micro-volunteering tasks that are so easy they can be done from your computer or smart phone. You can use your professional skills such as sales, social media, teaching, design, brainstorming, and much more. Most importantly, you’ll be helping worthy causes that serve our community.

And, if we ALL put in a few minutes each week, that translates into the thousands of hours necessary to support United Way’s goal to cut Bay Area poverty in half by 2020.

MAKE IT BE is a United Way of the Bay Area campaign. We are a growing movement of Bay Area residents and organizations committed to cutting poverty in half by 2020 and building thriving communities. Join us on Facebook.

Photo courtesy of Joshua Hinds via Creative Commons license.

Filed Under: Pathways out of Poverty, Volunteer Tagged With: MAKE IT BE, Volunteer

Hometown Huddle Brings Smiles to Oakland Students

October 20, 2011 By Maria Stokes Leave a Comment

This past Tuesday (Oct. 18) United Way, the Oakland Raiders and UPS teamed up for Hometown Huddle at Oakland’s Garfield Elementary School.

Oakland Raiders Rock Cartwright and De Marcus Van Dyke joined UPS volunteers to promote active and healthy living among Garfield students.

Rock and De Marcus lead the students in a series of fun exercises, games, and storytelling. At the close of the day, each student received a bag of healthy food to share with their families. As you’ll see in the photos below, the kids who attended the event had a wonderful time!

Thanks to our partners at East Bay Asian Youth Center, who were the perfect hosts.

This month, NFL teams across the country are working with their regional United Ways to drive home the importance of community involvement by participating in hands-on volunteer projects in their communities. For the last eight years, NFL players and their families have participated in a variety of activities, ranging from building playgrounds for toddlers, to conducting skill-building sessions for teens, to serving lunch to senior citizens.

Filed Under: Pathways out of Poverty Tagged With: Education, food, partners, Volunteer

It Takes a Village

September 19, 2011 By Beth Trimarco Leave a Comment

United Way’s Week of Caring is one of the Bay Area’s largest corporate volunteer events, bringing thousands of people together to work throughout our community. Jo Esguerra Sevilla, a long-time volunteer, has racked up 665 volunteer hours over the years. She knows because her employer, Wells Fargo, keeps track as part of its commitment to community service.

Since Jo started at Wells Fargo nineteen years ago, she has participated in Week of Caring activities ranging from packing groceries for seniors to working the food bank to cleaning up Half Moon Bay. However, the majority of her volunteer time has been spent at her children’s school which depends on parent involvement to be successful.

According to Jo, giving time is important, especially in the down economy. “Because of budget cuts, some things just wouldn’t get done without the help of volunteers,” said Jo. “It takes a village, and even though you might feel like individual work might not make a difference, collectively we are having a huge impact.”

Week of Caring certainly feels like a village, attracting 4,000 volunteers this year. Many of those 4,000 work at Wells Fargo, Chevron, Bank of the West, and Enterprise Holdings. Wells Fargo employees get sixteen hours of paid volunteer time annually. The company also has awards, a volunteer tracking system, and donation-matching programs.

“I feel grateful to work at Wells Fargo where I can give back to the community,” said Jo. “I can’t give a lot in monetary donations, so I give in kind. In many ways, it’s better because you see the results of your work, and a smiling ‘thank you’ from the people you have helped.”

United Way has been running Week of Caring for twenty-one years. For more information, go to http://weekofcaring.org/.

Filed Under: Volunteer Tagged With: Volunteer, Week of Caring