Ideas and Resources to Help you Serve
The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day of Service is just over a month away.
Dr. King believed we have the power to build bridges and heal divides through service. His belief closely reflects what is our vision at Serve Washington: National service, volunteerism and civic engagement are the foundation for caring communities and a thriving Washington.
In 1993, congress designated the third Monday in January as a National Day of Service and charged AmeriCorps the national organization dedicated to making service a part of the American experience. Many of serve Washington's AmeriCorps members will be leading service projects on and around Jan. 16.
But the MLK holiday calls upon all of us to honor the legacy of Dr. King through service and you don't have to be an AmeriCorps member to participate.
We've compiled a few service project ideas and links to some resources to help you do that. These project suggestions are by no means exhaustive. We hope what we've provided will inspire you to come up with your own!
Please note that although Serve Washington supports and promotes volunteerism across the state, we do not manage volunteer events for individual organizations. If you would like to organize a volunteer project or event on behalf of an organization, please contact them for their specific volunteer guidelines.
Ways to serve
Send some cards or care packages to brighten up someone else's day. Receiving a card or letter in the mail can help curb loneliness or isolation and provide some comfort for someone going through a rough time. It can also be a great project for students or groups. Recipients: Senior centers and caregivers, local police or fire departments, doctors and nurses, clients in shelters who are experiencing homelessness. Contact the organization in your area about sending letters to staff for clients. Nationally, organizations like Support Our Troops and Soldier's Angels have programs to send letters to deployed soldiers. Punkpost also has a list of national nonprofit organizations with letter writing programs.
Make a dog-gone difference: Make A Difference from Home has easy instructions on how to make dog toys out of old t-shirts and rags. You can donate the toys to a local animal shelter, plus help the environment by reducing waste.
Adopt a park or trail: Grab some trash bags, gloves and a sturdy pair of boots and collect litter from a local park or beach. The Washington Trails Association keeps a calendar of upcoming group trail work parties. Washington State Parks has a list of volunteer needs on its website. County conservation districts often need volunteers. Check out this map to find yours.
Do a food drive: Pick up an extra item the next time you go to the grocery store or team up with neighbors to collect food for your local food bank. Feeding America has a searchable tool on its website that can find a food bank near you.
Help your community prepare for emergencies: When emergencies happen, Community Emergency Response Team, CERT, members can provide critical support to first responders through light search and rescue and giving first aid or supplies to survivors. Serve Washington sponsors periodic trainings throughout the year. Contact us if you'd like to start or join a CERT program in your community. Washington's Emergency Management Division also keeps a running calendar of locally-sponsored CERT trainings and classes on emergency management topics.
Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster works with organizations to coordinate services during disasters. Contact WA VOAD to see how your organization can respond to disasters and get information on how you can volunteer.
Your local Red Cross recruits volunteers to provide assistance before, during and after emergencies. Consider donating blood, taking a basic first aid class or exploring volunteer needs in your community.
Looking for something else you don't see here? Find more volunteer opportunities with Get Connected
Serve Washington has a free Get Connected tool. It lets you search for volunteer opportunities within your community. You can filter results by duration, interest, ability, age group, type of organization and more.
Local United Ways and communities with volunteer centers also have online volunteer listings. If you're hosting a group project and want to recruit volunteers, you can use these same resources to list it.
National Listings
Nationally, AmeriCorps and Teach for America have put together lists of project ideas, ranging from the very simple projects you can do from home, or more complex group projects. They've also got projects that can easily be done with little or no contact for those concerned with safety amid the pandemic. Keep in mind many of organizations' contacts listed here are at the national level but have many regional and local offices. If you are planning a local project with these organizations, you may need to reach out to their local or regional offices.
Idealist, JustServe and VolunteerMatch are some other national volunteer databases that have searchable listings by zip code. Keep in mind, that local and national databases will likely not have the same listings nor list every available project in your community, so it's a good idea to browse more than one to find the service project that is right for you.
Learn about Dr. King
The King Center will be hosting various events leading up to the King Day holiday including a Youth Book Reading (Jan. 11) and Beloved Community Global Summit (Jan 12) with interactive conversations on how we can all collaborate globally, strategically and compassionately to create a more just, humane, equitable and peaceful world. Most events will be live streamed on the King Center's website, YouTube, and social media platforms. Make sure to click on each event description to see which ones will be live streamed.
They also manage an online library featuring a nonviolent spotlight video series about historical leaders, figures and everyday people who have contributed to creating the Beloved Community. You can also view some of their recorded Beloved Community talks, Watch some sessions by yourself, or better yet, you can host a in-person or virtual watch party!
