[Updated April 9, 2020]

We will use this space to share ideas and examples of ways to support the local community while maintaining responsible physical distance. If you have your own examples to share here, please email them to Wendy Wagner, wagnerw@gwu.edu

Here we provide resources for:

• Supporting your existing community partners
• Opportunities to serve the community from a distance or virtually
• Resources for students searching for service opportunities in their home communities

Supporting Your Course's Community Partner(s) During COVID-19

The most important values to maintain at this time are related to maintaining democratic processes. We must invite and respect our community partners’ voices in our planning. Ask how physical distancing and health concerns are impacting the services they provide and how your help can be re-directed to where it is most needed.

Keep in mind that staff local service organizations are likely working through their own struggles with ambiguity right now, and may not be able to accommodate your sense of urgency. Offer ideas for remote assistance, but be flexible and ready to adapt to what they need - including if that means suspending student involvement for the time being to give volunteer coordinators some space to build their own overall strategy. A few ideas to suggest:

• There are hundreds of virtual service opportunities nationwide for students on our GWServes Platform. Instructions here: https://blogs.gwu.edu/nashmanfacultyupdate/2020/04/01/opportunities-for-virtual-service-across-the-country/
• Providing virtual or phone-based support to their clients
  • Could students who have been supporting after school programs offer an email address or phone number to share with parents?
  • This may involve parental permission, background checks, or new training, which your community partner may not be prepared for yet. Could your students help the organization create these safeguards?
• Fundraising! Our community partners consistently say that the one thing that ALWAYS helps is more funding.
  • There are many ways to organize fundraising online.
  • Students can also be encouraged to research funders and identify new grant opportunities, and event draft a grant application for the community partners to review.
• Conducting background research or gathering the latest best practices for partners
  • Compiling this information into an easy-to-digest report should be part of the effort here. Ask if the partner would prefer a tool-kit, annotated bibliography, sample curriculum for volunteers, or presentation slides for staff training.
• Recording performances or workshops to benefit community partners or their clients, OR encouraging community members to share their talents by organizing an online performance and recruiting an appreciative audience.
• Designing printed program materials or other methods for sharing information. This could include:
  • Information to share with clients, staff or volunteers
  • Advocacy or appeals to elected officials
  • Education to the general public on how they can support the organization or make a difference on the social issue in general
• Policy-analysis or legislative summaries/updates related to the general social issue(s) addressed by the partner organization might be of use and suggest new ways for students to support the organization in the future.

It is possible your community partner just may not have the capacity to support a continued partnership or the need for remote support. In this case, you might be interested in exploring other ways for students to take part in remote community engagement.

If you would like help thinking through the specifics of your partnership(s), we’re happy to help. Email Wendy Wagner for a meeting time, wagnerw@gwu.edu.

Opportunities for Distance Service

These are great opportunities to engage in valuable service that can be completed from anywhere.

• Citizen Archivist with National Archives - Help make the records of the National Archives more searchable and discoverable. 
• Hopecam - Hopecam is a service that gives virtual visits to sick children who cannot have regular visitors because they are immunocompromised. Sign up here . Short term and long term remote volunteer opportunities are available.
• The Smithsonian Transcription Center  - Help transcribe historical documents and biodiversity data, making information more accessible to all. 
• Smart from the Start  - Assist K-12 students in Washington DC and Boston who do not have access to adequate educational resources at home through tele-tutoring work starting in April. 
• eBird - Observe and record birds from your home and help further scientific research with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• CovEd.org is seeking virtual mentors for K-12 students from under-resourced communities.
• Transcribe notes from Supreme Court Justices for SCOTUS Notes.
• Contribute to digital mapping of vulnerable communities with Missing Maps.
• Help Amnesty International conduct research into global human rights violations.
• Translators Without Borders for those with dual language skills, translates materials for crisis relief, health, and education projects around the world.
• Scan or proofread books added to an online digital collection for individuals with reading disabilities through BookShare.Org.
• Allow your computer to run calculations that support researchers in better understanding how proteins fold with Folding@Home. 
• The United Nations has a list of projects in many fields.

Longer-term Distance Service Commitments:

• Be My Eyes is looking for sighted individuals to receive video calls via their phones on a mobile app, from blind and low-vision individuals looking for help with miscellaneous tasks. Note this is a longer-term commitment. 
• Applying to work on projects for a wide variety of government agencies via the Virtual Student Federal Service.
• Receive training and staff Crisis Text Line, a free 24/7 national crisis-intervention and counseling service conducted exclusively through SMS text. Volunteers are screened and complete self-paced training, afterward staffing one four-hour shift each week for a year.

Ideas for Service Wherever Students Are During COVID-19

Please note, in response to the increased calls to commit to physical distancing, we ask that you instruct students to NOT engage in any direct service activities at this time. 

Students could pursue many of the above suggestions for supporting your course partnerships with organizations in the community they are in during COVID-19. They could consider the following ideas as well:

Help Combat Social Isolation During Physical Distancing Measures

• Support local voting: become a poll worker and Census enumerator. Public health experts indicate the most at-risk with COVID-19 are older citizens. As many of these individualsserve as poll workers and enumerators, it is time for younger citizens to step up and fulfill these roles. In some communities, college students are running voting sites entirely.
  • https://www.censusoutreach.org/census-enumerators,
  • https://www.nonprofitvote.org/documents/2010/09/become-a-poll-worker-en.pdf/
• Start a virtual book club, not only with friends, but with community members needing social connections.
• Check in on your neighbors, introduce yourself if you don’t already know them.
  • Provide social connection (regular notes or phone calls)
  • Offer to run errands for those who are immune-compromised
  • For families with parents working from home and kids home from school, offer a regular videochat time to keep the kids productively busy and give parents a break.
  • If you’re having difficulties with where to start, considering spreading these flyers around your neighborhood or consult these helpful tips  
• Be an appreciative audience for the talents of community members. Organize an online opportunity for kids to play instruments or other performances and recruit your friends to give them a good audience.
• Help spread the word about on-line events like streaming concerts and author readings. Other examples:
  • Cincinnati Zoo Virtual Daily Safari
  • Mo Willems Doodle-A-Day
  • Metropolitan Opera Live in HD
  • Neil Gaiman Read-Along of The Graveyard Book and Coraline
  • NY Times Daily Writing Prompts
  • All Milk Street Cooking Classes are FREE online through 4/30: https://www.177milkstreet.com/school/classes/online-classes/
  • This Facebook Group is a place for people to “go live” with their music/art and will feature a Sunday Showcase. https://www.facebook.com/groups/sociallydistantfest/
  • This website has a calendar of upcoming live music streams. https://www.stayathomefest.com/
  • Many local libraries will have resources for the community. For example, in DC our library has digital book loans, virtual story time (com/dclibrary/), and virtual book clubs on twitter.
  • Many local libraries will have resources for the community. For example, in DC our library has digital book loans, virtual story time (com/dclibrary/), and virtual book clubs on twitter.
  • This comprehesive resource has complied many different types of at-home entertainment to be used during this time 

Support the Local Economy

• Shop locally as much as possible.
• Purchase gift cards for restaurants and coffeeshops that can’t be open at present.

Donate

• American Red Cross- Severe Blood Shortage Due to Coronavirus Outbreak. Click the link and find a blood drive near you.
• World Central Kitchen- Donate to World Central Kitchen or buy gift cardsto one of the Think Food Group restaurants to support their community kitchens.
• Feeding America – Donate to support the efforts of local food banks across the country  

Other Sources of Ideas for Local Service During COVID-19

Weaving Our We

This crowd-sourced resource coordinated by Imagining America is documenting small ideas for supporting communities and local economies. Imagining America is a national association for community engaged artists and scholars. “In this time of uncertainty, we wanted to create a resource that would help connect and support to fight against isolation and despair.  There is no time more urgent than now to think about how we can nurture a spirit of shared responsibility, co-creation, and hope.” Please be a part of this effort and share some of the great things that you are seeing or advice that you have via this Google Doc. The team at Imagining America will collect information and curate into posts as things develop.

Service Opportunities in the DC Community

[Removed - please practice physical distancing!]