Category Archives: Resources

10.02.09
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Peace Corps Volunteers Survive and Recount Somoan Earthquake and Tsunami

From Wikipedia

From Wikipedia

News and blog reports reveal Peace Corps Volunteers had close encounters with the Samoan natural disasters of September 29.

Erica Wales, who serves in Salesatele, Falealili, Upolu, Samoa and blogs at Peace Corps Adventures in Samoa writes about getting to higher ground before the tsunami destroyed her house and that of her neighbors. In the immediate aftermath Peace Corps staff picked her up and brought her to the Samoan capital Apia:

I was sleeping when the 8.0 earthquake hit. My house started shaking and things were falling off shelves. Books fell down, the phone mounted on my wall fell down, cans of food fell…. So grabbed my phone and left my room…. About that time I got a call from the Peace Corps medical officer that I should probably move inland because the possibility of a tsunami. …

I was walking on the road which parallels the beach when I noticed something wasn’t right. I could see structures like rocks and coral which I have never seen above water, not even at the Continue reading →

09.22.09
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Peace Corps Community Resources: An interview with Erica Burman and Molly Mattessich of the National Peace Corps Association

Molly Mattessich

Molly Mattessich

The New Service podcast from Idealist.org features the national group of Peace Corps alumni. Listen here.

As Peace Corps nears it’s 50th Anniversary in 2011, applications are on the rise, fewer Volunteer positions are getting funded, the Senate just confirmed a new agency director, and the number of Peace Corps  alumni is nearing 200,000.

Helping connect the dots among the agency’s fiscal needs, and Volunteers past, present, and future is the National Peace Corps Association—the independent organization of former Peace Corps Volunteers, known as Returned Peace Corps Volunteers or RPCVs.

The National Peace Corps Association offers the Peace Corps community tools and resources to stay informed and engaged, and advocates for Peace Corps funding and support.

Today’s guests are Erica Burman and Molly Mattessich of the National Peace Corps Association. Erica Burman is the Director of Communications at NPCA, and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in The Gambia in the late 80s. Molly Mattessich manages the Africa Rural Connect project at NPCA, as well as the Peace Corps Connect online social network. Molly served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali from 2002-2004.

I talked with Erica and Molly about NPCA’s initiatives like the More Peace Corps Campaign, Africa Rural Connect, the RPCV Mentoring Program, and Global Teachnet.

We also talked about the new online social network for the Peace Corps community Peace Corps Connected, the Peace Corps Polyglot blog, and World View magazine.

Finally, we discussed the new Peace Corps director — and departing NPCA board member — Aaron Williams, and how online communication tools are changing the Volunteer experience.

09.16.09
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September 11 Tribute Reminds Us of Endless Ways to Serve

Idealist’s Joanna Eng — who usually blogs at the Idealist in NYC blog — graciously attended last Friday’s September 11th event and permitted me to cross-post her account of the event.

The Roots

Photo from Be the Change Inc's Flickr Feed

Last Friday, a rainy and significant day, I was in attendance as 26 speakers and entertainers—including Hillary Clinton, David Paterson, Caroline Kennedy, Gavin DeGraw, and the Roots—came to the Beacon Theater on Friday evening to commemorate the newly-deemed September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance. The audience was mostly families of 9/11 victims, as well as many other people involved in service (including a large number of red-jacketed City Year corps members).

Besides being a tribute to 9/11 heroes and their families, the whole event was a reminder of the many ways to serve.

To fit the theme, the night started with a quick and simple “service in your seat” activity: While waiting for the program to begin, audience members inscribed inspiring notes to public elementary school students, who would be receiving donated books from Target.

When the program began, we were reminded of the variety of impromptu acts of service, big and small, that took place on Continue reading →

09.15.09
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Volunteers and the Economic Downturn

Several studies have come out recently that have taken a look at volunteer engagement in the past year, during the deep recession.

From the CNCS Research Brief: "Volunteers and the Economic Downturn" July 2009

From the CNCS Research Brief: "Volunteers and the Economic Downturn" July 2009

One study, by Lester M. Salamon and Kasey L. Spence of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, has found that increased volunteer support has made it possible for many nonprofits to maintain or increase the number of people they serve. The researchers surveyed over 1,400 nonprofits in April 2009, primarily asking questions about the six month period between September 2008 and March 2009 — during the time the recession intensified.

During a time of intense fiscal stress for nonprofit organizations and AmeriCorps sponsor organizations, nonprofits have turned to more volunteer support. According to the research brief published by the Corporation for National and Community Service (PDF):

“One out of every three organizations reported increasing their reliance on volunteers to cope with the economic Continue reading →

09.11.09
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Government Leaders Mark September 11th with Service

President Obama has declared today as Patriot Day and National Day of Service, and senior administration officials, including Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden, cabinet secretaries, and the heads of the Corporation for National and Community Service and Peace Corps will take part in service projects.

In a proclamation issued yesterday, President Obama remembers the events of September 11th:

Through the twisted steel of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the scarred walls of the Pentagon, and the smoky wreckage in a field in southwest Pennsylvania, the patriotism and resiliency of the American people Continue reading →