Henriet's Blog

To Help Or How To Help - That's The Question

Our latest poll asked you to specify your primary source for volunteer opportunities. Interestingly, most of you found it through church (56%), through networking  efforts(19%), or through friends (12%). Using volunteer sites or contacting a charity directly were the least preferred ways at 6% each. The only place you did not use as a source for volunteer opportunities is your work.   

So, do you rely on these various sources because they work best or because there is not a simple and reliable solution to find volunteer opportunities? At Semper Vita, we want to help you find the right opportunity that suits your wiring and benefits the types of charities that you care about. 

What's Your Way?

Our current poll (in the right hand column) asks what happens when you think of doing something for someone in need. Why that question? We'd like to know how you'd prefer to help.  Do you give time, donate money or contribute specific skills? Or, do you wait for the desire to help to go away? Maybe you wish you could do more if you only had more time or money? Personally, I'd like to use specific skills but also wish I could give more. How about you?

I'd like to ask you to do two things:

1. suggest a question for our poll, and 
2. cast your vote now!

Coyote or Turtle: Which One Are You?

Unfortunately inconvenience beats comfort when helping someone in need.

As I am writing this post I am listening to a pack of howling coyotes. They responded instantly when they heard the sirens of passing emergency vehicles. They noticed the high-pitched urgent sounds and jumped in immediately. Are you a coyote?

Now you might think I'm asking if you are an ambulance chaser, nosy about someone else's tragedy. That's not my question.

What I am asking is, do you notice when people around you are sounding the alarm alerting you to an emergency in their lives? So many people are struggling with real needs - families dealing with a financial crisis due to the economy; parents understanding their troubled teens; single moms trying to manage the demands of home, kids and work; laid off workers applying for fewer jobs...The list goes on. Are you a coyote - someone who notices and jumps in?

Or are you a turtle? The turtle is animal that can't hear and retreats into its shell at the signs of danger. Many of us prefer that approach to the inconvenience of opening our ears so that we can hear the sirens that are blaring around us. Often, I find myself responding like a turtle, it's more comfortable. However, I need to learn to listen like a coyote but then go beyond just howling. I want to listen and then respond to the alarms so that I can help my neighbor.

It's all quiet again-I wonder if the coyotes left to help out...

Connecting Neighbors Through Service In Community?

Tent City and Mercer Island churches discover that volunteering can mean connecting with neighbors or division in a community according to Christianity Today.

In Mercer Island, Washington, churches are volunteering to help those who are among the poor and needy by hosting Tent City. It's a traveling camp of homeless people who are trying to turn their lives around and are drug free. Tent City has been around for a few years - I wrote about it last year. The camp stays at the host church for about three months. Sounds like a wonderful endeavor to help those in need, right?

Is Everyone A Happy Camper?

Well, not everyone is happy. Some Mercer Island residents filed a lawsuit to try to stop the camp being hosted by Mercer Island United Methodist Church. Trying to connect and volunteering to help the poor can mean division and opposition. Luckily, a judge denied the request for a restraining order.

The church's pastor, Leslie Ann Knight, was surprised at the animosity from the local community against the church and Tent City. Christianity Today commented:

Though the encampment has continued to divide the community, it has unified churches on the island, as they have chipped in to provide meals and other supplies to the 100 or so occupants of the encampment.

Not all Mercer Island residents oppose their churches' good deeds. Many have supported the effort to host Tent City and lots of people have been generous. Nonetheless, Tent City on Mercer Island presents challenges.

Love Your Neighbor

This situation poses a real dilemma. The Bible clearly states that true religion is caring for the poor and needy. Yet Jesus also told us to love our neighbor. What if the neighbor doesn't like the poor - at least not when the neighbor lives right next door to them? What should we do? Should churches connect with their local community or should they provide a cup of cold water, clothes for the unclad, and food for the hungry? How do we determine the priorities when we want to reach our neighbor?

At Semper Vita, our mission is to have everyone experience life through serving in community. How would that work on Mercer Island with Tent City? Click on Comments and weigh in on the issue.

HT: Tamara Dull.

Friends Donate And Volunteer For Friends

Science demonstrates that connections matter and personal relationships impact donations.

As reported in ScienceDaily on September 1, 2008, people tend to be moved to help or give more readily to people who suffer from the same misfortune as a friend - whether that is a long term or new found friend. This according to the authors of a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Friends cause friends to care about their issue. Connections matter.

Now, knowing someone who's suffering does not cause people to become more sympathetic to all and any problems. Sympathy did not increase for all causes, just for victims of the same misfortune as a friend's misfortune.

That seems to makes sense because we can't possibly care about everything out there.

After three studies, authors Deborah A. Small and Uri Simonsohn of the University of Pennsylvania, confirmed that "people are more sympathetic to victims suffering the same misfortune as a loved one than victims of other misfortunes." They conducted the studies to understand the driving forces behind the phenomenon where people become more sympathetic when a friend or loved one falls ill or suffers some other misfortune. "The sympathy inherent to a close relationship with a victim extends to other victims, leading benefactors to prefer charities that help those suffering from the misfortunes that have affected their friends and loved ones," write the authors.

It's why Semper Vita will partner with many charities and causes - because people can't care about everything. Each of us care about the issues that come close to home... When we relate we want to help out. If a parent has Alzheimer's we will raise money to fight the disease. When we know someone who dealt with breast cancer, we're likely to walk for the cure. If a loved one suffered a stroke, we might Train to End Stroke. And we will volunteer to help out the charities that care for those who we care about.

What's your charity of interest? Does it relate to the misfortune of a friend or loved one? We'd love to hear your story.

HT: Professor Jane for sharing the study.

Live Well. Spread The Light.

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."                         

Edith Wharton

Semper Vita wants everyone to experience life through service in community. Volunteering is just one practical way to be the mirror that reflects light. Won't you join us?

Wired To Connect

Responding to a question from a friend looking for a touch of familiarity and closeness across the miles and via social media.

A friend mentioned that we are both wired to connect. That's right. In fact, I believe all of us are designed to be in relationship with others - meaningful relationships. Yet how do we establish those? Some of us live in a place or situation that could be described as full of chaos and clamor. Sometimes we feel like we're in a sea of confusion and it feels like we're alone in the midst of a tumult of people. In those places our need for meaningful connections with people who we relate to - whether because of our common interests, experiences or wiring - seems heightened.

Core Connections

At Semper Vita we believe that everyone longs at some level for a life-giving connection with others who relate to us and understand us. We want to be loved and accepted.

Our desire, through Semper Vita, is to provide just those kinds of opportunities where people with similar interests, hobbies and passions can connect and find each other - even in a chaos, clamor and confusion. We want to provide the opportunity for people to pull up a virtual chair online with old and new friends. And, we also want to provide a way for people to find each other so that they can connect real time and in person if they want.

What do you think?

Volunteering: Done Best Locally?

Our latest poll asked you "which types of volunteer opportunities do you prefer?" The choices - and you could select all that applied - included local, national or international opportunities and could be for anyone who needed help and/or for people you knew. We asked because we were curious how many people are interested in things locally, nationally or internationally. We also wanted to know if it's important to you whether you know the person you're helping or not. The results are clear:

• Doing what I can in my local community: 61.5% 
• Helping a group of people I know: 38.5% 
• Helping anyone who needs a helping hand: 30.8% 
• Assisting in a national cause: 15.4% 
• Assisting in a international cause: 15.4%

Most people want to help locally and are interested in helping those they know. We believe that connecting with people - as volunteers and in community - makes volunteering that much more enjoyable.

Our current poll (in the right hand column) asks where you look for volunteer opportunities. Is it through church, work, friends or other sources. Your answers will help us make Semper Vita's solutions even better.

I'd like to ask you to cast your vote now!