The future of volunteerism
On Wednesday night, I attended a community engagement forum hosted at NC State. The forum, hosted by Wake Co. non-profit ME³, welcomed a diverse audience of community members individuals, mostly college students, living or working in Wake County. As an active community advocate, interested in education and the future of our youth, I was intrigued by the title of the forum and wanted to learn more. I had not heard of ME³ but was interested in what they had to say. ME³ stands for Motivate, Educate, Empower, and Engage, and that’s just what they aim to do to get people involved in making a positive impact in their communities. Through outreach, education, and service to the community, they promote volunteerism, civic engagement, and helping others. Forum participants, mostly students and other organizations interested in recruiting young volunteers, discussed topics related to student engagement in community and civic issues and volunteerism, and had the opportunity to interact with guest speaker forum panelists from local organizations and companies: Nicholas Turza, ME³ Vice President,Mike Giancola, Director of NC State’s Center for Student Leadership, Ethics, and Public Service, Melinda Pearce, of NCGives, John Comer, Director of Raleigh ACORN and John White, GenerationEngage. The conversations generally focused on some of the challenges that organizations face in getting young people engaged as regular and active volunteers. Those present seemed to think that one of the biggest challanges in recruiting young people is showing them the value of caring about others and the community as a whole. Attendees wanted to learn more about how they could teach young people to reach out, to get involved, to learn about the issues and events that affect their lives. Some young people present had the desire to get involved in volunteering and helping the community, but just didn’t know how to get started or where to go to help out. I learned that this was only one of a series of forums taking place across several southern states designed by the Southern Growth Policies Board. With sponsorship from NC State’s Center for Student Leadership, Ethics, and Public Service (CSLEPS). At the end of the forum guests were given the opportunity to get involved in taking on local community issues by signing up for ME³’s Communities In Action program, which connects individuals living in Wake County to volunteer opportunities with local organizations that need their help based on the individual’s skills, interests, and schedules. At the end of the forum guests were given the opportunity to get involved in taking on local community issues by signing up for ME³’s Communities In Action program, which connects individuals living in Wake County to volunteer opportunities with local organizations
that need their help based on the individual’s skills, interests, and schedules. Because of my involvement in so many volunteer activties, lots of people ask me how they can find organizations to get involved in. If you live in Wake Co., ME³ seems to be a one-stop shop for civic engagement. To join ME³’s Communities In Action, simply fill out their online form and tell them about what you want/are able to do to help the community: your availability and limitations, your skills and talents, your particular passions or interests, and how they can contact you. There should be no limitations to giving back.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader or email.
Subscribe to RSS
Thanks for posting this and attending! We enjoyed meeting you all!