Volunteering in the new normal
VU-PHL fam,
Allow me to start by saying how much I miss all of you. It feels fitting to be writing this note in the middle of National Volunteer Week, because VU-PHL literally could not exist without each and every one of you. I am in constant awe of our volunteers and my fellow board members who are all volunteers themselves. Thank you so much for your hard work and support. I hope you and yours are staying safe and healthy during this time.
Like all of you, I am trying to piece together what this new normal means for our lives. I’m not a medical expert and I won’t pretend to be, but there are a few things that are very clear to me:
The need for social distancing isn’t going to go away any time soon, and our ability to host an in-person volunteer event with 100 of your smiling faces may not be realistic or safe in the near future.
Philly needs us, our partners need us now more than ever, and I desperately want to do more to help.
I acknowledge that there is an enormous amount of suffering right now, and that many are risking their health on a daily basis to provide for our basic needs. I also believe global challenges like this one can drive creativity and innovation, so I’m excited to provide all of you with an update of what we’ve been hard at work on here at VU-HQ (aka, our couches).
On May 9th, we will be joining forces with the Baltimore and Chicago chapters of Volunteering Untapped for the first ever Virtual VU event. (Think 500 of your closest friends, family, and strangers from across the country coming together for one, amazing event). Each city will have their own partners that they will be supporting, but we will all be connected by one, huge Zoom party. (Guest DJ included.) And if you’re reading this and trying to figure out the logistics of how this Zoom setup will work, just trust me when I say that there are a few incredibly Zoom-savvy volunteers who are figuring that out as I write to you. (Also, if you are incredibly Zoom-savvy and want to help out, send us a DM -- who would have guessed that Zoom consulting would become such a high-demand skill set?!)
In the coming weeks and months, we will be pivoting how we support you and our partners. Things will need to be slightly different than in the past. This will probably include more virtual second saturday volunteer opportunities, a centralized hub of ways for you to get involved with across the city while maintaining social distancing and additional digital events to help keep us all connected (think trivia night, cocktail making, etc). If you have any thoughts, ideas, or something you would like to see from the VU team, please send them our way!
Philadelphia has long been my favorite city. It’s where I went to college, it’s where I bought my first house and got married, and it’s where I got together with a few friends of friends to start Volunteering Untapped PHL. I love my home and while my final year on VU’s board isn’t going to look exactly as I had imagined, I’m positive that we will emerge from this with a more diverse (and possibly better?) sense of how we can give back to our city.
Thank you again for your support. Stay safe out there, fam.
Sincerely,
Allora Buckshon