Save Service on March 15th!

Hello there Servistas! Lately, there has been lots of news about service. The U.S. House of Representatives are pulling for a decision to potentially shut down the Corporation for National and Community Service, which is a official government office that provides funding to many federal service programs in the United States. More than two weeks ago, Save Service District Day created an awareness for members of congress around the country. With the voices and national community in mind, March 15th is a crucial day to make a call to our Colorado Senators to Make a Call to Save Service in America.

Congress has until March 18th to make a decision whether to close such programs like AmeriCorps UCAN Serve and VISTA. Please support this wonderful initiative that could close all forms of educational service learning scholarships. Not only does this provide a great platform for our country, but it gives college students like us the opportunity to have an educational scholarship for volunteering.Thus it creates a strong interest in giving back and giving youth a positive value of volunteering in our community.

Here is the number to call our Local Colorado Senators: Office of Michael Bennet- (202) 224-5852 Office of Mark Udall- (202) 224-5941 If you do not know what to say, here is a link that provides some helpful pointers to call your senators: http://www.saveservice.org/pages/call-your-congressperson AND/OR please sign the online pledge to Save Service @ http://www.saveservice.org/.

Thanks so much for reading!

Rachelle
Media/Events Assistant
Center for Urban Connections

Volunteer Transparancy Infographic

Check this interesting info graphic out about The Pledge to Do Good, from GOOD http://www.good.is/, a great resource for non-profits, businesses and individuals to connect and promote "moving the world forward".

It is great to see an online magazine create a deeper awareness of issues around service learning, what volunteerism is & means, and how can we move forward to create a greater good in many aspects of our lives.

Thanks for reading!


Rachelle
Media/Events Assistant
Center for Urban Connections

Metro Students Out in the Community

Hey there Servistas!

In this blog, we will be going inside the expierence of a Metro Student who volunteers in the community. By reading this profile, I hope that you can feel more connected to a organization and the amazing benefits that exist when you volunteer! Here is Alyson's community interview from the wonderful non profit organization, SAME Cafe, http://www.soallmayeat.org/.

Enjoy!

What brings you to SAME Cafe? I needed a place to intern for school and my food safety professor at Metro State recommended SAME Cafe. I will be going to school forBaking and Pastry at Culinary Institute of America in NY. Right now I volunteer on Mondays and Fridays in the kitchen until I leave forschool in April. I am excited to be going to culinary school and evengot a scholarship for community involvement, academics, and an essay I wrote.

What do you like about being at SAME Cafe?

I like that SAME uses as much fresh ingredients as possible and is allabout the community. I can tell that Brad and Libby really care about it. It is not just a job to them. I am a vegetarian and I love the options. I just traveled to Korea to visit my brother who is servingin the army and it was so interesting to see all the different foodsthere. They don't really get why someone would be vegetarian. They eat a lot of meat. Come into the cafe sometime on a Monday or Friday and I will tell you about my trip to the Korean BBQ and the streetmarket where the only food I recognized was bean sprouts and green onions.

What is your favorite job at SAME Cafe?

Making cookies of course!

I hope that inspired and engaged you to volunteer! If you have any questions about volunteering through our office and any other civic engagement opportunities please visit us in Tivoli 243 or call (303) 352-7129, we are happy to answer any questions or comments you may have.

Have a great rest of the week!

Rachelle

Media/Events Assistant

Center for Urban Connections

One Man. One Walk. 3,000 Miles Across America

What do the words community, movement and engagement all have in common? A sense of empowerment to provide individuals with an experience that will change their life.

Jonathon Stalls, an Alum of Metro State just got back from an amazing journey. Jonathon and his dog, Konoa walked 3,000 miles from Delaware to San Francisco, to empower individuals to build community and raise awareness of Kiva ,http://www.kiva.org/ which provides micro-credit to individuals wanting to start their own business.

On Monday February 28^th, 2011 from 11:30 to 1pm,come hear this fascinating story about his journey, the Kiva Walk. This event is located in Tivoli 320. A light lunch will be provided.

Come here their story and have an inspiring, engaging afternoon!

For more details about this event please contact: Kelly Felice, The Association for Non Profit Professionals or the Center for Urban Connections.

We hope to see you there!

Ways to Give Love to Others

When I was looking into doing potential blog postings today, I thought it would be interesting to create a post that doesn't talk so much about love or the depressing side of this holiday, but instead from the perspective of giving to others. I happened to come across an article at The Case Foundation, http://www.casefoundation.org/spotlight/valentines, and this article talks about exactly what I thought would be a cool twist.

Being valentines day and all, it can be a challenge to not think positively to the whole part of what love really means. I think that if we can center ourselves to understand that the act of love means a lot of things,we can bring light to many things, including giving back to the community. Here are a couple of the ideas that I liked or was inspired by. These fun and interesting ideas, help to enlighten the inner volunteer in you. 1. If you chose to go out for dinner, chose a simple restaurant instead of a fancy one, and donate the half that you would have spent to your favorite non-profit organization. 2. If there is a non-profit that you care for, take the time to give them an valentine appreciation letter! 3. Donate clothes to local thrift stores to give back to your local community, to love & clear things out from your wardrobe! 4. If your buying flowers or chocolates, look into how local and/or fair trade they are. Re-think these questions: are they coming from a local floral shop? Is the chocolate that you are buying made in a sustainable and healthy manner? 5. This week, February 12-18, is Small Random Acts of Kindness. From saying "you're awesome" to a friend or volunteering for a couple hours at a soup kitchen, you can give back by being generously simple and kind.


For more ideas promoting random acts of kindness visit: http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/. Hope that one of these ideas sparked for you on this day, and encouraged you that there are many ways to celebrate what is lovely about life!

Thanks for reading!

Rachelle
Media/Events Assistant
Center for Urban Connections

Tolietries Drive!

Is your bathroom overflowing with any unwanted items such as sample soaps, toothpaste given at dentists offices & shampoo bottles ? If so, you can donate all of those items to our Toiletries Drive for the African Community Center! For this year's Alternative Spring Break in conjunction with doing a three day service project, the Student Leadership board is doing a toiletry drive. This drive benefits the non-profit the African Community Center, http://www.acc-den.org/g/ whose mission is to help refugees build a safe, sustainable lifestyle in Denver through a support system of people, programs, and services.

All donations from this drive, will go directly to refugees. Please help the Student Leadership Board and our office bring in lots of helpful items for these individuals. The items that we need are: deodorant, soap, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes, toothpaste, tissues,and women's items.

We will be collecting donations until March 18th. You will see boxes out by the departments and one in our office, Tivoli 243.


Thanks for reading!


 Rachelle Media/Events Assistant
 Center for Urban Connections

Once Gumballs, Now Change Seeds in Urban Communities

Have you ever seen a vending machine on the street and wondered could that be used for social change? Word on the street says that it can.

I found a very interesting concept article on http://www.good.is/ It is about how one couple decided to up-cycle and use bubble gum machines as seed bombs. These things that look like falafel balls are "packed with native wildflower seeds ready to land in unsuspecting sidewalk cracks, vacant lots, and parking medians".

With these change seeds in place, this L.A. nonprofit, Project Green Aid, gives individuals an opportunity to put their spare change in to help their community and refresh its resources. It also creates "casual activism". This project has been funded by the Pepsi Refresh Project, which is an incentive project that helps people to come together, think of ideas, and take action.

Here at Metro State, we have the compost program. Our compost program helps the community by initiating a student impact to help our lovely environment.

Thanks for reading!


Rachelle
Media/Events Assistant
Center for Urban Connections