Community Involvement

[mlc13]

So, I've been given the go-ahead from my teacher to base a school project on this blog.... therefore I'll be making a few public posts over the next week, and would really love to get as much feedback as possible

Comments

[the_moogie]

I guess it depends on what constitutes "community." As a kid I volunteered at a nursing home. It was a very educational experience, and I was pretty shocked by how the staff treated the patients. It left me with very strong views about the importance of respectful health care for everyone, especially the elderly.

As a teen I volunteered with a LGBT youth group. We ran a toll-free peer support line and did teacher inservices and talked to teens and college students about homophobia. I felt like it made a difference, although some of my straight friends wouldn't talk to me once they found out, I made some friends in the youth group that I still keep in touch with almost 20 years later.

As an adult I consider myself an activist. I've lobbied City Hall for changes to their policies to make life better for LGBT folks in Toronto and Halifax. I've organized the Dyke March and volunteered with Pride Toronto. I've lobbied my university for changes to their policies as well. Sometimes you win and sometimes you don't.

Some of the benefits are personal, like self-esteem, the feeling that I can change my community for the better, and the satisfaction of fighting to ensure people have more just and free lives. Some of the benefits are bureaucratic, like when we made changes to government or corporate policies.

One of the elements that's both good and bad is the expansion of knowledge that comes with volunteering. You learn just how bad things are for some people, and how callous some people are toward the suffering of others. That's tough, because it gets discouraging. Sometimes individuals will promise to help but not keep their word. That's disappointing. On the plus side, you learn who can be counted on in a crunch and I've made some great friends that share the same values I do and that I know I can trust.