Increased Emphasis on Volunteerism at CIIS
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"To enter this community and witness, listen, and care—it changes your relationship to the world, to the city, to conceptions of self."
In December, a group from CIIS met at the KQED studios in San Francisco to assist in the Winter 2009 Television Pledge Drive. Representing all three schools (SPP, SCT, and SUS), as well as staff, CIIS volunteers answered phones and took pledges for two hours, helping the station raise $24,333. In addition, the volunteers had the pleasure of seeing themselves on live television wearing CIIS T-shirts and drinking from CIIS coffee mugs (both available at the Inner Light Bookstore at the CIIS Main Building).
Volunteering is on the increase at CIIS, from collecting donations for earthquake victims in Haiti to collaborations with major nonprofit organizations.
"CIIS identified community service as a major new initiative in 2010," says Dean of Students and Director of Diversity Shirley Strong. "Our first step was to expand our network of community partners to include two highly respected local organizations: Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland."
Students in the counseling programs provide volunteer services as part of their practicums, giving twenty hours of their time each week for an entire year. The beneficiaries are clients in as many as 120 Bay Area agencies, from Children's Hospital Autism Intervention to the Institute on Aging.
Many students also perform volunteer work as part of classes. The Women's Spirituality program, for instance, offers a course in Spirit, Compassion, and Community Activism. The course challenges students to "take their education and life skills into the larger community, transforming both in the process."
Becky Walsh, who recently completed her BA in Interdisciplinary Studies, was inspired by a CIIS course on ecological footprints to participate in the Green Café Network, a nonprofit dedicated to greening the coffeehouse industry. Walsh found out the organization didn't have enough staff to make use of the Internet to get its message across. "I volunteer for them as a media consultant and marketing outreach person. We now have 275 people in Green Café's Facebook network, and more than 500 followers on Twitter."
Another student who volunteers regularly is Adam Hudson, a doctoral student in Social and Cultural Anthropology, who takes part in several activities at Glide Memorial Church. He often helps serve free meals there for the Tenderloin community and sings in the Glide Ensemble, the church choir. "To be a volunteer there is amazing," he says. "It is rewarding and transformative. To enter this community and witness, listen, and care-it changes your relationship to the world, to the city, to conceptions of self."
This past academic year, many members of the CIIS community have also joined together to help with a variety of causes, led by Student Affairs Coordinator Margie Lam, who regularly e-blasts volunteer opportunities to the Institute's listserv.
In July 2009, a team of eleven volunteers from the Institute took part as a team in the annual AIDS Walk San Francisco. The participants included staff, students, and faculty. The event benefits the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and other HIV/AIDS organizations serving six Bay Area counties.
In November, a group from CIIS went to the San Francisco Food Bank in Potrero Hill to bag food for local nonprofits that deliver nutrition to communities.
After the Haitian earthquake in January, the Institute's librarians organized a drive to supply shoes to victims of the disaster. Over 270 pairs of shoes were collected.
"I'm grateful for the many opportunities I've had in my life, so volunteering is my way of giving forward," says Lam. "It extends your horizons-you may be doing something you've never done or tried before, and benefiting others at the same time."
