Service Ideas: 10 Ways to Help Those in Need Connect With Resources

giving back • my world • Mom It Forward Mondays • tips for giving back

by Mom It Forward on October 24th, 2011 | No Comments »

Service—This week's Season of Service challenge is to help connect people with needs with the people or resources they need. Loise Wyse said that "a good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future." There are so many ways these days to be that "friend," even if only temporarily, through the internet, or from afar. The important thing is that we be that friend, that connecter. Here are some bite-size ideas.

10 Bite-Size Ideas to Help People and Resources Connect

Share this page (on Facebook) about Connected Through Kids, a nonprofit that connects foster parents with much-needed resources.
Subscribe to the newsletter of Connect Inc., which is dedicated to the prevention and elimination of family and gender violence.
Follow BeRemedy.org on Twitter. BeRemedy connects those in need with the individuals who have the means to fulfill them, via social media. On Twitter and Facebook, they relay messages of need, and followers who know someone who can meet that need can immediately and easily respond.
Check out all these Neighboring Tools, provided to help you connect better with your literal neighbors and "rediscover the lost art of neighboring."
Offer to help someone you know who is disabled, elderly, or just doesn't get out much to stay connected with the outside world by either creating and updating a Facebook page or creating a blog for them. CaringBridge.org provides free websites to people experiencing significant help challenges, and they can be set up by family members or caring friends.
Visit Teach For America's Action Center to see a list of 6 one-minute ideas of things you can do to help support the improvement of our educational system through the connection of talented young individuals with opportunities that grow them as great teachers of the near future.
Donate $10 to Women's World Bank, a nonprofit microfinance organization that works globally to empower poor women and their families.
Visit Changents.com to be inspired by and connect with environmental and social change agents around the world.
Help your child connect better with the other kids in his or her class or school by having them make a people paper chain and then writing an idea for a conversation-starting question or specific kid to talk to on each paper person.
Watch this HowStuffWorks YouTube video with your kids on what happens to some of the stuff you recycle, or put together some kind of visual presentation of your own, to help them connect their actions with the positive consequences of recycling.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

What other ideas do you have for connecting others?
How has "connecting" made a meaningful difference for you this week?
How have others given to you this week and what difference has that made in your life?

How Else Can You Make a Difference This Season?

Make a meaningful difference this season by taking the Season of Service (SOS) Challenge. Here's how you can participate:

Commit to do one act of kindness/service based on the week's challenge.
Leave a comment with ideas relating to the week's challenge as well as your experience(s) performing it.
Enter to win each week's giveaway. Check out this week's prizes from Seventh Generation by clicking here.
Join #gno this Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.