Profile of a Volunteer

The person I think about when completing this profile is a good friend of mine. Her name is Vanessa. She is 76 years old and volunteers every weekday except Monday's. She volunteers at the hospital 30 minutes from her house. She volunteers at the hospital's nursing home on another day. She also volunteers at a library in Richmond which is 45 minutes from her house and she has to get on the interstate to get to it. She helps people that are learning to read and helps tutor people who don't understand different things. She is committed to being at each one of those volunteer opportunities. If someone asks her to do something else, she tells them she can't. She makes volunteering a priority. She keeps her commitments. I think this says a lot because I know I would want to miss volunteering and go with the person who invited me out for the day. However she is a shining example of what I should be like.

I feel like her efforts have positively effected others because the people in the nursing home look forward to seeing her. They are able to connect to someone that is their age. She takes them things to cheer them up, such as one resident who likes doing seek and find puzzles, she brings her books on a regular basis. Also, she has had the opportunity to bring small children to see some of the residents who have grandchildren that never get to visit them. She goes out of her way to make an effort to do something special for them. This improves their morale and gives them a bright spot to look for in the day. The other organization she volunteers for at the library is making a positive impact on the participants because it is improving their literacy. We all know that helping someone learn is a positive impact that can never be removed. Knowledge is something that can't be taking away and has potential to be spread from one individual to another. Perhaps we will never know the true amount of people she has impacted there.
Vanessa's volunteer efforts at the hospital involve the emergency department. She helps direct people to their appropriate places when their loved one has been brought to the hospital by an emergency vehicle. A kind loving person who lends her help surely will make a positive impact on those who have been snatched from their everyday routine and thrown into a crisis. Vanessa has a kind, caring, and compassionate heart and is ready to offer those family members any assistance she can.

The vital take away message here is you have to be committed. You have to have care and concern for all. All children are important and we can't be just concerned with those we can see, because there are many others out there who need our help as well. Volunteering is important and we as advocates need to realize we can't always get paid for everything we do. If its an issue that we are committed to, then we need to do it just because it's the right thing to do!

Using Social Media to Get Connected

I became a user of Facebook in 2009. That was my first dealings with any social media. I think the only reason I got involved then was because I had actually sat down and looked at my nieces page and there were many different things that appealed to me. I decided to go on and start my own page. I have really enjoyed it but I don't really log on that much. If I had more time, I could do a better job.
Status updates on Facebook are useful tools for effective advocacy. Adding information to Facebook periodically about advocacy issues is a great way to inform and solicit input. You could also conduct a survey through Facebook and collect data.
I would use Facebook for just the things I mentioned before. I would use pictures and update statuses to show graphs, of date pertaining to the issues, etc. I would also use Facebook to put out events and invite others to be a part of the events. This is a widespread way to get information out to the general public.
I guess I would need to ask my colleagues how I would get to know more about Facebook so that I can learn to do more things on the page. SOmetimes its hard to figure out what to do.