do what you can, when you can

this came to my attention via social networks. it is a piece on buzzfeed containing several images that will restore some faith in humanity. i looked, and they certainly do that, but some of them do more. some of them are right-place-right-time things, where someone has done something completely selfless in response to a particular one-off event, but several of the pictures show ideas on how people can help someone without doing anything they wouldn't be doing ordinarily. these in particular struck me, and made me think: surely most business who deal with the general public can do something like this? if every business in one town, or even just a few of them, did something like this, te benefits would be immediate and obvious. none of them are difficult to do, in terms of preparation, but their impact could be beautiful.

this next one is a different type of gesture altogether, but one whose ethos i can't help but love:

so what do you think? do you run, or work in a business that could do something like this? would you be prepared to ask local businesses to do the same? would you be prepared to just ask your neighbours round? don't do anything you're not comfortable with, but have a think about ways you can do something similar that which is relevant to you. let's make things better.

Wavering Optimist Now Offering Free Tech Support to Charities

If you are a charity and in need of help with technical issues, we will do whatever we can, for free. Whether it's helping you design your logo, configure your email client, or setting up your web presence, we will do it all for free, and show you how to update everything so you don't need to rely on third parties to update your site.

Example setup:

Multi-page site with embedded twitter feed and link to facebook page; contact us page, donate button etc (essentially whatever you need to have)

Facebook page (which will update automatically from the blog so you don't need to update it)

Twitter account (which will update automatically from the blog so you don't need to update it)

additional extras:

youtube account, tumblr or wordpress blog, flickr/picasa account for photos, any social networks


In addition, we will also come and visit you to do tech training either for your staff, volunteers or clients. If you are local to us, we will do the course for free. If you are able to pay travel expenses we are also willing to travel. This can either be training on the services we have set up for you, so you can update them yourself, or general IT training, or a mixture of both.

This is entirely a voluntary service so service levels cannot be guaranteed, but we will not take on a project we are unable to complete.

contact us here

*UPDATE* 15th May:
First site has now gone live. Check out Rochdale Citizen Advocacy

Do It!

Want to volunteer your time to help others, but don't know where to start? Start here:

http://do-it.org.uk

Search by postcode and find loads of volunteering opportunities in your area.

UK and Eire – calls to the samaritans now free from mobiles

the samaritans describe themselves as an emotional support service, and they offer confidential advice and support via a number of different media. traditionally they’ve always been a free telephone service because lack of money should never be a barrier for someone who is in despair, but until recently mobile phone users were still charged by their network providers for these calls. in 2009, numbers with the 116 prefix were made available as freefone numbers for mobiles. the press release on the samaritans site lists the following:
116 123 will be used for an emotional support helpline, provided by Samaritans
116 111 will be used for a child helpline, provided by NSPCC (which runs ChildLine)
116 000 will be used for a missing people helpline, provided by Missing People
outside the british isles, a similar service is available through befrienders. if you want to add details of any other similar services, please feel free to add them in the comments (comments are moderated and so won’t appear immediately, but are checked daily)

why bother?

ok, so you might have read the mission statement and thought, that sounds like a nice idea, but a whole lot of effort. why would i bother?

 

so that’s the big question isn’t it? why bother? why bother trying to make things better? what difference can you make? won’t you just end up frustrated anyway?

 

i’m not gonna lie to you, you might. not every time, but sometimes. sometimes you’ll help someone and they’ll be so wantonly self-assured that they won’t even notice you’ve helped them, let alone acknowledge it. and sometimes you will accept help but will end up feeling beholden to your benefactor and wishing you’d muddled through alone.

 

but in my experience, if you get into the habit of doing this all the time, and don’t let yourself stop because of one cretin taking advantage, these cretins are the exception, not the rule, and most people, when you do nice things are genuinely surprised and grateful, and more likely to ask for help next time.

 

but then, it’s not just about the buzz you get from actually being able to help someone either. of course, that’s a nice feeling, and it’s part of what motivates us to do nice things – who doesn’t want to feel like a Good Person once in a while? but this is about more than that.

 

this is about doing it consistently, consciously, and tenaciously, so that people around you can see what it is just to be nice for the sake of making things nice, and maybe some of them will catch on. maybe someone will notice that you always do the right thing, and it’s seldom that anyone has an ill word to say about you, and maybe they’ll make the connection, who knows?

 

one thing i do know is that you’re unlikely to make the world worse by being nice, so it’s worth a shot, right?

 

if you’re still not convinced, that’s fine – drop me a mail and let me know your reservations