As we adjust to our new, temporary reality in the face of COVID-19 and times of social distancing, isolation, and quarantine, there are many factors to consider when thinking about getting involved in service and community engagement.
Meaningful community engagement is not about logging a certain number of hours or helping in a particular way -- it is about being responsive to community needs and realities, and considering if and where you might be able to help support those needs.
In light of Portland State University transitioning all courses and programming to remote learning and engagement during Spring 2020, the Student Community Engagement Center will be transitioning all of its PSU-sponsored programming to remote opportunities for engagement. PSU does not recommend and will not coordinate any opportunities to serve outside virtual or remote engagement at this time.
There continues to be many ways to get connected and involved in the community outside of our direct programming, and we want to provide this page as a resource of local COVID-19 related community engagement efforts.
Search GivePulse for ways to support your community during the Coronavirus Pandemic.
>> Search GivePulse to find current community engagement needs from many local community organizations.
When you search for an opportunity:
- Select the new "Emergencies" tab to help filter opportunities that are related to COVID-19 support
- Select the "Virtual/Remote" tab to find opportunities that can be done remotely
- Use the keywords "COVID-19," "virtual," or "remote" in your search box
Please keep in mind that organizations/groups may have limited capacity to interact with students as they address internal immediate needs and concerns around COVID-19. It is best to double check with an organization to see if their GivePulse opportunities are up to date. You might start with looking at their website to see their specific COVID-19 updates and remember to be patient when waiting for responses from these organizations who are working under extreme circumstances to continue providing services to our community.
***Note: Most opportunities shared on GivePulse are shared by community organizations and are not PSU coordinated or affiliated ways to get involved in your community. Please use your judgment in considering which opportunities are appropriate for you and consult the CDC guidelines before you choose to volunteer in order to protect yourself and the community. While many organizations will do everything they can to ensure your safety, this is an emergency response to a national crisis and many opportunities are being organized by your fellow community members - you will be volunteering at your own risk and not under the recommendation or endorsement of PSU.
Things People in Our Local Communities Might Need in These Times
Now might be the time where we slow down, come to realize a different idea of community, and grow closer through this distancing. Before doing anything that requires you to leave your home, check with the authorities to see the current restrictions and/or guidance at this time.
- Serve as a Virtual Mentor and Resource Navigator for immigrant & refugee families in the greater Portland area through local organization People Places Things.
- Assist Oregon’s emergency response to COVID-19 by working with 211 to contacting health and social service programs to gather updated information about their service delivery, hours, eligibility, etc.
- Sew masks to donate to local organizations like Albertina Kerr, Transition Projects, and/or Multnomah County's Emergency Response efforts.
- Know how to 3-D print? Some people are able to 3-D print needed supplies.
- Blood donations, in light of blood shortages.
- Support local health care workers in a number of ways -- and celebrate them each night with some noise at 7pm!
- Only share confirmed facts via social media
- Support efforts to identify healthy people who can go to the grocery store for folks who cannot and doorstep deliver groceries for them
- Google Hangout/Facetime conversations to counteract the physical social isolation
- Donate extra craft/art supplies, books, videos for families with kids at home
- Put together a box of needed supplies and encouragement to support children in foster care in our state through Every Child's My NeighbOR initiative (see an example of what goes in a box here).
- Learn how to interrupt xenophobic reactions on social media or in conversations
- Calls or emails to elected officials to advocate on behalf of needs in this time
- Yale's Free "Happiness Course" online
- Remote check ins with folks you know are living alone and/or are isolating or in quarantine
- Notes of thanks to those in leadership roles or in positions that are not able to stay home.
- Quarantine Chat. Allows users to receive phone calls from other random users who want to talk.
- Digital support for neighborhood alliance and mutual aid groups, such as PDX COVID-19 Mutual Aid Network.
- Check out the volunteer and donation needs of many local Portland-area nonprofits serving folks who are homebound or unhoused through Hands On Greater Portland's resource page.
- Stay informed and share with others what emergency relief resources are open in our state to support food access, shelters, rental assistance, crisis hotlines, urgent volunteer needs and more through Congressman Earl Blumenaur's COVID-19 Emergency Relief Resources spreadsheet.
- Stay up-to-date with opportunities to help and/or receive help nationwide through this handy, easy-to-search COVID Resources website, broken up by topic and state.
Virtual Volunteering on a National Level
Looking for ways to be involved in the larger community from your own home? Read this article to learn more. Here are some ideas to explore!
- Missing Maps with Doctors Without Borders Takes about 30-60 minutes on your own watching videos and doing the tutorials to learn how to do this, then you can map for any projects currently in their system! Can do from your own computer or even by phone with the App Mapswipe.
- Leave poetry feedback on the Free Minds Book Club blog for incarcerated youth and young adults who are participating in book and writing clubs. Watch this video or this video to learn more about how to comment.
- Apply to help translate documents, if you have another language skill, with Translators Without Borders. If you don’t have another language skill but want to be involved anyway, keep an eye on their additional volunteer opportunities page - on occasion they have the need for graphic designers, project managers, etc.
- Volunteer to help people who are blind or visually impaired with Be My Eyes. Note that calls can be infrequent.
- Become a volunteer listener with 7 Cups. You’ll go through an online training and then be able to act as an “active listener” in online chat rooms and support groups, listening to a variety of challenges and providing referrals to therapy and resources when appropriate.
- Volunteer with the Zooniverse doing scientific research online.
- If you’re really good with proofreading and editing, you can volunteer to help proofread online books with Project Gutenberg.
- Become a volunteer Crisis Counselor for Crisis Text Line. This is a long-term (200 hours, 4 hours/week, so basically a year) commitment, but if you’re interested in Mental Health, it would be a GREAT experience. They are especially looking for folks willing to operate the crisis lines at night, so this is a great opportunity for night owls.
- You can help transcribe documents for the Smithsonian. This usually involves looking at scans of old hand-written documents and typing them up into a more readable format. Great for history buffs!
- Help the National Park Service test their web applications.
- National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster offers links to many different crisis response opportunities that are updated regularly depending on current disasters or emerging crises. While not all of them are virtual, they often have needs for administrative or online work.
- The Mapping Prejudice Project aims to use research to map the current and historical impacts of racist housing and property policies. You can help by watching a training video and then get to work adding to the database.
- Search Catchafire’s large database of volunteer opportunities exclusively geared towards online and virtual service! Nonprofits and organizations in need are able to post one-time or ongoing opportunities and you can search based on your time commitment, interests, and skills.
Credits: Huge thanks to Jennifer Alkezweeny, Teaching, Learning, and Engagement Associate in OAI for initial compilation of these opportunities and all the various people and organizations who are posting resources. This list was pulled together from a great variety here and tried to link directly whenever possible. If you see something that needs better attribution, please email volunteer@pdx.edu to let us know.
Here are some of the sources of this content: The Service-Learning Higher Education List Serve; Troy University; Portland Community College; PSU Office of Academic Innovation; Iowa Campus Compact; IUPUI; Loyola; GivePulse; Community Service and Service Learning Professionals Facebook Group; and more!