National Days of Service are a series of nationally-recognized and celebrated one-day service events that bring people together in their local communities, schools and neighborhoods to highlight particular needs, find new solutions, and renew our sense of commitment to community service. HandsOn was pleased to begin offering Days of Service opportunities beginning with Martin Luther King Day in January 2010.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service

HandsOn Northwest North Carolina in partnership with Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem State University and Big Brothers-Big Sisters planned a Read-In event to promote Dr. King’s messages of service and literacy in conjunction and co-located with one of the largest commemorative events held in our city every year: the 30th Annual Noon Hour Commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday. The 2010 MLK Day of Service was a “day on, not a day off” for many community members in Winston-Salem, NC.  About 300 volunteers served at the 2010 MLK Day Read-In Event.  The collaboration was the first of its kind in Winston-Salem and allowed parents to attend the Noon Hour Commemoration while their children attended the Read-In event.  The children learned about Dr. King, performed service such as writing letters to troops, and they also received new and used donated books.  Approximately 500 books were distributed to the 100 children who participated in the event. We were excited about the turnout for the day, and have already started planning for 2011! For pictures, check out our photo album on Picasa. If you would like to partner with us for the 2011 MLK Day of Service, please contact Michelle Bennett.

September 11th Day of Service and Remembrance

In honor of the first ever 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance, HandsOn NWNC organized a community-wide donation drive for the troops serving in Iraq and Afganistan. In addition, we held a memorial service at Salem College on the morning of 9/11, providing a central place for our volunteers and other community members to come together to remember the heroes and victims of that day. Please check out our Picasa photo album of the event, showing volunteers working hard at the 9/11 Memorial Service, Bookmarks Festival, and our Sorting Party for the donated goods, which was held at Forest Park Elementary School. At the service, Mayor Allen Joines welcomed the crowd, the NC National Guard Color Guard presented the flags, Ms. Sabrina Belcher sang the national anthem beautifully, Rev. Amy Rio-Anderson (Salem College's chaplain) led us through the National Moment of Silence and spoke on volunteerism, and Capt. Jeff Warner spoke about 9/11 on behalf of the Winston-Salem Fire Department. The following organizations partnered with us to ensure a succesful Day of Service: HandsOn NWNC, Big Brothers Big Sisters, SISTAS Community Guild, Winston-Salem State University, Wake Forest University, Salem College, the OneEconomy AmeriCorps VISTA program, and the Hispanic League.   Many thanks to all who participated by either serving as a collection site, donating goods or volunteering for the memorial service! A full truck-load of goods was delivered to Give2TheTroops organization in Fayetteville, NC!                            

In the summer of 2010, HandsOn NWNC, together with multiple community partners, began the creation of a Neighboring volunteer collaborative, a volunteer-driven program to strengthen youth and families in the neighborhoods that are anchored by Forest Park Elementary and Willows Peak Learning Center. Neighboring is the quitenessential model for "doing with, rather than doing for" a community, engaging residents and families who live in marginalized and low-income communities as volunteers and leaders in volunteer-directed community activities, program planning and execution, advocacy and leadership development. The collaborative seeks to model innovative volunteer programs to promote more inclusive engagement of volunteers from this community, which is traditioanlly under-engaged in civic life. The collaborative also seeks faith-based and neighborhood organizations as partners while promoting volunteering as a means for community residents to connect to economic recovery opportunities, needed services and support, and caring and nurturing social networks that promote community change.

At Forest Park Elementary and Willow Peaks Learning Center, the collaborative seeks to engage students and their families by connecting them to nearby faith-based groups, businesses and other nonprofit and neighborhood resources in an effort to identify and address their community’s challenges effectively through the development of resident and volunteer leadership. Our focus will be to increase youth development and civic engagement within both the schoos and the surrounding neighborhoods, while also increasing volunteer leadership within local faith and business partners. Residents will identify challenges they want to change in their community and we will assist them to reach their goals through leadership development and community service projects. Students and their families will be leaders in every aspect of project planning and execution.

Current members of the Neighboring collaborative include Forest Park Elementary School, Willows Peak Apartment Community, Housing Authority of Winston-Salem, Communities in Schools, Community Appearance Commission, the Safe Routes to School Program, and Hispanic League. If you are a citizen or organization that is currently active in either community and is interested in joining the collaborative, please email Michelle Bennett.  We also welcome interest from volunteers outside of the neighborhood, including bilingual individuals, skills-based volunteers who have experience in leadership development, grant writing, project planning, or evaluation, as well as those willing to serve and mentors and tutors.

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