3. One form of social capital is official
membership in volunteer organizations. According to Putnam, there are three
main types of volunteer organizations in American society: (1) Community-based
organizations, (2) church-based organizations and (3) work-based organizations. Which of these types
of organizations do you get most involved with?
Out of these types of organizations I get the most involved
with 1) Community-based organizations and 2) church-based organizations.
My husband and I volunteer at an organization called IRC. We
help tutor refugees for two hours on Saturdays. These refugees are taken from
their war-torn countries and are relocated in Salt Lake City. We love being
with the refugees and making new friends. We even share these fun times on
Facebook and Instagram with our friends because they are so important to us.
.png)
We are also planning the World’s Largest Pillow Fight (I
think I have mentioned this in class already). It is really cool how social
media allows us to spread the word and gather donations. The IRC websites even
lets people do their own DIY projects and make their own pages through their
websites.
Community involvement has been able to grow quicker and farther because of social media. We are able to share our causes, ask for help and show progress. Social capital will continue to grow because of the web and social media.
The second way I get involved with social capital is through church-based organizations. Growing up in the church we are always doing volunteer/service projects. One of the recent ways I have been able to do volunteer work (in the broad sense of the phrase) is through family search. My husband and I are taking a family search class at church and we are learning the skills to do genealogy and do ordinances for people. The church has been able to leverage the internet to for volunteer opportunities.
I have been able to be involved in many volunteer opportunities and have been able to offer those same opportunities through others through the internet and social media. We have been given powerful tools and it is cool to see the opportunities that come from using them!
IRC sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI love that you took so many personal experiences and tied them in with your post! It's one think to talk about getting involved, and another to actually get involved, so props to you! Do you think that your involvement in certain organizations inspires others to get involved as well? We often tend to follow the paths of others, so it would be interesting to see the impact you've had on others and their desire to get involved.
ReplyDeleteSo without doubt, you are the type of person who is "restoring American communities." The question becomes, how do you teach others to be involved too? Or, is it more a matter of having too many organizations out there? I sometimes wonder if there just aren't enough bodies to go around--too many good places, not enough hours in the day?
ReplyDelete