Volunteers You Should Know About

No Comments | July 29th, 2007 | Trackback

Some volunteers search for the right opportunity – others see a need and respond to it. Conor Grennan is a stellar example of the latter; he started out as a round-the-world traveler and short term volunteer and ended up founding children’s home and NGO Next Generation Nepal.

Wayne Parks is another stellar volunteer of sorts; he is not a round-the-world traveler (or a blogger) but a veteran volunteer firefighter. He recently segued into running a non-profit language learning center, primarily because he noticed that in his original field of work – construction – there was a dearth of qualified native English speaking workers but an abundance of qualified workers who don’t yet speak the language. And these non-English speaking workers frequently end up being taken advantage of specifically because of that.

“Where a native English speaker might know and demand his or her rights, Parks has seen immigrants with little or no command of the English language work far more hours and under much worse conditions than is customary.” This of course makes it hard to get ahead; as most people realize, learning English in the US tends to make your life easier and in many ways better.

The idea of Parks’ Quick Start Language Center is simple: a room full of computers loaded with language learning programs. It is located on a bus line, it is open nights and weekends, and no appointment is required, which means it is super-accessible to most interested language learners. Parks reports that about three dozen people are regulars on a weekly basis.

It costs him approximately $5000 per month to run, and he is hoping to find a grant writer and perhaps some additional volunteers in the near future – right now his children, one 15 and one 19, help out. The reasons he gives for doing it? The users are grateful and reap obvious benefits in their day to day lives, and more importantly, “Communication is key,” he said. “If we’re not communicating, we’re not resolving anything.”

At a time in the US where cities and even states are passing angry “English only” resolutions, which I believe are more a result of fear and ignorance than anything else, Wayne Parks provides a positive example of the difference one person can make when they decide to act.

If you’re looking for other inspiring volunteers, check out Gloria in Africa (actually a blog you should know about) and 88 Bikes.