by Jacqueline Koch | Apr 15, 2015 |
Volunteering has been a lifelong passion for Boost! team mate, Allison May. She believes it is our responsibility and privilege to help others build community.
Build houses and hope as a Habitat for Humanity volunteer
Habitat for Humanity’s vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live. To that end, the organization builds, renovates and repairs houses all over the world with the help of volunteer labor and donations.
Moving away from chaos and back to normal
The first time I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, I was part of a team that worked alongside Miami homeowners who had lost their homes during Hurricane Andrew. Their lives had been turned upside down. With the help of Habitat for Humanity—good organization, effective planning and hard work— I witnessed the positive impact Habitat had on their lives. Soon, normalcy emerged after months of chaos and devastation. I did my share of hammering, pounding nails into more roofing straps than I care to remember. And it was truly rewarding.
I went on to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity’s International Global Village program in a low-income community in Kauai Hawaii. The proud homeowner (pictured left) supervised and participated in the home’s construction.
Habitat for Humanity is working tirelessly to secure home ownership in areas where affordable housing is slipping away from many in the community. Whether you’re handy with a hammer or not, please consider joining a Habitat for Humanity team and make a difference.
by Jacqueline Koch | Apr 14, 2015 |
April 12-18 is National Volunteer Week #NVW. Boost! team member, Gretchen McLaurin sheds a light on her volunteer experience.
What is a Master Gardener volunteer? It’s all about roses and strawberries, right?
Nope. The purpose of the Master Gardener program is to train volunteers to be “effective community educators in gardening and environmental stewardship.” Channeling research and education from university systems, the Master Gardeners provide a vital link between commercial and consumer horticultural practices.
As a Master Gardener, I am a Volunteer Community Educator, cultivating plants, people, and communities. Since I started, the program has continued to flourish. Founded in 1972 by the Washington State University Cooperative Extension in the greater Seattle area, the Master Gardener volunteer corps has truly taken root. As of 2009, we were 95,000 strong and counting more than 5.2 million annual volunteer hours. Given the growing interest in urban horticulture, food security and local farming, the Master Gardener (MG) community grows and thrives in new and unexpected ways.
Want to make a difference? Get your hands in the dirt
The most exciting component of the program is the positive impact it has on a community. As one example, in 2009, 700,000 pounds of produce grown in demonstration gardens was donated to local food banks—which are also run by countless, dedicated volunteers!
I’ve dedicated most of my volunteer hours to helping kids. I worked with middle schoolers who were growing their own gardens as part of a science curriculum. This was a fully integrated and —more important — fun approach. The goal was to teach kids science and math by getting their hands in the dirt. They planned garden plots, calculated growth rates, read seed packets and learned about fertilization and pest management.
This is just one part of the big picture. The Master Gardener program is diverse and there is a horticulture outlet for everyone. Volunteers teach local community science-based garden management techniques focused on sustainability and environmental and social priorities. They are also advocates for reducing the impact of invasive species and healthy living. If you’re looking for a way to give back to the community by doing something you love, consider becoming a Master Gardener!
by Jacqueline Koch | Apr 13, 2015 |
This year, National Volunteer Week is observed April 12-18, 2015 and to celebrate, the Boost! team will be sharing information about organizations we volunteer for.
Advocate for children in foster care – become a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate
In today’s Volunteer Spotlight, we are drawing attention to an organization that is very near and dear to my heart. I have been a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for six years and believe passionately in the power of this program to change the lives of the most vulnerable children in our communities – those who are in foster care.
CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to watch over and advocate for abused and neglected children, to make sure they don’t get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in inappropriate group or foster homes. Volunteers stay with each case until it is closed and the child is placed in a safe, permanent home. For many abused children, their CASA volunteer will be the one constant adult presence in their lives. This was certainly the case with two siblings I advocated for over a period of four years. Every adult in their lives had changed – from the social worker to their therapists to foster parents. I was uniquely able to provide input during legal proceedings because I held their history and could tell their story.
Independent research has demonstrated that children with a CASA volunteer are substantially less likely to spend time in long-term foster care and less likely to reenter care.
If you are looking for an opportunity to make a difference in a child’s life, please consider becoming a CASA. Every CASA program across the country is in desperate need of volunteers.
If you live in Seattle, please contact the King County Dependency CASA Program.
If you would like to ask me a question about being a CASA, please leave a comment below and I will respond.
by Jacqueline Koch | Mar 24, 2015 |
Guest Boost! Blogger Ulrike Langer on social media and SXSW.
Ulrike is a media innovation journalist who just returned from the SXSW Interactive conference and sent us this report.
The “Marshmallow Experiment” is a famous psychological test from the 60’s where young children are left alone in a room with a marshmallow on a plate. The children are told they will receive two marshmallows as a reward if they can resist eating the first one for a few minutes. Not surprisingly, the research found most four or five-year olds will eat the single marshmallow. Some children, however, are able to overcome their desire for instant gratification. According to a long-term study, those self-disciplined children tend to cope better in adult life.
The daily marshmallow challenge
Today, it is not only the youngest among us who face this challenge; we all do, every day, all day long. The marshmallow on the plate is the smartphone in your pocket. And even though we’re adults, we often don’t think about how much time we spend updating our Facebook status or checking to see if we got another 20 likes for a cool photo we posted yesterday. We tend not to think about the inherent tradeoff between social media activities and more taxing, less fun pursuits that will yield greater benefit in the long-run.
At the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin last week, the phenomenon was addressed in a panel titled “Tech My Mind: The Age of Instant Gratification.”
The enemy within
According the panelists, if we resist ‘the marshmallow’ by remaining logged out of Facebook or leaving our phone in our pocket when it is ringing, vibrating or pinging, we have to fight against powerful chemical opponents. The neurotransmitters dopamine, endorphin, oxytocin and serotonin—which all are otherwise known as ‘temptation’—flood our brain with short-term rewards.
Andrew Yee, the Online Program Administrator at Biola University in California, knows something about outwitting these opponents. He is responsible for ensuring educational software at Biola offers rewarding experiences. When potentially boring learning materials are instead designed like video games with levels, points and challenges to make them more fun, this is called gamification.
Yee knows that immediate rewards and constant self-affirmation can be quite addictive. That’s why we feel the need to check that our standing in social networks hasn’t decreased in terms of how many likes, comments, favs and retweets we are getting. If our tally gets too low, we need to refuel by adding new funny pictures and witty tweets.
Birds of a feather feel good together
Erika Gronek, Director of the New Media program at Arizona State University says this is why we tend to digitally befriend the people who confirm our world view. This, however, is not an entirely new phenomenon. We have always tended to be selective in choosing our friends, whether we know them from school, from work or from the Internet. We’ve always preferred to be surrounded by people we share interests and values with. But now, in the social media era, this old phenomenon is called “filter bubble” and regarded as a new trend.
Of course, we should all try not to constrain our horizons but socializing with naysayers or people who challenge our beliefs can be exhausting. A bigger problem, to my mind, was raised by Yee and life coach Julie Barrios. Barrios helps stressed-out coders and tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley look beyond short-term goals (more clicks! more hype! more sales!) and not lose sight of their long-term purpose in life.
A return to love
News sites, Barrios said, tend to promote superficial distraction rather than help their users focus on a story. We all know these kind of sites. They are full of “Click here” banners, “Like us on Facebook” buttons, and “This could be interesting too” lists. All to ensure that we click and like and fav and feed our hunger for short-term rewards in the form of dopamine. And by falling into this trap, we don’t even notice how much more satisfying it is to be totally immersed in a topic, to focus on a good story to the last sentence and to really love it instead of just liking it on Facebook.
During the panel at SXSW, I couldn’t help but think about a beautifully written essay by Robin Sloan. It is called “Fish” and is available as a free app. I have read it at least 10 times since it was published. Sit back, take 15 minutes, and read it to the very end. I am sure that some of you will love “Fish”, not only like it.
by Jacqueline Koch | Mar 12, 2015 |
We sat down with Janinne recently on our blog to peel back the onion, get her take on marketing strategy and messaging, and find out what makes her tick. Here’s what we learned.
Elizabeth: So, since our readers can’t hear your accent, do you mind telling them where you’re from?
Janinne: Actually, yes, I do have an accent. That’s because I am originally from South Africa. Although, I’ve been in the US since late 1996 and am now lucky enough to be an American citizen. But, I do still have the accent.
Elizabeth: What brought you to the States?
Janinne: Well, I had just finished an MBA at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business and had the opportunity to participate in an exchange program at the Snider Center for Entrepreneurial Management at Wharton/University of Pennsylvania. I jumped at the chance to work as a consultant at the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) along with Wharton MBA students.
Elizabeth: Can you tell us about the clients you worked with?
Janinne: With an undergraduate degree in Journalism and psychology, the MBA was a fantastic learning opportunity for me around marketing strategy, among other things. What was really exciting at Wharton was the chance to see the theoretical concepts I had learned come to life. One of my favorite projects was working with a client who manufactured and sold life-sized artificial palm trees for hotels and motels along the Jersey shore. It was fun, it was funny, and it was a great lesson in production costs. Once we analyzed all of his costs, we realized that he was losing $60 on each tree he sold. Clearly, the implications for his business were dramatic. Our task was to help him streamline his manufacturing process and market the business to drive more revenue.
Elizabeth: Where did you go after your time at Wharton?
Janinne: I got a job as a product manager at a Philadelphia software company that specialized in sales force automation. This was a real baptism by fire as I had no technology experience. I was responsible for inbound product management and outbound product marketing. And that was the beginning of my career in technology marketing and marketing strategy in general. After that, I moved to Seattle and worked for Concur Technologies and RealNetworks before venturing into the start-up and consulting worlds.
Elizabeth: And what’s one of the biggest marketing challenges you’ve faced so far?
Janinne: That’s an easy one. I landed at RealNetworks as an Industry Marketing Manager for the enterprise and education segments. My job was to market RealServer (later Helix Universal Server), RealProducer and the enterprise version of RealPlayer. The challenge was that Microsoft had recently included the Windows Media technology into Windows Server and it was essentially free with purchase. It became critical to the job to understand what customers really valued about our products that was not available with the free alternative, and then be extremely disciplined about the messaging across every channel. Unfortunately, there was no silver bullet but we worked diligently to uncover every opportunity and turn that into a sale.
Elizabeth: Why did you decide to start Boost! Collective?
Janinne: I’d been working as a lone ranger for a long time – doing marketing consulting on my own and realized it would be much more interesting to bring together people with diverse but complementary skills to offer customers a much broader yet integrated set of services. My expertise, for example, is traditional marketing strategy, product positioning and messaging, content creation, product launches etc. But it becomes much more interesting for customers when we add you into the mix and include digital marketing and social media. Allison and Steven bring analytical rigor with their data-driven approach. Jill and Gretchen make sure that all the trains leave the station when they are supposed to and Jacqueline brings the magic of storytelling and a broad set of experiences gained in the nonprofit world. Together, I think we have something special to offer.
Elizabeth: I’ve heard you talk about the work you do with the CASA organization. What’s that about?
Janinne: I’ve been a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for about 6 years. This is an incredible program that takes volunteers, trains them and then has the Juvenile Court appoint them to be advocates for children who are in the process of becoming or already are dependents of the State. The role of the CASA is to form an independent opinion of what’s in the best interests of the child and to report back to the court. The court is particularly interested in getting input into what the permanent plan for the child should be – returning home to their biological parents or becoming legally free to be adopted. This has been rewarding and, at times, heartbreaking work.
Elizabeth: Finally, we must talk about Mollie, your labradoodle and muse.
Janinne: (smiling) Mollie is so much more than a pet. She’s our companion and she makes every day more fun. Whether we’re hiking or camping or kayaking (she has her own life preserver), Mollie comes along and brings her good nature, curiosity and sense of adventure. I highly recommend that anyone considering adding someone furry to their family considers a labradoodle. They’re the best.
And now, it’s time for a cup of tea.
Habitat for Humanity’s vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live. To that end, the organization builds, renovates and repairs houses all over the world with the help of volunteer labor and donations.
I went on to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity’s International Global Village program in a low-income community in Kauai Hawaii. The proud homeowner (pictured left) supervised and participated in the home’s construction.
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