“Change, For Real!”

“In times like these, when we’re facing challenges unlike any in our lifetime, and you all know this better than anyone, I know it can feel close to impossible … Some may view volunteering as something extra, but ‘real change’ comes from the bottom up, from citizens working and mobilizing and serving the nation that they love …” (excerpted).

So said First Lady Michelle Obama as she delivered the keynote address for the 2009 National Conference on Volunteering and Service convened this week in San Francisco. As I’ve been thinking about Michelle’s words this week, I’ve realized that the essence of her timely message is one that St. Anthony Foundation volunteers have largely harmonized with for nearly 6 decades! I’d perhaps make a couple of modifications—I’d say that our volunteers demonstrate the ‘real change’ that comes from within, and as that dynamic breaks down barriers between “us & them”, change in the structural barriers to a more just society are nourished. And yet, our First Lady words speak clearly to the worst socio-economic conditions that I’ve seen in my lifetime. In what I think of as a kind of “spiritual economy”, the care that our volunteers offer day after day, year after year, is the kind of “currency” that lifts up not only our clients and guests, but St. Anthony staff as well. And yet, how often do we hear any number of our volunteers say “I get so much more than I give!”

In my last little blog entry about a month ago, I voiced my concern that volunteering be understood as an invaluable response to our current economic downturn—but not “the answer” to it. And, as our President’s “United We Serve” Initiative gives new impetus to volunteering, I wonder if in fact we will witness the blossoming of connection with others that service encourages. Just one little example of this continuum is a story from one of our Summer Immersion High School groups. When the participants were reflecting on some of their experience, several of the students spoke of how moved they’d been by a homeless man who had made such an enthusiastic effort to help them feel comfortable. They assumed at first that this gentleman was one of the staff! Now some of those same students are involved in advocacy efforts to maintain San Francisco’s City Budget funds for essential programs, such as the one where this hospitable fellow safely laid his head over night. That’s change, for real alright—from within, across divides, and toward the restoration of caring community.