Kindness Challenge 2020

STCi Social Media Challenge

#KindnessStartsWithMe let it #GoThrival!

Hello Serve the City the globe over,

Challenge the world in with our social media challenge! In these days of isolation and downer news, let’s focus on spreading kindness and challenging the world to #SpreadKindness through a social media challenge, and instead of making it “viral” we are going to #GoThrival (from thrive – “thrive-al”)!

Here’s how it’s going to work. From your Serve the City social media accounts AND your personal accounts share simple stories of spreading kindness. Tag other cities and your friends, family, co-workers, etc and challenge them to #SpreadKindness and make it #GoThrival.

Hashtags to use:
#SpreadKindness
#KindnessStartsWithMe
#GoThrival

CLICK HERE FOR an example of how we did it on our STCi Facebook page with a great story from STC Maastricht!

Try to always have a picture with your post, and post links to what you share here if you can! It’s not viral, it’s THRIVAL.

26 Ways to spread Kindness

All over the world meetings are cancelled. Events are cancelled. Trips are cancelled.

But a virus, even a pandemic, cannot cancel the most important stuff of life.

Kindness is open for business and the shelves are stocked floor to ceiling in abundant supply. Kindness will not be cancelled.

Here are some ways Serve the City volunteers around the world are showing kindness in personal ways to people in need:

Make phone calls to check in on the health and well-being of elderly people you know.
Send hope-filled cards and notes to people that you hear about who are socially or medically isolated.
Let your nearest neighbours know you are available to help if they need something.
Create a near-neighbours emergency contact list if one doesn’t already exist.
Organise online gatherings of friends via Skype or Zoom so people can sing, pray, and share.
Ask grocery stores if there is food that could be made available and delivered to people in need.
Order food, flowers, or essential items that can be delivered to people in need, or to friends as a surprise.
Share accurate information graphics written through the lens of hope to help people stay safe and calm.
Join or arrange times for near neighbours to all look out their windows and sing, clap, smile, and wave.
Initiate conversation on social media community forums to stimulate kindness ideas and action.
Offer to teach others something you know through Facebook Live: how to play a musical instrument, a language, simple home repairs, etc.
Find out and celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and other special events for near neighbours, refugees, people who are ill, children, and others.
Take care of the common spaces where you live: cleaning, sterilising, picking up trash, etc.
Offer childcare to friends with children at home by reading a book or playing a game with their children online.
Share any good news you hear, as quickly and as broadly as possible!
Pack Food bags.
Make masks.
Adapt regular projects.
Virtual trainings.
Lawn services.
Packages for caregivers.
Signs and cards for health care workers.
Meals and care packages for health care workers.
Lawn care for health care workers.
Make hand sanitizer to give away.
Water tanks for marketplaces.

With that said read more about our COVID-19 response, and you are invited to connect with us every 3rd Monday at 18:00 CET (+1 GMT) for our All City Connect zoom video conference. Stay up to date with our COVID-19 Kindness series of podcasts, posts, and more.

Global Volunteer Day: 8th of May

In spite of the pandemic we will be celebrating volunteerism with our annual Global Volunteer Day on the 2nd Saturday of May, every year, and this year will not be different. Kindness is not cancelled! Take a look and see what different cities are doing around the world, or perhaps, sign up and do something in your city!

LEARN MORE

STCi Project Ideas Series

Kindness will not be cancelled

With the on-going COVID-19 world-wide crisis we are starting a new series of helpful projects. During this time these will be projects that can be done individually, and of course once life begins to return to normal we’ll share ideas for groups to serve their cities in ways that will help us all recover. Make it #GoThrival.

Homemade Masks

Our first suggested project is one that can help anyone going out in public. Below are a number of tutorials and instructions on how to make your own mask which will protect against coughing, spit, and droplets – they are not medically valid, and the Coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can still be spread even when wearing “N95” masks, which have 3 microns of space between fibers, the virus is only 1 micron in size. Nonetheless, experts say that masks still help to prevent the spread caused by sneezing, coughing, etc. In some locations with the outbreak it is required to cover your nose and mouth, so these homemade masks can help.

Start asking who in your network have sewing machines. Many places are actually asking residents and volunteers to make as many masks as possible, such as in Brussels. Organize your teams to get the fabric and supplies and perhaps organize online tutorial sessions. Make a call to action on social media and let your volunteer network know how they can help.

The general consensus about wearing masks during this pandemic is that the medically certified masks need to be saved and used by medical professionals, and those that are most at risk and vulnerable. Healthy people should not be using or buying medical grade masks, as this will cause a shortage for those that these masks actually help. Instead, to protect yourself, and to prevent the spread in public places, from sneezing, coughing, and preventing the spread when you have no symptoms, these homemade masks will suffice when combined with social and physical distancing

Here are some recommended sources for instructions, templates, and information to use when communicating with volunteers:

First learn from the World Health Organization (WHO) about when and how to use masks.
A tutorial in English with video, and step by step instructions.
A printable template for A4 size paper (might work for US letter size, if someone has a good one we can use, let us know).

Some suggested tips from our volunteer network:

Add a filter on the skin-side of the mask made from a vacuum cleaner bag.
Always wash these masks in HOT water between uses.

Thanks to our incredible teams from around the world who gave input into this project and may we all continue to #SpreadKindness and make it #GoThrival during this unprecedented time!