News

STC Madrid Serves STC Amsterdam

STC Madrid sent some volunteers to Amsterdam to help them with their 10th anniversary celebration last month.  We’re hoping this great example of serving one another spreads throughout our cities, and more of our cities are inspired to visit each other and experience their global STC family!

STC Teams From Around the Globe Meet Online 

Over 40 Serve the City leaders and teams met online last month from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas for our largest online meeting to date.  Progress on the international and local levels were reported, as we continue to work towards fulfilling the mutual priorities agreed upon in the Amsterdam Resolution from last fall’s Forum.  Minutes from that meeting are available in the online library of the Lobby of the STC Office 365 “Skyscraper” for those who were not able to attend.

New Additions to the STC Family:

In addition to those reported last month we now have:
Just Begun: STC Roermond, the Netherlands
Starting this month: STC Catania, Italy
Congratulations!

New STC’s Springing Up all Over

Spring is a time for fresh new growth and Serve the City is no exception.  In addition to the recent launches of STC’s in Newport News, VA and Mexico City, there are three more new STC’s starting on the same day this month in Mons, Belgium; Talsi, Latvia; and Bluffton, SC.  We wish them the best and hope to have some exciting photos and reports soon!

STC Amsterdam Turns 10

Serve the City Amsterdam will celebrate their 10th anniversary of serving their city this month!  Amsterdam is one of STC’s major hub cities, hosting our annual International Forum last fall and setting the pace for rapid growth all over The Netherlands, our densest network of STC cities.  Please join us in congratulating them on 10 great years and hopes for many more to come!

Serve the City Launched in Newport News Virginia 

A report from the organizers:

“The Serve the City Newport News Kickoff Event on March 25th was a great success!! We had over 160 volunteers and leaders serving around the East End of Newport News, Virginia.  Teams were out in the community picking up litter, doing landscaping projects, painting and cleaning. We had people crossing city lines, racial lines, and economic lines!!

Some stats from Saturday:  Nearly 1 ton of trash picked up (including, believe it or not, several TV sets) and over 15 cubic yards of mulch moved (that is like1 1/2 dump truck loads)!  Just a couple examples of how many people doing small things together can make a big difference!!!

We also made a difference in lives in the community.  This note from a single mom who saw our “green” teams out picking up trash is just one example: “I live in the east end of Newport News. Today I saw your volunteers out in my neighborhood working.  I was excited to see people trying to make a difference here.  I would love to get involved.  I am hoping that you can give me more information on how to do so.  I would also like to know if my kids would be able to volunteer with me as I’m a single mom.  I think that it would be good for them as well.”

We want to thank the Newport News City Manager’s Office, the Newport News Police Department, the many communities of faith that partnered with us, the staff of Newport Harbour Apartments, and all our volunteers for making this a great day of crossing lines!”

New Art Space for Refugees in Luxembourg 

STC Luxembourg Leaders, Pascale Soares and her friend Lidia Rahal, have created an art space for refugees and asylum seekers living in Luxembourg called The Art Factory, and are hoping to duplicate the workshops in other shelters.  An interview with them can be found on the STC Luxembourg website here.

Meet Pratya: STC Brussels Intern

Pratya was born in India and has lived in Singapore, then Denmark, where she earned her International Baccalaureate degree last year.  During her gap year she worked for a time at a law firm dealing with refugees in Copenhagen until she went to teach English as a volunteer with STC Madrid as part of their voluntourism program.  While in Madrid she met an STC Madrid intern and decided this was what she wanted to pursue next in her global adventures. After inquiring with several STC cities, Pratya is currently volunteering as a full time intern for 4 weeks at Serve the City Brussels!

Survey In Lisbon

At the request of the city of Lisbon, about 100 STC volunteers invested over 1,200 hours of work in collecting data on the needs of the population of the Freguesia da Misericórdia in Lisbon. For 3 weeks, they went through the streets of this historic area of ​​the capital with a questionnaire, talking to people, getting emotional with many human situations, and learning new realities of their own City.

Serve the City Cork Launched! 

A launch event for Serve The City Cork was held on 28 January.  The entire board of directors of Serve the City Ireland traveled to the city of Cork to engage, inform and to learn from some great people who have a purpose and heart to launch STC in Ireland’s second largest city.