News

STC Madrid has served their city for 6 years now and is one of our leading cities.  In addition to their regular volunteering activities, they have been quite active in the area of corporate social responsibility, offering many opportunities to serve for Madrid’s workforce through their jobs.  They were also the first city to launch a quite busy and successful voluntourism program, attracting even more volunteers from around the globe to their city.  We hope they continue to lead the charge with their innovative vision in the years to come!

Recently 40 of Serve the City Geneva’s enthusiastic volunteers became beneficiaries for the night, enjoying a delicious gourmet meal provided by Italian chef Walter el Nagar to thank them for their service. Of course, there was still room for some volunteering, as four newcomers offered to be serving staff for the evening, supported by two existing volunteers who stepped in at short notice to help. True to form, most of the attendees struggled to stop themselves from pitching in and found it strange to be waited on by fellow volunteers, but the event was more than just a night off – it was also a great opportunity to introduce the STCG committee and tell them more about their activities.

A highlight was hearing about an exciting new project: the ambitious and innovative “fifth day” initiative led by Walter along with his Société anonyme cuisiniers collective. The idea is to open a restaurant that will cater four days a week to the paying public, but on the fifth day, they will offer the same fine dining experience for free to those who don’t usually have the chance to experience it – those who often rely on free soup kitchens for their meals. Bringing humanity and solidarity to the restaurant scene, the initiative launched with a pop-up event on 26 March, at which Serve the City Geneva’s volunteers helped to serve Walter’s healthy dishes, prepared with local, organic produce, to 100 of Geneva’s needy. For more information about the project, see the SAC website.   STC Geneva is moving strongly to invest in our volunteers ! Thanks to the Berlin Initiative for the encouragement.

Join Serve the City International on 5 May 2018 for our first annual Global Volunteer Day! Register for a project in your city so our local action can make a global impact! In how many cities can we serve together on the same day? How many volunteers can we involve? Many people doing small things together can make a big difference!

Click HERE for more info on our website.

To register your city for the Global Volunteer Day email carlton@servethecity.net

Our friends in Manila interested in starting Serve the City there recently held a pre-launch event, consisting of a morning of cleaning the streets followed by basketball with the community.  We wish them the best as they work through the process of becoming an official Serve the City project and hope to see them on our map of cities soon!

STC Newport News hosted an STC US Training on 10 February.  As we continue to expand in the US we hope this will be the first of many such trainings made available.

On 10 February Serve the City Cork celebrated completing their first year of serving their city.  In their words, here are the highlights for the past year:

•      We set up our STC Cork leadership team composed of (9) leaders of churches and other charitable organisations across the city
•      We served over 350 hours in our community with a team of 30 volunteers
•      We provided monthly service projects both assisting individuals and working alongside our partnering charities
•      We were able to signup 6 volunteer groups interested in joining us at STC Cork
•      Interesting enough, we have a few of our clients who were inspired enough by our work that they have now joined along as                       volunteers!!

Congratulations on a stellar first year in Cork!  We hope this will be an encouragement and inspiration to others.

Congratulations to Serve the City Luxembourg on celebrating their 5th anniversary of serving their city last month!  Check out the impressive quantity and quality of regularly scheduled projects and activities on their Facebook page and website.

Tour the City is a project of Serve the City Dublin which seeks to enhance social inclusion and to initiate an integration process for Refugees and Asylum Seekers that reside in Direct Provision Centres (DPCs) in the Greater Dublin Area. Our volunteer leaders organise fortnightly cultural tours that introduce the residents of DPCs to Irish culture, heritage and history, and actively encourages personal interactions between the volunteers and refugees/asylum seekers.

On 11 November, STC Dublin ran its 15th cultural tour this year for the residents of Balseskin in Finglas, Hatch Hall and Georgian Court. We visited the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). Currently, the IMMA holds an exhibition titled “Coast – Lines” representing different aspects and conceptualisations of a coast and sea that are so pronounced in the Irish culture.

It’s a small step helping Refugees and Asylum Seekers who reside in Direct Provision Centres – it also helps our volunteers make an immediate impact in a very meaningful way. Project Coordinator Shem was also just recognized with an award for his efforts with refugees and asylum seekers.  Thank you for your good work Shem and STC Dublin!

Jerry McCarty is an International Ambassador for Serve the City. He leads small teams of volunteers to cities in the Interested Life Stage to help them move to the Starting Stage.  This fall, Jerry and Scott Furushima traveled throughout Asia and South America representing STC in the countries of Japan, Indonesia, The Philippines, and Ecuador.

Many cities throughout Asia have been expressing interest and excitement in starting Serve the City.  The United Body of Christ Church in Quezon City, Philippines has been serving families and children in need for years through education, meals, and art.  Upon hearing the vision of STC to gather volunteers from every walk of life to serve throughout the city, they organized training meetings so volunteers from around the city can be mobilized to not just know people by their needs, but know them by name!

In Guayaquil, Ecuador, the team shared the heart and vision of Serve the City at the Transform World International Leadership Summit. They were invited to share how STC combats the challenge of urban poverty around the world by building a serving community—a community where people are not just being served, but invited to serve together towards a vision of city transformation!

STC Berlin hosted this year’s International Forum on 26-29 October, and it was our biggest Forum yet.  While many of the STC cities across the world meet regionally and nationally together, the IF each year is the premier gathering of people in our movement world-wide.  IF17 Berlin saw around 95 people gather from across the STCi movement, including many EU countries, Nepal, Mexico and USA. Those attending the IF are either actively involved in leading their STC volunteer-movement or interested/starting an expression of STC in their local city.

“This [IF] is like a family”, said Greet (STC Maastricht).  The IF is where our movement connects relationally and talks shop. We listen to one another, learn, and encourage each other. Experts are invited to share on specific topics that build capacity across the STCi movement, like excellence in volunteer management.

With STCi becoming a formal legally constituted International Non-Governmental Organisation on 1 September, 2016, three new Affiliated Memberships were conferred during IF17. The national STC entities of Belgium, Ireland and Portugal have been a part of the movement from the early days in Brussels (2005). “This Affiliated Membership celebrates and reflects the reality and commitment in the hearts and minds for many years – now we are formally recognising their membership of STCi”, said Alan McElwee, STC IRL Founder/Director and Chair of the Board of Directors with STCi. “STCi membership is inclusive and open to eligible entities as either Affiliated or Associate Memberships” commented Alan.

STC Dublin has been asked to host the IF18, which will be held on 18-21 October, 2018.  They have accepted, and commit to maintaining the high standard of excellence set by Berlin this year.  For some videos from this exciting weekend, filled with both professional substance and fun, see the links below:

Thu Welcome dinner
Fri plenary sessions and workshops
Sat plenary sessions and workshops