News

On 19 May Serve the City Leuven gathered their sponsors, partners, and volunteers to celebrate their 10th anniversary of serving their city.  Congratulations to all!

On 5 May 19 cities from around the world participated in our first annual Global Volunteer Day.  Participants were cities in Ghana, USA, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Switzerland, Nepal, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Haiti, and Honduras.  We are still collecting details and videos of the events, but here are a few examples of some of the activities of the day:

STC Leuven went out on a street kindness project.

In Dublin and Cork volunteers were sent on DIY projects, and Dublin led a cultural tour for refugees as well.

Berlin had teams deliver thank you cards to various people who serve their city daily, such as firemen and bus drivers, etc.

In Tegucigalpa they handed out pancakes to elderly people and people on the streets.

Kathmandu volunteers went out to clean up the streets and collect trash.

These are only a few examples of the variety of ways people served in different cities on Global Volunteer Day.  Of course these are activities above and beyond the regular ongoing projects in these cities, so a big thank you on the extra effort to all who participated!  We hope this annual show of solidarity will continue to grow and spread the ethos of serving around the world.  Same time next year!

19 Cities from around the world signed up to participate in our first annual Global Volunteer Day.  Participants are cities in Ghana, USA, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Switzerland, Nepal, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Haiti, and Honduras.  Look out for a detailed report on the day in our next newsletter!

Serve the City’s International Leadership Team gathered for their annual meetings in early April near Lisbon.  Members of the Board, the Global Executive Team and the Global Operations Team came together from Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, UK, and USA.

Topics discussed were the state of the movement, the development of procedures and resources for the support and advancement of our cities, and defining a work plan for the coming year; not the least of which were exciting plans for the upcoming International Forum in Dublin in October.  It was an inspiring and motivating weekend for all involved as we returned to our cities with a renewed commitment and vision for serving the movement.

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.