Welcome to the LAB TABLE for EXPERIMENT TIME!!!

I’m writing all of this [flails wildly around] because I want to live at the Table more often: to experience the world's sustaining good, and help make it more accessible to more people. It is not an academic exercise, so it's time to get to work. We’re about to start another trip around the spiral, reviewing the principles/practices identified so far, and it'll be most helpful if we can apply it to work we're actually doing.

So. The challenge. Make a commitment to be of regular, direct service to some of the most marginalized people in your community this fall: people experiencing homelessness or poverty; trying to navigate immigration or the foster-care system; enduring real suffering or neglect.

Why?

Partly, the answer is "because you know you want to." Partly, the answer is "because both Jesus and Bryan Stevenson told us to."

Bryan Stevenson is constantly reminding people to "get proximate." Put yourself, he says, in "the places in your community, the places where you live, the places where you work — where there’s suffering and poverty and inequality. Proximity to difficult spaces will change you. But it’s essential if we are going to change the world. The way you begin to understand the problems of the world is when you get proximate."

How?

Maybe you’re already doing this through your paid work (you’re a nurse/teacher/therapist who’s already working directly in service to your community's most neglected people). Good! You’ll be able to use this trip around the spiral to better serve the people your discipline often most neglects.

If not, or in addition: volunteer. Commit to volunteer on a regular basis this fall. This does not have to be perfect; it does not have to be your forever vocation. It’s a way to start, to experiment, to find the power in getting proximate.

But

Your brain will likely throw up one or more of the following barriers, with which I am intimately familiar. Here are a few ways to think about them. There is NO SHAME HERE, just gentle realism. (If you really can’t currently see a way forward, it’s worth asking why. What do you need in order to make it happen? When can you make the shift?)

  1. I don’t have time
    OK, I think you actually might, because volunteering can be flexible. Act like a high schooler trying to fulfill but omg not exceed her community service hours. For instance, ask the food bank if you can come once a week for an hour, or help serve one meal per month.

    Of course, some endeavors are more time-intensive, but even then there are creative workarounds. My ESL class meets two evenings a week, but I teach only one, while another volunteer teaches the other. A friend joined a team of people providing support to a refugee family; they share the work. Zero of the people reading this can devote ten hours a week to new volunteer work right now. That is OK. This isn’t an all-or-nothing affair. This is just breaking the seal and finding a way to regularly serve people who need support.
  2. I don’t know which organization is best
    This can mean “I don’t know who’s doing work I care about,” in which case it’s truly a matter of Googling/asking around: which org in your area does the kind of work you imagine?

    It can also mean “I haven’t done intensive research to identify my area’s gold-star organization with a perfect Charity Navigator score and soaring effectiveness rates,” in which case it's a little bit who cares? Of course you don’t want to volunteer for a mafia front. But if you’ve seen this org around, or your friends work with it, chances are it’s legit. You can do major assessments later. Unless you are Barack Obama, you don’t need to be particularly choosy: just pick one and go. (If you truly have no leads, sites like Volunteer Match can be helpful, though you need to filter heavily to find ways to be of direct service to the people who need it most.)
  3. I might hate it, and then I’m stuck, and then what?
    You’re not stuck! People stop volunteering all the time, for a host of reasons. “I’d like to try working with you this fall and winter” is pretty clear up front. If it turns out to be a bust, “unfortunately, my schedule changed, so I’ll need to bow out this season and reevaluate next year” is perfectly fine; any volunteer-based organization is set up to deal with it. If you hate it, you stop and find something else. This isn’t marriage; it’s breaking the seal and getting proximate.

Give it a try

Yay! Let's do this together! Find an organization where you can help directly, "proximately" serve the people who are most suffering and neglected in your community.

Here's a sample script for a phone call or email: “Hi, I have a [couple of extra hours per month/some time on Wednesday mornings] this fall and winter, and I’d like to volunteer with your organization. I have some experience in [teaching/law/ writing], but I’m willing to do whatever would be most helpful. Do you have any volunteer opportunities open right now?”

I'm even giving us a timeframe, because sometimes we need that. We'll start the next spiral two weeks from today.

I know some of y'all already have something going. Let us know in the comments what you're up to! Share the inspiration!