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Giving Back to Toronto: Volunteer Opportunities During the Holiday Season
As the dizzying Holiday Season approaches, Toronto urbanites need to remember that the state of a society is best gauged by looking at its most needy. Often overwhelmed by the practicalities involved with this time of year, it is easy to forget to make room for those who truly need our care.
Thankfully, many Torontonians share the proper spirit of giving by volunteering their resources (the most valuable of these being time) during this period, so if you are willing to make this sacrifice, you need to plan ahead.
Below are links to some of the many wonderful places you can donate some time over the upcoming season. Unfortunately, this activity is often relegated to this period alone, so consider making it an ongoing experience. By no means is this list exhaustive, so if you're aware of other worthwhile opportunities, please feel free to add them along with any other information (websites, phone numbers et cetera), and I will be glad to put them on this list.
- Ontario Association of Food Banks
- Children's Aid Society of Toronto
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of Toronto
- Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
- volunteertoronto (great resource - care of 'Karen')
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Heh.
Jonathan.
Tis also the season for taking.
People need to be aware of where their money is going this time of the year more than most other times. Donating their time is fairly safe, but if you plan to give money to charity it is worthwhile to do a little research.
Unfortunately there isn't such thing as a Canadian charity watchdog. There is however a website listing all registered charities and ones that have had their licenses revoked or suspended:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/chrts/nln_lstngs/menu-eng.html
Additionally, you can go to http://www.charitywatch.org/ for charities that operate on a more global scale (such as red cross, Salvation Army, etc). Their behavior in the United States can often give you an idea of how their Canadian arm is run as well.
They have numerous opportunities to get involved during the holiday season and year round.
For more information:
http://www.thegateway.ca/get_involved.aspx
frontline@thegateway.ca
Please support the worthwhile initiatives at the Gateway!
Money is also welcome, of course, once you are certain that the receiving institution is worthy.
Please do not give money directly to panhandlers. In almost every case it will go to cigarettes, booze or drugs, and you will have made their problem (and our) worse.
It's hard, as most of them are affiliated with a religion or a church.
The Salvation Army, for instance, threatened to suspend soup kitchen service in New York to protest having to give domestic partner rights, and also made a clandestine deal with George Bush to throw their weight behind him in exchange for cracking down on gay rights.
And, in terms of beliefs, while it's great that these places want to help folks, but it's pretty offputting to go to their website or location and have the stated purpose of it be "dedicated to the glory of God" (in the case of the Scott mission).
You could argue that the ends justify the means (or, rather, the motivation), but I'd still rather be able to donate to organizations that want to help people for the sake of helping people, not because they think they have to because God told them to, they'll get into heaven, or as an easy way to snag vulnerable converts.
Ugh.
I suppose I should say something (as I posted the Salvation Army link above)!
First off, I'm not employed or affiliated with the SA. I wonder how many of these places have explicitly stated "we're doing this to get into heaven or to convert people"? I wouldn't assume that is the modus operandi of every "religious" organization. A stated purpose of "dedicated to the glory of God" is very different than the former assumption.
In my interpretation, a purpose such as the Scott Mission's simply translates into people wanting to pour out love in a way that honours the god (small caps) they believe in. That could be Jesus, or Allah, or some form of karma. It's not necessarily about converting people or even believing that their good deeds are a way into heaven. Simply put, perhaps they are extending a love that they have been shown unto others.
Unfortunately, you're correct on many points about organizations getting involved in politics in order to lobby their beliefs. There are folks in every organization who can mire otherwise noble efforts with personal agendas. I suppose we have to remember that we're all human, regardless of religious affiliation, and thus susceptible to greed, selfishness, etc.
I would hesitate to paint all organizations with the same brush. Find me a humanitarian effort with an unblemished record and I'll happily donate my time and money. At the end of day, if we can help out people who are in need, and can do so altruistically, the religious affiliation of the organization is somewhat irrelevant.
People donate money and items to HELP less fortunate. I find more often than not that religious based charities tend to be a little bias because of their belief system. Such as discrimination against gays, or teaching that condoms are wrong.
I was recently asked by a coworker to donate items to a charity called Samaritan's Purse. Even when you check their website they seem relatively religious-free. Look other places and you'll find out that they distribute evangelical literature with your donation. You'll also find out that the vast, VAST majority of cash donations goes directly to the organization itself (about 94% in the UK). This is a HUGE charity that deals with over $300 Million worth of donations. They strongly oppose condoms of a form of AIDS prevention despite the majority of their work being in areas most strongly hit. (The phrase they like to use is "abstain and be faithful")
World Vision, with revenue of over $2.6 BILLION is considered one of the most reliable religious organizations but still flat out refuses to hire anybody who isn't Christian. In fact they must sign a form saying they believe in Jesus and his teachings. And again, they are not shy about promoting Christianity to these third world children.
Let's not quilt ourselves in cultural amnesia here...heh; the catholic church is still the worlds largest non-profit charitable giver, and while we may have personal qualms with this church in particular, or religion in general, the good some religiously-affiliated org's do is wonderful, no matter your creed etc. If it's the case that you wonder if monetary donations go toward 'issues' you disagree with in these instances, then give your time; the Christian 'out of the cold' program is wonderful, and local.
Help is help, and is always needed.
"How we spend our days is, after all, how we spend our lives" (Annie Dillard).
Jonathan.
And, as might be inferred from my initial post, I do have concerns about donating any time or money to organizations with an affiliated religion. It's simply something I don't believe in and to me the ends don't always justify the means.
Thanks for picking that up-
Jonathan.
I just got back from a Photography trip to Sri Lanka where I documented the Tsunami relief work of The Salvation Army. Sri Lanka's religious breakdown is 70% Buddhism 15% Hinduism 8% Christianity.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9402E7DE1F38F932A25754C0A9679C8B63&;sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
While I couldn't open the link to where the story came from, the Wikipedia article also says:
"The Salvation Army's position is that because it is a church, Section VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 explicitly guarantees its right to discriminate on the basis of its religious beliefs in its hiring. To reinforce its position, it threatened to close all soup kitchens in New York City when the city government proposed legislation that would require all organizations doing business with it to provide equal benefits to unmarried domestic partners."
Also: shouldn't the people their motivation, not God?
Commitment is once or twice a month for 4 hours.