Today's Student Organization Neighborhood guest editorial comes courtesy of Your Cause This Week. The Student Organization Neighborhood is a biweekly column dedicated to giving a voice to student groups across campus.
Your Cause This Week was founded in 2009 to facilitate simple, direct community service. We understand that students care about various causes in their community, but not everyone has the time or interest in making an ongoing commitment to a project or an organization.
Many simply don't know what opportunities exist to work on the issues they care about. Your Cause This Week offers a no-strings-attached opportunity for everyone to make a difference in their community.
Students can tell us what they care about and how they're interested in getting involved, and we will either help connect them with a local organization where they can volunteer or we can help them plan an event or volunteer opportunity to meet their interests. In this way, we are able to offer a great service not only to fulfill the needs in our community, but also to help the volunteers who want to meet those needs.
You don't have to make a commitment to make a difference; you just have to care about your cause. If you are interested in serving your community, Your Cause This Week can help you plan a volunteer opportunity that works for you and serves the cause that you care about. Don't underestimate the impact of that single act; every step you take will make a difference to your community and the causes you want to serve. And always be aware that as you take that step to serve your cause, there are others taking steps in the same direction. The combined impact of these single acts can make a great difference to your community.
To see the impact your act can make when combined with others, join Your Cause This Week for Make a Difference Day on Oct. 24. Do one nice thing for your community on that day—hold a door for a stranger, pick up a piece of trash on your walk to class, drop money or food in a donation bin—and share your story with us at yourcausethisweek.org. Fill out the form at the ""Make a Difference Day"" link, then follow the ""We Made a Difference"" link to see the list of your acts combined with others.
Your Cause This Week is currently involved with the Red and White Hunger Fight and with Project Grow's Family Volunteer Day. These partnerships allow us to offer a wider variety of opportunities to our volunteers, and we're always looking for opportunities to work with new organizations and projects.
To learn about the other events Your Cause This Week has planned for the semester, join us for our next meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 20, or just check us out online at yourcausethisweek.org. On the website, you can sign up for our upcoming volunteer opportunities, submit an Opportunity Request to tell us how you want to get involved, and get updates on our activities.
Whatever you care about, there is always a way to help. Your Cause This Week can connect you with the issues that you care about through simple, direct service to our community.
Dana Sitar is the coordinator for the student organization Your Cause This Week. If you have any questions or would like to contribute, please contact the organization at coordinator@yourcausethisweek.org.
