Spring 2023 Update: Widen The Circle
The damaging effects of social isolation are much less of a mystery today than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtually every sector of the healthcare system is talking about it.
The health risks are as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day - causing despair, drug addiction, and even death. What’s more, is that our communities are missing out on the gifts each human life has to offer.
Conversely, there is more and more evidence of immense positive effects on social connection, especially across social classes – increased happiness, better health, more opportunities, and a longer life.
Those of us on staff at Do For One see the reality and the effects of loneliness every day; without programs like ours, devalued people, such as many people with disabilities, are likely to spend their whole life without one single unpaid friend.
Together, we are not only widening the circle by making more one-to-one freely-given matches between socially isolated people and those who enjoy a more socially included life but, just as importantly, we are thickening the circle in three distinct and interrelated ways:
Widen The Circle
Diversifying Our Network
By diversifying our network, we are not only reaching those with greater need, such as those living in nursing homes, those with more significant disabilities, and those living in extreme poverty. We are also enriching our collective wisdom for the work we do together.
Each quarter, our Relationship Support Committee evaluates our matchmaking efforts on the number of matches and the diversity of each relationship. Our evaluation tool allows us to assess the primary nature of each relationship we’ve made possible, which divides them into four categories; friendships, mentorships, problem-solvers, and advocates.
Here are some real-life examples found within the 75 relationships Do For One has made and now supports:
Friendships: Some Advocates and Partners attend musical concerts and sports games together.
Mentors: Some Advocates are walking alongside young adults with disabilities as they further their education, learn to live independently, and find work.
Problem Solvers: One Advocate delivers groceries and picks up medications while assisting her Partner in setting up appropriate home care services. Another Advocate helps a disabled immigrant find resources and fill out paperwork.
Advocates: One Advocate walked into the hospital and told a Social Worker more context about her Partner’s life and family to improve the care the hospital provided. Another Advocate made the appropriate phone calls with their Partner to speed up the Partner’s wheelchair repairs.
Of course, each relationship is unique and evolves, so our evaluation is also highly nuanced. This is illustrated in our March 2023 Newsletter.
Another story that illustrates this is Helen and Zella's road trip.
Helen, the Advocate who met Zella 5 years ago, recently said,
"Zella loves road trips but hasn't been able to go on as many with her mom passing. So for her birthday, we took a road trip! These moments together make me appreciate what I am able to offer and remind me that meaningful change can come from simple advocacy - using my ability to do 'ordinary' things for another who cannot so that we can share these things."
Helen (left) and Zella (right)
To steward this movement, we are excited to announce that we are hiring Benjamin Tien as a Program Coordinator focusing on our activity in Harlem. Ben has been a Core Leader and Advocate since 2019 and has a wealth of experience in working with underserved populations. In our Spring Campaign Video, Ben said,
“Do For One doesn’t just talk the talk but Do For One walks the walk. I can see how it’s super important to have (those values) embedded into your own lifestyle, and that’s part of my aspiration too. To have my life live more up to the values I care about.”
2. Investing In Leadership Development
By investing in leadership development, we are unleashing the many talents within Do For One’s current leadership, creating new leadership recruitment channels, and setting Do For One up for long-term sustainability and multiplication of leaders.
In 2023, we are rolling out a training intensive for our core leadership. This includes four half-day training sessions. In the years to come, this training will be offered to a wider audience for establishing co-creative groups between the traditional service systems and local faith-based (and other) communities.
We’ve held two of the four sessions so far.
In session #1, titled Laying the Foundation, we crafted a stance on the inherent worth of all human life. This view is rooted in the Judeo-Christian belief that all human life is created in the image of God. In contrast, we examined the opposing views that threaten human life, mainly devalued groups and individuals, such as people with disabilities. After looking broadly at some of the common life experiences of devalued people, we reflected on what we can do about it.
In session #2, titled Walking The Tightrope, we built the case that no matter how innovative the design and how much money gets poured into a service, paid human service workers cannot and should not provide the type of care that family, friends, and community members can.
Pictured above is our Leadership Training Session #1 held on February 25th 2023: From left to right: Gene, Ben, Maegan, Jesse, Nick, Richard, Andrew, Maria, Jane, Alexa
Deepening Community Roots
By deepening community roots in key neighborhoods (Harlem, Upper East, and West Side of Manhattan, Roosevelt Island, and Western Queens), we recognize that relationship-building across societal barriers takes more than just one organizational effort; it takes neighbors, families, faith communities, service agencies, and more to weave the new social fabric.
Our hope is that each person we serve through our program will experience more of the good things of life: to love and be loved, to be safe and secure, to have work and a sense of purpose, to have family or at least close friends, etc.
Each Do For One relationship builds a bridge that walks the Partner, the socially excluded one, across the land of client-based services to the land of citizenship – where they contribute to the social fabric, the workforce, and faith communities throughout New York City.
To accomplish this, even for one socially isolated person, it not only takes more than one person, but it also takes more than one organization. It takes all of us in each community to work together.
With gratitude,
Andrew, Founder & Director
4 Mile Fundraiser Run Across Roosevelt Island May 6th 2023
Thank you to our runners and supporters at Do For One’s Spring Fundraiser Run around the beautiful Roosevelt Island! What a privilege to do this work and to know such wonderful people!
