#ChiDoesGood: Helping Hands
A few short weeks ago this seemed impossible, but now many people in our own communities are staying home beyond even the required stay at home orders. For the elderly and those with compromised immune systems, the current COVID-19 situation makes any outing incredibly dangerous and scary. Many of those people are resorting to paying additional fees for things like grocery delivery or relying on close friends or families to help ensure they have food, medications, and any other necessities. Now imagine a person in that same situation who may not have the money or support system required to have others bring them the items they rely on. Scary, no?
Luckily, Chi Alumnus Ken Stolman has come up with an idea to help solve this problem, and we can be part of the solution! Ken co-founded Helping Hands, a new non-profit organization whose mission is to match people who want to help, with people who could use a hand.
It is really very simple to either ask for help or provide help. Just go to the website, and either request or offer help. To request, you put in what you need from where, and some stores even let you call ahead, place the order and pay. And to provide assistance, you see a dashboard of opportunities to help, select the ones you are able and willing to complete, and it puts you right in touch with the person you’ll be helping. Requestors can either pay the store ahead of time or pay the helper digitally or with cash or check. It is totally up to the helper and helped. The system helps match up volunteers with requestors in their area, so often it can just be getting some additional items when you are already planning on running errands.
It’s a very simple process founded on the same values we have at Chi of kavod (respect), chesed (kindness) and kehillah (community). And this safe volunteer opportunity, especially in a crisis like the one we are experiencing, is the epitome of #ChiDoesGood.
To check out Helping Hands, request help or volunteer, click here.
For all #ChiDoesGood blogs, click here.
Do you have opportunities or ideas for socially distanced #ChiDoesGood? Have you participated in any activities that could be #ChiDoesGood? We want you to let us know.