This past Sunday, more than 250 kids and their parents took the Marin area by storm, giving back to their community. Four schools, participants of the Go Inspire Go Community Heroes program, embarked on the second annual Day of Giving, with 12 unique service projects including:

-Cooking an elegant meal and preparing shelter kits for Homeward Bound of Marin
-Gardening at the Canal Community Garden in San Rafael
-Cleaning up with the Downtown Streets Team San Rafael
-Weeding and trash pick-up at Marin Civic Center
-Planting 150 plants and clearing non-native plants at Terra Linda/Sleepy Hollow Open Space Preserve
-Making superhero capes and blankets to benefit patients at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and Rooms that Rock 4 Chemo
-Multiple bake sales to help pay for expenses

That’s an incredible amount of good to come from one morning! The joy and excitement was palpable before and after the event. People were glowing… and happy! Why? I truly believe there’s a hunger in this community to try and keep grounded amid our picture-perfect scenery and weather, our gadget obsessions and the super-charged environment fueling the latest tech boom. Disparities are widening and the growing masses of homeless are being shuffled around. You see them out and about more — as local parks shut their gates, and as it gets even tougher to find affordable housing with rents and home prices through the roof. All these Community Heroes CHOSE to spend their Sunday getting their hands and hearts busy to help others. Our secret sauce? We make it FUN and aim to INSPIRE with our videos and our ENTHUSIASM, which I’ve been told is rather contagious.

Top heartwarming quotes from kids who took part in the Day of Giving:
-“The people we cleaned the streets with don’t look homeless. They’re just like us.”
-“I can’t wait to see the smiles on the faces of the people we cooked for!”
-“The Day of Giving was the best day of my life.”

Whoa, how’s that for compassion in action. Magic indeed!

The ask….

As Sun Valley School’s program has been going strong, word has got out and we’ve recruited three new local schools to join us this year: Kent Middle School, Dixie Elementary and Mary Silveira Elementary. More are lining up — and at this point, we need your help. Despite what it may seem from all we’ve accomplished, this program is 100% volunteer-run. Aside from a few grants, including a coveted LinkedIn Innovation Grant, we’ve come to the point where to keep this program growing and sustainable, we need to secure funding. This requires support for a full-time coordinator and Go Inspire Go infrastructure to create videos to grow the curriculum, operate our website and help run an organization.

The Community Heroes program has been teaching kids about compassion and action for close to three years, and we’ve been proving that what we’re doing WORKS! We’ve been getting kids and adults EXCITED and ENGAGED and have gone out there and done A LOT — collection drives, fundraisers and service projects to support local charities. The most exciting aspect of our impact is how kids have felt empowered by the program; they understand how they have the power to make a difference. Who knows how these young philanthropists and social activists will exercise their powers throughout their lives?

I believe there’s no greater gift we can give our kids than to grow their sense of compassion and responsibility to help make the world a better place. Don’t you agree?

Three ways you can help:

1. If you think this program is valuable, and can support us with a contribution, please donate here. Funds would help develop a toolkit, expand to new schools, train facilitators and coordinate among partners and the non-profit network.
2. If monetary contributions are a stretch, we could always use more volunteers and connections to those who might be willing to help. Just drop us a line with your ideas!
3. Spread the word about Go Inspire Go’s mission — to inspire people to find their power to help others! Please forward and share this blog. Use #ComHeroes and tag us @goinspirego. You can also email Kala Shah.

Kala Shah is Go Inspire Go’s Chief Innovation Officer and Program Director of Community Heroes, a service-learning program that is now in four Marin County schools.

The post A Day of Giving — And the Magic of Collective Giving appeared first on Go Inspire Go.

It’s a loaded question, but if you are brave and present enough to try and answer this question, the trajectory of your whole life could transform.

Like nature, our lives are filled with wonder. The intelligence, connectedness and energy surrounding every cell in our bodies has a purpose. And while there’s beauty in nature, there is also chaos. That’s OK. Become friends with chaos, as it will lead you to the blossoms and fruit you’re intended to bear.

I believe we are all here on Earth for a reason. We are called to something bigger than we could ever imagine.

It took me a lot of struggle and I’ve had more than my fair share of chaos culminating in my life before finding my passion work, GoInspireGo. I learned that my power is inspiring people to discover their power and sparking them to use it to help others.

One of those people is Kala Shah, whom I met two years ago at a LinkedIn networking event. She, like many parents, felt overwhelmed. With three kids under eight-years-old — two of them, rambunctious twins — who could blame her?

She told me that beyond juggling her daily schedule — shuttling kids around, running the house, being a good friend, family and community member — she was looking for that next step in her career that would allow her to keep life in balance. Deep down inside, she was also searching for ways to teach her kids about gratitude, compassion and service.

Be careful what you wish for! Like a flower needs a bee, we found one another. I told her that I was creating a lesson on compassion for the youth through my nonprofit, Go Inspire Go, and wanted to get my message into schools.

She invited me to speak at her kids’ school, Sun Valley Elementary in San Rafael, Calif., about being a community hero — how everyone has the power to use their talents to help others. Of course, we captured it on video. The seeds of an innovative, creative and inspirational program was born. With a lot of planning, elbow grease and organizing, two years later the Go Inspire Go Community Heroes Club has taken root in her community and blossomed into a model program to engage young kids in community service. All the while having a lot of fun!

Kala vowed to meet with the kids every other week during their lunch hour to give them a platform to organize their thoughts and take action:

1. She shows them a Go Inspire Go video.
2. They talk about this problem (the video presents in their community).
3. They brainstorm ways to be the change.
4. They take action — collecting clothes, toys and household goods and money while partnering with local trusted non-profits.
5. We share their good works on social media.

Words can’t describe the excitement in the kids’ eyes as Kala meets with them. The jubilation in the room as kids brainstorm how they can be of service to others is magical.

My hope is that this video will inspire you to ask yourself two simple, but life altering questions: “What is my power?” and “How can I use it to help others?” The result: JOY. I promise. Dare to click on this video below and own your power.

I know that every one of us has a bee-like mentality. We are searching (and are here) for a purpose. We want to find that purpose, be validated, feel loved and innately, we want to share it. Kala’s light was dim when I met her more than two years ago. As you can see in the Community Heroes videos, her light is powered on a higher voltage now. And while Kala’s, the kids’ and the community’s futures seem bright, they are the ones illuminating it all along.

Thanks to a LinkedIn innovation grant, Kala and I are piloting this youth program (and digital toolkit) at Sun Valley School. We are working on bringing this program to other schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Eventually, we’ll expand the program into middle schools and high schools, where the kids will create videos and snap pics of their own to share via social media. Community heroes — coming soon to your neighborhood! It’s easy, it’s fun and it’s impactful. Come join us!

Take Action:

Whether you’re a parent or have a youngster in your life, watch and feel reinvigorated to challenge yourself to be a change agent.

Join our movement. More info: info@goinspirego.com.

The post Igniting the Power within YOU and YOUR Community appeared first on Go Inspire Go.

As a mom of three young boys, my hope is to raise good kids who are kind to one another. I struggled to find concrete ways to teach these lessons. Last year I met GIG’s Chief Inspirator, Toan Lam, at a LinkedIn/Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) event promoting philanthropy and doing good, a perfect setting to cultivate a meaningful new friendship. We immediately hit it off, marveling about how innately good and generous young kids are. How do you harness all that beauty and goodness and unleash it? What could we do to propel kids to make their mark on the world? Toan gave me the energy and spark to make good on my promises to myself and my kids — to live in gratitude and to give back.

Several working lunches later, Toan and I had come up with a theory and an idea we were willing to test. If we provide young kids a space to express their concerns about the community and a little support to inspire them to action, who knows what may transpire? I invited Toan to present GIG’s Lesson on Compassion to 500 students at my son’s elementary school, Sun Valley School in San Rafael, Calif. “What can YOU do?” he asked the kids.

Marin is known for its natural beauty, affluence and sense of community. While all of the above is true, as you saw in the video, there are many folks living in need. Even some students at Sun Valley come from low-income families. This kicked off the launch of Sun Valley’s Community Heroes club, facilitated by yours truly. A few months later, the kids are excitedly helping local causes. Every week, I was surprised to see how many kids showed up during their lunch hour, ready to discover ways to use their power to help in whatever way they could. Many went home collecting Ziploc bags full of change to donate to causes they believe in. Up to 40 kids meet to talk about problems they see in the community and take actions to help out.

Here’s our impact so far:

• I was impressed that the kids identified these very adult issues: helping the hungry, homeless, foster kids, animals and those who can’t afford medicine. Whew, we have a lot of work to do!

• We collected 80 coats to benefit a great local organization called Canal Alliance, which assists low-income, Spanish-speaking immigrants acquire the tools they need to thrive in their newly adopted home.

• Kids have set up lemonade stands and sold their own books in their free time to raise money to help people in need.

We may just end up sowing the seeds of compassion so that by the time these students are in high school and required to perform service hours, they will be service veterans conducting sophisticated and deeply impactful projects within the community. Let’s see how far these ripples flow!

I realized that in giving these kids a forum to brainstorm, problem solve and take action, I too was getting something back. Through GIG Community Heroes, I am finally fulfilling this deep-seated desire and obligation to give back to my kids and the community.

Feeling inspired? Want to start your own GIG Community Heroes Club? Join us on this journey to inspire your community. Let’s expand our platform together.

Take Action

How can you start your own Community Heroes club? Here are some great resources to help you get started:

1) GIG Spark Lesson on Compassion 
2) Get connected to Generation On and Kids Care
3) Our presentation on Inspiring Service GIG’s blog

What can YOU do?

Follow us @GoInspireGo on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & YouTube

The post Sowing the Seeds of Compassion in YOUR Kids appeared first on Go Inspire Go.