G.I.V.E.S.

Graduate Students in Various Efforts of Service (G.I.V.E.S.)

The program aims to enhance the student experience by providing a forum for the HGSE community to identify, participate in, and learn from service to the community at large. By streamlining, facilitating, and increasing volunteerism efforts of students, faculty, staff and families, G.I.V.E.S. hopes to

1) create a stronger bond between HGSE and the surrounding communities

2) increase students' capacities as public servants and leaders through powerful volunteer service

3) mobilize the diverse HGSE community toward finding solutions for our society's most pressing social justice concerns

Program Welcome

Welcome to the HGSE GIVES Program! GIVES provides opportunities and resources for HGSE students to engage in meaningful acts of service during their time at HGSE. In the past, activities have ranged from elementary school renovations and homeless shelter clean-ups to Red Cross blood drives and cancer awareness events. This year we are hoping to continue HGSE's tradition of service and expand into new areas of service with our local community.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to join in our service events, and we are certainly open to new ideas of service activities. If you are interested in learning more or have a great service idea to share, please don't hesitate to send an email to tracie_jones@gse.harvard.edu.

We look forward to seeing you at one of our GIVES events this year!

Fall Events

 

Haley House - Transitional Emplyment Program Workforce Readiness WorkshopsSaturday, October 17 and Saturday, November 2Are you intersted in community service, transofrming neighborhoods and lives? Providing one on one mentorship to adults? Then this volunteer opportunity is for you! G.I.V.E.S. volunteers will create, facilitate and staff Saturday workshops for the Transitional Employment Program. The program assitst those recently released from incarceration as they re-enter the world independently. The two Saturday workshops are held in conjuction with the Harvard Law School and the Employment Law Clinic. Volunteers will have an opportunity to collaborate with HLS students, work on curriculum, facilitate workshop sessions, serve as mentors or staff the event. Volunteer with Big Sisters of Greater Boston Information SessionFriday, November 6| 4:00 – 5:00pm (Gutman 404)Come to an information session to learn more about volunteering with Big Sisters of Greater Boston. Become a big sister! Inspire a girl. Transform a community. Big Sister's vision to create a mentor-rich community in which every girl has access, without cost, to the individual nurturing guidance, and support she needs to overcome challenges and become a confident, competent and caring adult.To attend this session please register by emailing Mofei Xu @ mxu@bigsisters.org 

Volunteer @ College Bound Dorchester 
Friday, November 13 | 12:00- 3:00pm (leaving Gutman @ 11:30)
Come volunteer your time to support College Bound Dorchester in enchancing the look of the school. We will be spending 3 hours creating a facelift for the school through painting! There are 12 spots available for this activity
*Transportation will be provided*To sign up please email tracie_jones@gse.harvard.edu Volunteer with City Year Boston for a Thanksgiving Service EventFriday, November 20 | 11:00am - 1:00pm or 1:00pm - 3:00pm (we have a total of 10 slots)City Year Boston currently deploys 265 corps members to serve every day in 21 Boston Public Schools to provide students with the academic and social support that they need to meet their full potential. These students live within complex communities with a variety of strong assets, but that are also facing significant challenges. Two of those challenges are hunger and homelessness.  Currently, nearly 3,000 BPS students are homeless and 1 in 6 students in MA is food insecure. These facts would be far worse were it not for the network of non-profit organizations (like Pine Street Inn, Rosie’s Place, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Hearth Inc and several others) providing hunger and housing assistance to our most vulnerable citizens. This event seeks to provide highly needed items to these organizations during a time of the year where requests for support tend to increase dramatically.Volunteers will be making apple pies, packing hygiene kits, creating bingo prizes, decorating mugs and creating several other highly requested items.To sign up please email tracie_jones@gse.harvard.edu and let me know if you are volunteering for the 11am-1pmshift or the 1pm – 3pm shift. Harvard Homeless ShelterFriday, November 27  |  6:30 - 9:00amThe Harvard Homeless Shelter is run and staffed by Harvard students. Volunteers are needed for the day after Thanksgiving. Come in bright and early to greet guests as they begin to wake up! You'll be making breakfast and helping to clean the shelter (an invaluable service!) after all the guest leave at 8am. The shelter is located at 66 Winthrop Street in the basement of the University Lutheran Church in Harvard Square (on the corner of Dunster and Winthrop Streets, next to the MAC and Pinocchio's Pizza).

 

ADDITIONAL COMMUNITY SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES Big Sister of Greater Boston | Year Long CommitmentBecome a big sister! Inspire a girl. Transform a community. Big Sister's vision to create a mentor-rich community in which every girl has access, without cost, to the individual nurturing guidance, and support she needs to overcome challenges and become a confident, competent and caring adult. For volunteer opportunities contact Erica Brien at 617-236-8060 or ebrien@bigsister.org. Minds Matter  |  Commitment is October - MayMinds Matter of Boston aims to transform the lives of accomplished high school students from low-income families by broadening their dreams and preparing them for college success. Volunteers provide a foundation for encouragement and academic enrichment so mentees can "Dream, Aspire, and Achieve!" Mentors consists of young professionals and graduate students and provides volunteers the opportunity to make a difference in the community, develop leaderhisp skills and network with other mentors and staff members. For volunteer opportunities contact Rachel Kanter at rachel.kanter90@gmail.com. The South End Technology Center  |  Flexible OpportunitiesThe South End Technology Center @ Tent City is a place that encourages community members to be producers of knowledge and to make a lasting contribution to the community. The center provides technology education for adults and young people and include classes and invidualized tutorials. The center also provides an audio recording studio that offers instruction in sound enginnering, music, spoken word and PSA recording. Volunteering at SETC is a good opoprtunity to learn first-hand about information technology and community development. if you have skills to share with others we encourage you to develop a class and teach at SETC. For volunteer opportunities contact Susan at 617-578-0597 or email susan@learn2teach.org. 

Past Events

Previous G.I.V.E.S. Service Programs

 

Think Pink

Special Studies Student, Melissa Peeples-Fullmore, created the Think Pink event for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Students, staff and faculty wore pink on Friday, October 25th and pink ribbons were available at the security desk in Gutman Library. Even the staff at Gutman Cafe participated, selling pink cookies, cupcakes and pink lemonade!

Petey Green Program

In the spring of 2015, eight GSE students worked as volunteer TAs/tutors in MCI Norfolk and MCI Framingham through the Petey Greene Program. Five students (three at Norfolk and two at Framingham) volunteered as TAs for college courses taught through Boston University’s Prison Education Program. Two students volunteered as tutors in MCI Norfolk’s college preparation program and one student ran a weekly study hall for the men in the college classes at MCI Norfolk.

Cross Roads for Kids Day of Service

Our team had a great time volunteering at crossroads for kids! G.I.V.E.S worked with Crossroads for Kids, a summer camp that serves over 1000 youth from the greater Boston area close the camp down for the winter. It was a physically taxing day but in the end it was rewarding. Our volunteer hours saved the organization money that can now be allocated towards scholarships that allow these young leaders to prosper!

 

Earth Day Cleanup

G.I.V.E.S. participated in this year’s Earth Day Clean Up! There were over 3,000 people participating for the whole cleanup and HGSE was there! We were located at the Charles River Parkland on the Western side of the Anderson Bridge (JFK St.) This region stretches from the Anderson Bridge to across from Hawthorne Street. Despite the heavy rain our volunteers collected six bags of trash and we’re super excited about our support for the Charles River Conservancy!

 

College Application Workshop for Artist for Humanity

Artist for Humanity organizes a paid apprenticeship and leadership program for urban teen to provide young artist with a safe haven and introduction to the professional world! In order to assist in their efforts to assist these youth in reaching self sufficiency, GIVES volunteers provided feedback and advice to high school students on their college applications and essays! In these efforts, HGSE volunteers were able to help these student's in reaching their goals of having a bright future through the GIVES program!

 

HGSE ThanksGIVING Food and Winter Clothing Drive 

GIVES, in conjunction with the Civic Engagement Team from the EPM program, hosted a food and winter clothing drive from November 14th through 18th. Students were able to donate non-perishable food items and winter clothing in boxes on campus or online to the Greater Boston Food Bank. Over nine large bags of clothes (enough to pack a Kia Soul Zipcar) and two crates of food were collected thanks to the generosity of the HGSE community!

Let's Get Ready College Application Completion Day

On October 15th, HGSE students joined other volunteers downtown for Let's Get Ready's College Application Completion Day. Volunteers were paired up with motivated, low-income students from around Boston to work on college application essay writing, filling out the common application, selecting schools, and preparing for life in college. Nearly 40 Boston high school students came for the great afternoon of college preparation.

Pretty in Pink Breast Cancer Event

On April 30th, the Get in Touch Foundation, with the help of GIVES, HGSE SGA, and others got together to host the first annual Pretty in Pink Breast Cancer Brunch at the Ed School. The event had a light brunch, various speakers, including the Tufts Clinical Director of Cancer Research and a breast cancer survivor, and raised awareness and money to help assist in early detection of breast cancer. In the end, nearly 50 people joined in with the event and raised hundreds of dollars to help support the cause.

City Year Holiday Service Day

 

On November 19th, City Year invited the GIVES Program to join them in their annual holiday day of service at the headquarters in Bay Back.  HGSE students, along with members of City Year, Bain & Company, Northeastern, and others, got together to complete various acts of service aimed at supporting local communities.  Volunteers baked apple pies for homeless shelters, stuffed bears for elementary school students, painted wall decorations for a nursing home, made blankets for families, and more.  In the end, all of the goals for the day were met, with volunteers making 150 pies from scratch, creating over a hundred blankets, stuffing boxes and boxes of stuffed animals, and painting a dozen wall hangings.

 

 

Homeless Shelter Clean Up

On March 26th, GIVES volunteers worked alongside volunteers from the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter to help clean up and tidy living areas of the amazing space. The kitchen, common area, and sheets and towels were all cleaned, sorted, and prepared for the final push of winter. The help from the volunteers provided essential assistance to keep this incredible shelter, which has been running for over a decade, successful in its mission to help those in need.

John Marshall Elementary Makeover

On February 19th, the GIVES program, along with City Year brought about 150 volunteers to this Dorchester elementary school to help paint nearly all of the interior walls of the school, murals in the stairwells and large hallways, and inspiration quotes all around.  The event brought together HGSE and other Harvard Students, Boston College, Boston University, and Northeastern undergraduates, local high school students, and City Year volunteers to transform a school that had not been painted in 15 years.  What a nice surprise after coming back from Spring break! Please check out this article about this event:

http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/09/02/hgse-gives-local-elementary-school

Craft-Making Event for CCC

On December 10th, GIVES, along with SGA, put together a craft-making event in Conroy Commons.  We watched movies, drank cider, ate cookies, and created 50 crafts for kids in need from the Cambridge Community Center.  The gifts went to support kids ages 6-13 who would otherwise not receive too many gifts this holiday season. After all of the hard work gluing, painting, designing, and cutting, about 20 volunteers created incredible pencil cases, wooden cars, planes, and boats, jewelry boxes, and picture frames. 

Elihu Greenwood Leadership Academy Painting Day

On November 6th, the GIVES program, along with the help of City Year brought about 20 HGSE volunteers together with 20 City Year Volunteers to this Hyde Park elementary school to help paint inspirational quotes, windows, and door frames.  The event brought together people from all different programs to learn more about the school and about City Year all while brightening up this fantastic turn around school.  For more information, please check out an article published in the Crimson:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/11/8/school-service-students-ed/ 

Winter Clothing Drive

The clothing drive (October 12-18) was a huge success.  The HGSE community was able to fill 2 large boxes completely full of clothes in just one week.  The total amount was nearly 40-50 individual articles of clothing.  We were able to collect shoes, jackets, pants, sweatshirts, socks, hats, gloves, and winter boots.  Thanks to all of the hard work, Cradles to Crayons will be able to share our generosity with kids and families in Boston who are in dire need of warmth during this quickly approaching, frigid winter.