Summer Volunteer Opportunities

Dear Penn Community,

In our continuing efforts to be good neighbors, the following is a list of the monthly posting of community service opportunities. As many of you know, each month, Penn Volunteers In Public Service (Penn VIPS) posts a list of volunteer opportunities. These opportunities are developed from the many requests we get from the surrounding community to be partners in a particular initiative and/or sometimes to provide assistance. Thank you for your continued support.

Please contact me at sammapp@pobox.upenn.edu or by phone at (215) 898-2020 to volunteer for any of these programs.

–Isabel Mapp, Associate Director, Faculty, Staff and Alumni Volunteer Services,
Director, Penn Volunteers in Public Service, Center for Community Partnerships

Help Out with 50 Hoops The Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania is looking for volunteers to help out with 50 Hoops, a basketball tournament special event aimed at increasing awareness of and education around prostate cancer. 50 Hoops is a national effort which is coming to Philadelphia for the first time, and will feature basketball events, celebrities, prizes, free health screenings, etc. We need:

• African-American men ages 50 + who like to play basketball to be on the Penn team
•  men ages 30 - 49 to participate in the free-throw contest (for prizes)
• volunteers to help staff the Penn booth

The event is Saturday, July 27 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, July 28 from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. It will be held at McGonigle Gym at Temple University. Potential basketball players and volunteers can contact Charnita M. Zeigler-Johnson at (215) 573-5264 or czeigler@cceb.med.upenn.edu More info. on 50 Hoops can be found at:www.50hoops.org/.

Computers, Volunteers and Your Support Needed! Is your department upgrading its computers? Would you like to donate your used computers to a worthy cause? Are they Pentium I or PowerPCs or better? Are you knowledgeable with Windows or Linux? Do you know web-design? Donate your computer or time to help teach computer literacy. Come help teach young students and adults resume writing or how to use Office suite software. Come help design and install computer labs in the community. The Center for Community Partnerships’ Penn VIPS and Digital Divide Program, work-study students and a group of volunteers are working to provide computers to West Philadelphia schools, families and nonprofit agencies. Visit us at www.upenn.edu/ccp/programs/digitaldivide/donate.html.

How Would You Like to Help Prepare a University City or a West Philadelphia High School Student for the World of Work? Hire them to do general office work and expose them to their areas of interest. We have students interested in the medicine, law, computers and much more! Mentor a student. Hire a student to work in your department. Students earn academic credits and are paid through the YouthWorks Program for their internship.

Help Out at the VA Medical Center Volunteer to write letters for and read to the elderly veterans. Do you have a valid driver’s license? Your help is needed to drive a van to transport Disabled American Veterans to and from the hospital.

Health Center #4 at 44th and Haverford Avenues recently inaugurated a new playroom for children ages 1-5 years. They are looking for volunteers to staff it for a few hours per week on a consistent basis. Ideal volunteers are adults and teens who enjoy supervising and caring for children. The play room is open Tuesday through Friday 8 a.m to 4:30 p.m.