On April 7th, Motiv facilitated the city’s third Good Deeds Day for San Diego teens, organizing 29 community service projects across San Diego County attended by approximately 400 teen volunteers, including many from San Diego Unified. Good Deeds Day is an international day of service, initially founded by Israeli businesswoman Shari Arison based on the simple idea that “every single person can do something good, be it large or small, to improve the lives of others and positively change the world”. Since its inception in 2007, this event has grown from 7,000 volunteers in Israel to 3.9 million volunteers in over 100 countries in 2019.
Through Motiv's free “one-stop-shop” platform high school students can find and register for any of 75 community service projects curated for teen volunteers each month and electronically verify their service hours. Motiv is set up to decrease barriers between teens and service to make it easy for all teens in San Diego Unified and San Diego at large to volunteer. In addition, Motiv offers service awards, internships and competitions, and hosts free community-wide service events for teens, highlighted by Good Deeds Day.
On Good Deeds Day, teens sorted clothing donations at Sharia’s closet, helped repair cat enclosures at the Humane Society and distributed care kits to the homeless downtown with Wahupa Upward Bound, among other projects. According to Motiv Manager, Michael Nimer, “by offering a wide variety of volunteer opportunities, teens have the ability to choose projects that match their passions.”
Mirroring Arison’s sentiment, Zachary Patterson, a high school freshman at University City High School, reflected on his experience preparing for the Midnight Run: “Packaging winter-weather clothes and hygiene supplies was a step in the right direction towards helping the homeless. It felt great to give back to the community, but also realize just how much more work needs to be done.”
As Zachary and others have come to understand, teen service is not only focused on doing good deeds to help vulnerable populations, but also on the volunteers own experience through a service learning lens, in order to create agents of change. It’s one thing to learn about food insecurity, it’s another to serve a meal to someone who otherwise wouldn’t eat that night. Service learning combines both elements, giving teens the chance to connect with people or organizations and find that they share common beliefs and values, creating bonds that inspire a greater sense of desire to care for their neighborhoods and support individuals. While Good Deeds Day is only one day a year, community service organizations like Motiv provide service-learning opportunities for students throughout the year.
