 | |
| Formation | 2001 |
|---|---|
| Type | Service club |
Area served | World Wide |
Membership | 100,000 |
Key people | Clive Charlwood, Dave Shefferman, [1] Brian Gee |
| Website | http://www.onebrick.org |
One Brick is a 501(c)(3) non-profit service organization organized in twelve cities in the United States.
One Brick was founded in San Francisco in 2001. The founders were three friends, who recognized that a large number of volunteers are put off the volunteer experience by the necessity to attend orientations and make a regular commitment to a particular organization. The goal of One Brick is therefore to provide a sustainable volunteer pool to non-profit organizations by making the volunteer experience convenient and social.
With growth of the San Francisco chapter, new One Brick chapters were founded in New York (2002), Chicago (2004), Washington, DC (2006), Minneapolis (2008), Seattle (2009), Orlando (2010), Detroit (2011), Silicon Valley(2011), Philadelphia (2012), Los Angeles (2012), Boston (2012) One Brick Builds (2017) and New Orleans (2018).
Since it started, One Brick has contributed almost 630,000 volunteer hours (315 person years) to non-profit organizations in these cities. One Brick has also hosted over 25 work teams in New Orleans where they have contributed to assisting reconstruction efforts for communities affected by Hurricane Katrina. [2] In 2017 One Brick founded the new One Brick Builds chapter to assist rebuilding in New Orleans but also in other distant communities hit by natural disaster such as Baton Rouge, Columbia SC (Hurricane Joaquin), Wall Township NJ (Hurricane Sandy).
One Brick membership is open to individuals 21 or older. Volunteers join through the organization's website, and are then able to register for One Brick events, which are listed on an online calendar. Volunteers sign-up for events that interest them and fit within their schedules. As the organization is built on the premise of "commitment-free volunteering," volunteers are not required to attend a minimum number of events. [3]
One Brick 'event managers' liaise between volunteers and representatives of partner non-profits, and organize after-event socials. The managers are volunteers who have undergone training to be able to coordinate the needs of the volunteers and non-profit partner organizations. The primary role of the manager is to ensure that the volunteers know where and when an event is taking place and to provide records of which members attended an event to chapter management.
Within an individual One Brick chapter, a management team oversees administration. These activities include reaching out to non-profit partners to set up new One Brick events, fundraising, and marketing. The management team is staffed entirely by volunteers, who are typically experienced One Brick managers. At the national level, One Brick is run by an Executive Director, who ensures collaboration between the chapters in different cities.
One Brick operates by connecting volunteers with non-profit partner organizations. Over 1,600 organizations have partnered with One Brick, including Habitat for Humanity, American Heart Association, DC Central Kitchen, and the Greater Chicago Food Depository. The exact activity performed by volunteers on the day of an event depends on the mission of the non-profit partner, but typical examples include sorting charitable contributions, preparing food for disadvantaged members of the community, assisting at fund-raising galas and helping to clean up parks and green spaces. One Brick events usually last 3–4 hours. After each event, the One Brick manager organizes a get-together for the volunteers to socialize. This social aspect is considered a key feature of the One Brick volunteer experience. [4]
The disaster recovery response to Hurricane Katrina in late 2005 included U.S. federal government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the United States Coast Guard (USCG), state and local-level agencies, federal and National Guard soldiers, non-governmental organizations, charities, and private individuals. Tens of thousands of volunteers and troops responded or were deployed to the disaster; most in the affected area but also throughout the U.S. at shelters set up in at least 19 states.
Hurricane Katrina had many social effects, due the significant loss and disruption of lives it caused. The number of fatalities, direct and indirect, related to Katrina is 1,833 and over 400,000 people were left homeless. The hurricane left hundreds of thousands of people without access to their homes or jobs, it separated people from relatives, and caused both physical and mental distress on those who suffered through the storm and its aftermath, such as Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The reconstruction of New Orleans refers to the rebuilding process endured by the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the city on August 29, 2005. The storm caused levees to fail, releasing tens of billions of gallons of water. The levee failure contributed to extensive flooding in the New Orleans area and surrounding parishes. About 80% of all structures in Orleans Parish sustained water damage. Over 204,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, and more than 800,000 citizens displaced—the greatest displacement in the United States since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Wind damage was less severe than predicted. The damage that took place that needed to be repaired cost about $125 billion.
The Common Ground Collective is a decentralized network of non-profit organizations offering support to the residents of New Orleans. It was formed in the fall of 2005 in the Algiers neighborhood of the city in the days after Hurricane Katrina resulted in widespread flooding, damage and deaths throughout the city.
Malik Rahim is an American housing and prison activist based since the late 1990s in the New Orleans area of Louisiana, where he grew up. In 2005 Rahim gained national publicity as a community organizer in New Orleans in 2005 to combat the widespread destruction in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; there he co-founded the Common Ground Collective.
The Green Project is a not-for-profit environmental organization established in 1994 in St. Roch, New Orleans, Louisiana. The Green Project began as a salvage operation to recover unwanted paint then expanded to used building materials in 1996. In the past, the project participated in the deconstruction of New Orleans's homes and buildings but has since focused only on donations. The project operates a retail outlet, and community workshops. Materials accepted include:
Camp Hope is a volunteer base camp located in a former school in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Camp Hope has welcomed people from all over the United States and all over the world who have come to participate in the massive recovery efforts of St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Citizen Corps is a program under the Department of Homeland Security that provides training for the population of the United States to assist in the recovery after a disaster or terrorist attack. Each local Citizen Corps Council partners with organizations, volunteers and businesses to organize responders, volunteers and professional first responders for an efficient response so efforts are not wasted by being duplicated. By training in Incident Command, volunteers know whom to report to and how the incident is organized. This prevents sites from being inundated by untrained and unprepared personnel preventing operation. Citizen Corps also works in conjunction with the Corporation for National and Community Service in promoting national service opportunities for promoting homeland security needs.
SBP is a nonprofit, disaster relief organization. After temporarily volunteering in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, Liz McCartney and Zack Rosenburg returned permanently in March 2006 and founded the project. The organization eventually expanded to include offices in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Joplin, Missouri, Columbia, South Carolina, New Jersey, New York, and West Virginia. By August 2022, SBP's national impact included assistance to 5,500 families, including the rebuilding of over 1,200 homes, including 600 in New Orleans. They have collaborated extensively with Toyota and Americorps. As a result of its accomplishments, the organization and its founders have been recognized by Senator Mary Landrieu, CNN, and President Barack Obama.
Katrina Aid Today is a relief charity in the United States, that works to provide long term recovery support to survivors of Hurricane Katrina. United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), the humanitarian relief and development agency of the United Methodist Church, manages the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sponsored program. Nine national partners and sixteen local organizations, who specialize in availability of benefits, resources and services, aim to deliver assistance to 300,000 of the most vulnerable survivors in the United States.
Upwardly Global is a 501(c)(3) national non-profit organization with offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. that helps immigrant, refugee and asylee professionals rebuild their careers in the United States.
Virtual volunteering refers to volunteer activities completed, in whole or in part, using the Internet and a home, school buildings, telecenter, or work computer or other Internet-connected device, such as a smartphone or a tablet. Virtual volunteering is also known as online volunteering, remote volunteering or e-volunteering. Contributing to free and open source software projects or editing Wikipedia are examples of virtual volunteering.
A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge is a non-fiction graphic novel by cartoonist Josh Neufeld. Originally published as a webcomic, A.D. tells the stories of a handful of real-life New Orleans residents and their experiences during and after Hurricane Katrina. The graphic novel was a New York Times best-seller and was nominated for an Eisner Award and a Harvey Award in 2010. In addition, A.D. was selected for inclusion in The Best American Comics 2010.
The Community Center of St Bernard (CCSTB) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in Arabi, Louisiana, in St Bernard Parish near New Orleans. The Community Center was founded in 2006 to serve local residents after the overwhelming devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. The center was closed briefly during Hurricane Gustav, but was able to reopen almost immediately after the storm. The purpose of the Community Center is to assist local residents in their return to their homes, and to help normalize life.
Adventures in Preservation, formerly named Heritage Conservation Network, is a non-profit organization dedicated to safeguarding the world’s architectural heritage. Its programs give volunteers from all walks of life the opportunity to be involved in preservation in a variety of hands-on ways.
KABOOM! is an American non-profit organization that helps communities build playgrounds for children.
United Saints Recovery Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit located in the Central City neighbourhood of New Orleans which developed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It is a second-tier disaster response and community development organisation that exclusively harnesses the power of national and international volunteers to rebuild and preserve the city of New Orleans. The United Saints organisation was founded by Daryl Kiesow in 2007 after HandsOn organisation transitioned out of the neighbourhood. The United Saints main focus is to help communities affected by disasters and to revitalise economically distressed neighbourhoods. The United Saints Recovery Project operates out of First Street United Methodist Church on Dryades Street, New Orleans.
The Rosetta Foundation is a nonprofit organization that promotes social localization, the process of making social services information available to individuals around the world in their native languages.
CulinaryCorps is an American non-profit organization that recruits culinary students and professionals to volunteer their professional skills on trips to communities in the United States.
The Volunteer Pilots Association (VPA) is an American Public Benefit Flying (PBF) group founded in 1990. The Volunteer Pilots Association provides free non-emergency air transportation to and from medical appointments for patients with a financial need. Headquartered in southwestern Pennsylvania, the VPA is an all-volunteer non-profit organization. All member pilots fly privately owned planes and donate their time and flight expenses.