We may be social distancing, but we can still give back! Mark your calendars for Young Blacks Give Back Month: Virtual Edition! YBGB Month is Thursday Network’s most significant annual community service initiative. Held during the month of May and recognized by a DC Mayoral Proclamation, Thursday Network members will spread volunteer service and philanthropy throughout DC, Prince George's County, Montgomery County and beyond to reinforce the importance of giving back. We are excited to announce that this year’s event will feature meaningful ways for members and the general public to sow into communities that need support the most!

2020 YBGB Month Virtual Opportunities are listed below, click the title link to learn more and to sign up (events marked with ** are youth friendly). 

We’ll wrap up the month with Fellowship & Food Delivery for elders at Victory Heights as well as a Thank You Card Writing Party via Zoom for Essential Workers!

As you’re volunteering, please take a selfie and post using the hashtag #TNGivesBack!

Volunteer Opportunities:

• Learning Ally**: Do you have a friendly voice? Use your voice talent to bring juvenile fiction books to life! Request for African American and Latinx voices for children's books.

• MicroMentorDC: With MicroMentor, a Mercy Corps initiative, you can be the link to business success. Share your unique skills and expertise to help small business owners who need and want your advice to grow their businesses. Offer to mentor an entrepreneur today. Mentors  have the option to join the  MicroMentor COVID19 response team.

• COVID19 Hospice Volunteer Help**: Capital Caring Health Prince George's County Office is looking for talented individuals who can sew homemade masks for our caregivers. Under normal circumstances, a fabric mask is not recommended for clinical use. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the Hospice is adjusting in accordance with CDC guidelines and expert counsel. At this time, these fabric masks will not be used by health care team members caring for patients. The masks will be made available to: (1) Visitors to the In Patient Unit; (2) Non Contact Staff in the office; and (3) volunteers who are doing Shop and Drop for patients. The Hospice is not able to provide you the supplies needed for this project. CDC Sewn Cloth Coverings Instructions

• Become a Positive Male Role Model & Advocate for Youth in Foster Care: While 50% of the youth CASA serve are young men who have been abused or neglected, only 10% of CASA’s volunteer advocates are men, able to draw from their perspectives and experiences as they advocate for and mentor a young man in need. The need for strong support in the lives of male youth in foster care is urgent. Change a child's story today and become a CASA volunteer!

• Library of Congress’s By the People Campaign**:The Library of Congress invites you to transcribe, review, and tag digitized images of manuscripts and typed materials from the Library’s collections. Participate in the Mary Church Terrell Campaign transcribing the writings of a prominent African American pioneer of  Women's Suffrage.

• National Archive Catalogue Citizen Archivists**: Volunteers can contribute to the National Archives Catalog by tagging, transcribing and adding comments to our records, making them more accessible and searchable. Every contribution you make helps unlock history. Help translate the United States vs. Amistad case files.

• Martha’s Table

• Smithsonian Digital Volunteers- Freedmen’s Bureau Project**: The Bureau of Refugees, Freemen, and Abandoned Lands, often referred to as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established on March 3, 1865. The duties of the Freedmen’s Bureau included supervision of all affairs relating to refugees, freedmen, and the custody of abandoned lands and property. These documents come from the Records of the Field Offices for the District of Columbia, Series 3.1: Subordinate Field Offices, Local Superintendent for Washington and Georgetown. Please help us transcribe these records to learn more about the experiences of formerly enslaved men and women in the Washington, D.C. area during the Reconstruction Era. Current SmithsonianTranscription Freedmen’s Bureau Projects:

• • DC & Georgetown Correspondence Letters Vol. 2 

  • DC & Georgetown Correspondence Letters Vol. 3

  • DC & Georgetown Correspondence Letters Vol. 4

  • DC & Georgetown Correspondence Letters Vol. 5

Donation Opportunities:

• Food Pantry Sponsorship: Thursday Network is extending an offer to members and organizations who would like to help the community and support families who are served through our monthly food pantry (i.e., older adults 65 and over and single parent households) during the COVID19 pandemic. To  reduce the spread of the virus  we will utilize a  grocery delivery service indefinitely to serve our families starting  April 2020. Sponsor a family of four for $25.00 which includes a two  week supply of groceries. Individuals can make a donation of $25.00 to the food pantry via the  Thursday Network website. Organizations who wish to support our efforts should contact Maggie Butler at csprograms@thursdaynetwork.org to coordinate group sponsorship efforts.