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Compassion Week kicked off on Saturday, Oct. 7, bringing residents together for a Mountain View-based event over the weekend with a goal of galvanizing thousands to support hands-on work with local nonprofits to give back to the community.
The event, now in its 11th year, launched with a panel discussion about non-traditional community partnerships, followed by a morning of volunteer activities at the Civic Center Plaza.
What started as a relatively small, one-day initiative with 300 volunteers, has since grown to a week-long event that, this year, will have about 3,500 volunteers participating in 170 service projects for nonprofit organizations in Santa Clara County and, for the first time, San Mateo County.
“It has taken on a life of its own,” said Jan McDaniel, event organizer and co-founder of Compassion Week. The idea for for the event originated with a group of Los Altos United Methodist Church congregants who wanted to do more than just “write a check,” said McDaniel. “We wanted to get out in the community and help out. But we went about it all wrong,” she added.
That first year, volunteers decided the terms of their service work without considering what organizations wanted or needed. “We told them we’d come out on a Sunday, which is probably the worst time for them,” McDaniel said, explaining that most people want to be with their families or rest on Sundays.
Since then, Compassion Week has flipped its model of operation. “We now ask people, what can we do to help?” McDaniel said, a mindset that has led to the reconfiguration of Compassion Week as a multi-day event that prioritizes volunteer activities based on what organizations say they need.
This approach – of listening to people – was a major theme of the panel session, which focused on how people can step out of their comfort zones, build relationships and contribute to their communities in meaningful ways.
Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian moderated the discussion – which was attended by about 50 people — with questions that asked Malia Pires, executive director of Reach Silicon Valley, and Joel Valencia, executive director of Evergreen Collective, to reflect on their experiences as nonprofit leaders and provide advice about how people can get involved in local initiatives.
“It’s really important to remember that people closest to the problem are closest to the solution,” Pires said, whose organization focuses on removing barriers to access, with specific attention to housing and food insecurities as well as academic barriers. Rather than assume they have the answer to someone’s problems, Pires encouraged community members to listen, ask questions and get to know people in need.
“We meet people where they are,” she said, referring to on-site service deliveries as well as to the longer-term project of establishing lasting partnerships.
Valencia – who helps nonprofit organizations, that are BIPOC-led or serve BIPOC communities, become financially sustainable – similarly emphasized the importance of showing up with an open mindset and being willing to acknowledge that there always is something new to learn.
For Valencia, listening to people’s stories was particularly important; stories help people learn about each other, often transcending the political divisiveness and polarization of perceived differences, he said.
“We start to be afraid of what that ‘other’ is, instead of realizing that actually they are just other people, just like us, with different lived experiences, who have similar dreams, who have similar goals,” Valencia said.
Bringing people together is part of the objective of Compassion Week; so is expanding its reach. Compassion Week is free to the public and supported by Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation, Fremont Bank, Simitian’s Office and local faith organizations. “We don’t even have a donate button on the website,” McDaniel said.
It also is meant for people of all ages and abilities. Many of the service activities are family-friendly, and can be done on-site or from home, depending on the preference of volunteers, McDaniel said.
Deborah Vasquez, a Mountain View resident, brought her husband and 11-year-old son to the Civic Center Plaza to participate in Compassion Week’s opening activities. “It’s hard to find family-friendly volunteer opportunities,” she said, gesturing to the grocery bags they were decorating for food parcels. But Compassion Week makes it easy, she added.
It also was helping her son become more aware of other people’s needs, Vasquez said.
Compassion Week aims to help people learn about the reasons for their contributions, McDaniel said. These contributions, which start locally, can grow into something much bigger too.
“Every act of compassion inspires another,” said San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller, who announced a special proclamation that Compassion Week will be observed in San Mateo County, with plans to expand every year.
More information about Compassion Week, including a list of its volunteer opportunities, is available online at www.compassionweeklosaltos.org.
