The "VIP" acronym is a catchy way to think about this and spread the word, but of course there are countless COVID-19 Very Important Persons out there who are not at home! They are all on the front lines if they are venturing forth, and many are downright heroes. But those of us who must stay home for one reason or another, or are advised to stay home, and, I must add, are fortunate enough to have a home to stay in, and also fortunate enough to have an income source that allows us some discretionary time, can also contribute our time and effort to helping out (in addition to making monetary donations if we are able). That is the idea I am trying to convey. Under the bizarre circumstances of our Brave New COVID-19 World, there could be a huge number of people in that kind of situation who are therefore potential Volunteers In Place.
With this
idea in hand (or mind), each such person might do any of a number of things.
For example:
Begin some private initiative at home, such as
the person who began making masks to deliver or send to medical personnel.
Contact an organization whose
work you are involved in or care about to see if they offer some kind of
opportunity to help out from home. And if they don't, urge them to consider
developing such an opportunity.
Set up (host, curate) a local
covid19vip site in your own community. (Of course national and international organizations could also be listed on community sites.) Thus, click here to see the one
I've set up for my community (which could be used as a template). Then
contact me at jmarks AT newhaven DOT edu so that I can link to it from this global site.
If you have better computer
skills than I, create an app for this site, or for your local VIP site. Or create software for those organizations that don’t yet offer remote opportunities
so that they could take advantage of volunteers at home. As I suggested in the
post above, this could turn out to be a permanent expansion of some
organizations' effectiveness even beyond the virus's duration.
PLEASE CONTACT THE CURATOR AT EACH LOCAL SITE IF YOU ARE A NONPROFIT THAT WOULD LIKE TO BE LISTED. PLEASE CONTACT ME AT jmarks AT newhaven DOT edu IF YOU HAVE A SITE YOU WOULD LIKE ME TO LINK TO FROM THIS GLOBAL SITE OR YOU HAVE ANY OTHER IDEAS OR ASSISTANCE TO OFFER THE VIP PROJECT. THANK YOU AND BE WELL. -- Joel Marks
Local sites listing examples of nonprofit organizations whose work you can help from home:
NEW HAVEN and environs in Connecticut, USA
UNITED STATES (and WORLD)