Serving Stories – Serve the City International

On the mean streets of Brussels... where people without homes live lives of isolation, and migrants looking for more often find little... a few leaders are looking to inspire teams to use their time and talents to serve others. Famously, Spider-Man reminds us that "with great power comes great responsibility." In Part 2 of this episode featuring Andrea and Mahmoud, two project leaders from Brussels, we see how they inspire others to serve with the values of humility, compassion, respect, courage, love and hope. This story from our founding city is part of our celebration of Serve the City's 20th anniversary this week!

Everyone can serve... and that includes children! Andrea Peterson, leader of the Brussels Street Kindness project, shares how taking children out of their comfort zone to serve homeless people has changed their perspective... and brightened the days of the people they meet. Serving SHORT Stories alternates with our regular-length episodes, to serve you bite-size bits of inspiration you can share with others.

"You have the chance to become part of something bigger than yourself!" This is what Professor Xavier told his team of X-Men. And it is what Serve the City project leaders guide their volunteers towards on a regular basis, as they enable their teams to serve successfully. In Part 1 of this double episode, we meet Mahmoud and Andrea, two project leaders from Serve the City Brussels. We hear their backstories — Mahmoud as a Syrian refugee and Andrea as a corporate volunteer — and how, as they support the others they lead, their leadership is also supported. This story from our founding city is part of our celebration of Serve the City's 20th anniversary this month!

While at the Amsterdam City Exchange, Nate Kohler from Serve the City Paris did not just to make friends and exchange best practices in volunteering. He tells us in this episode how his new friends stepped up to support him with a crisis that happened back at home. Serving SHORT Stories alternates with our regular-length episodes, to serve you bite-size bits of inspiration you can share with others.

If you've ever been to Amsterdam, you know how they love their pancakes... and their bikes. In this episode we hear from Willem Dieleman, a volunteers with Serve the City Amsterdam, who has combined these twin Dutch passions into one creative serving project. Serving SHORT Stories alternates with our regular-length episodes, to serve you bite-size bits of inspiration you can share with others.

When mighty heroes, each actively doing good in their own domains, unite as a force for the world... that's when amazing things happen! We see it with Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman and the rest of the Justice League... and we see it as Serve the City communities worldwide work together for global good! In this episode, we hear how initiatives like the Global Volunteer Day, STC Forums and City Exchanges are bringing together change-makers from all around the world to work together as friends for transformation.

In these two little stories about creating beauty in the surroundings of people in need, Carlton Deal, the founder of Serve the City, emphasizes how simple projects can move the needle in people's lives... and help them perhaps to see their own beauty. Serving SHORT Stories alternates with our regular-length episodes, to serve you bite-size bits of inspiration you can share with others.

When a multinational corporation and a values-based volunteering non-profit team up to use their unique superpowers to benefit the world... then they can truly become superheroes! In Part 2 of this exploration of the partnership between UPS and Serve the City, we see how it has moved from simply local community engagement to growing global impact. We see how the UPS Foundation has helped to start a new chapter of Serve the City in Cologne, upskill migrant workers in Dubai, and open the Impact Coworking Cafe in Paris. And we also see how STC works with UPS in their mission of delivering pathways to empower resilient, just, and safe communities around the world.

Giving time to volunteering can change the course of your life! That's what happened to Nicolo Sgrava, the representative for the UPS Foundation in Europe. In this story, Nicolo tells us how volunteering around the world led him into his present job, and how he sees volunteering benefiting his UPS colleagues. Serving SHORT Stories alternates with our regular-length episodes, to serve you bite-size bits of inspiration you can share with others.

"When someone acquires great power, the use or misuse of that power is everything." These are the words of Professor Xavier to his X-Men, mutants who are normally feared by people for their unusual abilities. And these words could equally apply to big corporations in our cities. But as corporations demonstrate corporate social responsibility through community involvement, they build trust as they contribute to their cities. In this episode, we see how partnership between the global transportation giant UPS and Serve the City has employed the unique abilities of each to benefit their cities and amplify their impact... together.

This heartwarming story comes from our very first podcast episode, set at a Community Dinner in Lisbon in April 2019. A young volunteer came up with a creative way to support the Community Dinners, that also caused people often treated as worthless to see the dignity in themselves. Serving SHORT Stories alternates with our regular-length episodes, to serve you bite-size bits of inspiration you can share with others.

Serve the City Portugal is well-known for its Community Dinners, events where volunteers eat a three-course meal at well-set tables alongside marginalized people from the streets. In this re-issued episode—our very first—we see the magic of creating community through treating people with dignity. Even though this episode was recorded six years ago and some of the personnel have changed, the Community Dinners continue to be a flagship project in all the cities in Portugal where Serve the City is active.

Early on, Serve the City had to learn the lesson that people in need were also people with something to give! Shannon Deal, the producer of Serving Stories, tells how a group of Afghan migrants in Brussels helped teach us the valuable lesson that volunteering is for everyone—no matter their situation. Serving SHORT Stories alternates with our regular-length episodes, to serve you bite-size bits of inspiration you can share with others.

Everyone knows that Batman's personal trauma—seeing his parents murdered in front of him—was what motivated him to become a superhero. And we too can transform the suffering we have gone through into compassion and action for others. In this episode, we explore how asylum seekers and refugees might become star volunteers, as they grow through their pain to reach out to others. In Cork, Ireland, we accompany volunteers on their first steps of friendship towards refugees. And we also meet two refugees who have found fulfillment—and a vocation—in serving their cities.

Sometimes when a person is stuck, they will accept help from strangers even when they refuse it from their family. Ronan Coffey of Serve the City Ireland tells us the story of cleaning out the house of a person trapped in hoarding and the amazing difference they were able to make, in a story called, "The Kindness of Strangers." Serving SHORT Stories alternates with our regular-length episodes, to serve you bite-size bits of inspiration you can also share with others.

"This looks like a job for Superman!" When someone is stuck in an impossible situation they can't get out of alone, that's when Superman—or a team of volunteers serving like superheroes—is needed to help them make a new start! Whether it is cleaning up the garden of a disabled man, or decluttering a hoarder house, volunteers from Serve the City Ireland offer hope through helping people who have become trapped under burdens they could not shift to see a new way forward.

We usually think of volunteering as doing something which benefits others. But in this SHORT Story from Melinda Means of the STC Berlin team, we are reminded that when we volunteer, we are often the ones who benefit! We call this story: De-Junking Your Heart. Serving SHORT Stories alternates with our regular-length episodes, to serve you bite-size bits of inspiration you can also share with others.

“I never thought I would be able to do this stuff—but I can. Anyone can wear the mask.” This is what Miles Morales, the young Spiderman mentored by Peter Parker, says as he launches into his new role. And when you have this kind of support as a young person serving your city, it just might be that you discover your vocation while being mentored through volunteering. At the Community Kitchen in Brussels, Belgium (a Serve the City partner), we found out how being mentored while volunteering can change the course of a person's life... whether they are a teenager in a youth group, or a vulnerable person living on the streets.

When you hear the doorbell ring... you may be called to help save someone's life. In our previous episode we met chaplain Annie Bolger, from Serve the City Brussels partner, the Community Kitchen. Today, she encourages us about the importance of keeping doors open. Serving SHORT Stories alternates with our regular-length episodes, to serve you bite-size bits of inspiration you can also share with others.

When the Avengers assemble as a team, their united superpowers far surpass what each hero could do alone! And when Serve the City partners with other associations to make an impact on the city, the results are similarly impressive! In this episode, we visit the Community Kitchen, a close partner of Serve the City Brussels, to learn how the teamwork between the two is impacting the hungry people of the city. And we see how more superhero partners continue to join the team...