Gulf Update: How Can I Help?

Elisa Sunshine is a participant in the Machon Kaplan Summer Social Action Internship program, interning at the Religious Action Center.

Sick and tired of sitting idly and watching our Gulf waters turn brown, wreaking havoc on human and animal inhabitants alike? Well, so are we! To combat the April 20th BP drilling platform explosion and subsequent oil spill, we have compiled a comprehensive, all-you-would-ever-want-to-know (or as best we’ve got!) resource for how YOU can help stop the destruction and begin the rebuilding and restoration process. From volunteer opportunities to donations to writing letters to elected officials, we’ve discovered plenty of ways to help you feel involved.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
State-organized Volunteer Opportunities
The Louisiana Gulf Response is an umbrella organization with wide-reaching volunteer operations in the Gulf Coast. Although there are general requirements across the board for volunteers (like being 18 and older), these organizations are also looking for more specialized help. People with training are strongly encouraged to volunteer. Check out the LA Volunteer Opportunities page to see a list of activities offered for volunteers and register as a volunteer.

For volunteer opportunities in other states, follow the links below.

• Mississippi
• Alabama
• Florida (only accepting residential volunteers or donations).

Other Volunteer Opportunities
Volunteers are needed to respond to direct human needs of all the individuals and communities whose livelihoods are jeopardized by the oil spill. Check out related human-centered services and organizations:

1.    Catholic Charities Archdiocese
2.    Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana
3.    Learn about more New Orleans-based volunteer projects:

• Celebrity Charity Projects: Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Project
• Notes from New Orleans: Battling Fraud on the Long Road Home
• Volunteering New Orleans: Wading Through Wetlands With Common Ground Relief

Have a teen itching to volunteer? Global Volunteers offers programs for teens 18 and over, and also accepts children accompanied by an adult. Earthwatch Institute provides programs for teens ranging in age from 16 to 18, and also offers family volunteer opportunities as well.

Does training volunteers seem more like your cup of tea? Check out Idealist.org, VolunteerMatch.com, VolunteerSolutions, and SweatMonkey.org for volunteer matching resources.

ADVOCACY
Prefer writing to on-the-ground volunteer work? Then have no fear! Send a letter to our leaders encouraging them to respect our wildlife and stop offshore drilling, or sign our new interfaith petition for the Gulf. Make sure our leaders hear our pleas to prevent a similar catastrophe from happening in the future!

As our friends and neighbors in the Gulf work to clean up the spill and restore this precious ecosystem, we can all take steps to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again by beginning to wean ourselves off our oil dependence. Here’s what YOU can start to do to get the ball rolling:

• Break your oil addiction
• 10 solutions to our oil addiction
• Join the Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign

FAITH COMMUNITY UPDATE
If there’s one thing America can learn from the Gulf spill, it’s that the faith-based community is no slacker. Responding to the oil spill demands “countless insights and skills, embodied in hundreds of occupations and trades, and upon the collective strength and will of us all,” declares the Rev. Mark S. Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Churches and synagogues across the country are encouraging their members to take action through a variety of means, including those listed above. Religious groups are also organizing days of prayer in solidarity with those in the Gulf. “Thus far the efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail,” Sen. Robert Adley explained concerning the Louisiana day of prayer. “It is clearly time for a miracle for us.”

Religious groups, however, are not simply waiting for divine intervention but rather acting for the Gulf. Here are links and responses to the oil spill from leading religious groups:

• The Religious Action Center
• The COEJL Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign
• The Shalom Center Tisha B’av Resource
• The Franciscan Action Network
• The United Methodists Gulf Prayer and Action Resource
• Evangelical Environmental Network
• The Episcopal Church

We hope this list will help get you started on  your own Gulf response efforts – and check back tomorrow for more!