What We Don't Do as a Non-Profit: Or Why Traditional "Volunteer" Programs Have Only Driven Us Further Apart

Thanks for your interest in Starfire! We are always grateful when ordinary citizens such as yourself wants to find a meaningful way to get involved.  

First, we’re glad you found us. It goes to show that citizens realize the important role they can play in the life of a person with a developmental disability, and their own ability to change the culture that excludes them.

To start, here’s a brief primer on what we don’t do: 

1. We don’t host school groups, sororities and fraternities, or corporate give back days that are a “one and done” experience where groups of people can drop in and drop out of the life of a person with disability. If you’re looking for a place where you can fulfill a volunteer hour requirement of some sort, please look elsewhere. Your group would be welcomed at a variety of wonderful nonprofits who need a group of willing volunteers to get some work done in a few hours.

Starfire isn’t that place.

2. We don’t put disability on display for groups. We know that volunteer groups can sometimes have a takeaway after volunteering that is to feel better about themselves, or approach volunteering as a lesson in gratitude for what they have, to see someone else’s struggle and feel better about their own lives. We approach our work with 360 degrees of dignity and protect against putting people with disabilities or their families in an undignified role.

To be frank, inclusion requires a different kind of work than a traditional service model: one in which people are not in separate unequal groups of “volunteer” and “client” but instead, seen as equals as neighbors, coworkers, and collaborators. Traditional volunteering separates us from each other and creates a power dynamic where one party (the volunteer) is the benevolent good person and the other (the client) is the disadvantaged person in need of services. 

And while there are lots of nonprofits that could absolutely benefit from a large group of volunteers helping to paint walls, play music, pack lunches, bake cookies with, chaperone an event, or sort donated goods, we’re just not that type of place. 

One-and-done volunteering with Starfire does more harm than good. Especially in the lives of people with disabilities whose life experiences have been full of temporary people who don’t stay.

3. We don’t want to turn you away from being part of building inclusion!

We want people just like you – curious about how to make the culture more inviting and welcoming to people with disabilities and their families to dig in with us. 

If you’re interested in educating your corporate group, service class, or other group about disability issues, institutional injustices, then let’s start that conversation. 

4. We don’t think volunteering is not worthwhile or impossible to do at Starfire. In fact, if you really, really want to help Starfire here are a few things you can do: 

• Become a megaphone for our message and help promote our work. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and subscribe to our mailing list.

• Donate. Seriously – if your company or group wants to give back to people with disabilities, invest in Starfire.

  We put grants in the hands of families of people with disabilities who decide how best to spend those dollars to work towards inclusion in their lives and neighborhoods.

  Donations helped projects like this, this, this, and this come to life.  By donating you are saying that you agree that families are the best stewards of resources to make their loved one’s life with a disability the most fulfilled.

• Fundraise for us.  Get some friends together and host a happy hour or a give back dinner night at your local restaurant. Run a Facebook campaign in support of our work. If you’d like to know how to get started on that — contact us!

• Be inclusive in your work/neighborhood/faith community/life.

  If you’d like to learn how to do this, a radically different approach than volunteering, then let’s talk.