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Yesterday I sat through one of the Mayor’s "Meet Locally" meetings. Oddly, I found myself with nothing to say. This isn’t because I am terribly shy, mute, or an unconcerned citizen. Rather, it’s because I am so utterly impressed with the City of San Francisco and the progress the Mayor has made in our city that I have very little to gripe about. I found it to be a meeting of informed, caring citizens who sincerely want to keep our fair city a wonderful place to live.
I do, however, have one idea to contribute and perhaps this blog entry will filter its way to the Mayor or his staff for consideration.
I’d like to see the formation of an Employer Volunteer Incentive program. I recently began volunteering for the SF Connect, Tech Connect organization. My employer knows I will be cutting out of the office early a couple Wednesdays per month to go to Conrad House to teach interested SRO residents computer and Internet skills. Sadly, it took a decided effort on my part to get involved. We work so hard in our jobs to afford to live in San Francisco, it is simply too easy to avoid volunteering for good causes. To gain more momentum, is it possible to offer incentives to employees and businesses to encourage volunteerism? What if employers offered employee benefits such as extra vacation days or a bonus program for volunteer time served? Could businesses receive tax or other benefits by having employees enrolled in City-run volunteer programs? Not all businesses are able to support full-scale philanthropy initiatives, but if they could reward their workers for being good citizens and receive some benefit in return, I bet we’d see a lot more participation from the working class of San Francisco in the places we need it most.
Tara Zanecki
- : 1.0
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August 30th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Since when does San Francisco have a population of “working class” citizens? Take your rust belt fantasies to Pennsylvania Tara!