Virtual PTDOS Service Ideas

#1.  Support to local Nursing Homes

Call up your local nursing home or you can check out organizations such as Letters Against Isolation.  Sign up to write letters, create cards or send postcards to senior citizens living in elder care facilities who have had to self-isolate during the crisis. You can send as many letters as you'd like, making this an especially great opportunity for families.

#2.  Online fundraiser:  from a local charity to a national or global cause

Some great places to reach out to include homeless shelters; local health nonprofits; community organizations; social justice & civil rights organizations and more.  You can search our list of Racial and Social Justice Organizations or check out Charity Navigator for a great resource on mindful giving with ratings on various charities around the country and world.  The American Civil Liberties Union website also has more information about the most pressing civil liberty issues of our time.  

There are also many locating charities helping those most affected by Covid-19 both directly and indirectly. Find and contact a local organization to see how to best support this mission.

#3.  Virtual Mentor.  

You and your friends can sign-up to provide on-one-on virtual mentorship to aspiring students for both academic and career aspirations.  Visit Scholar Match for more information on how to get connected!

#4.  COVID-19 Relief Efforts.

Contact your local health care facilities to assess their needs for PPE, ventilators, and other medical supplies or go to Health4TheWorld for an organization working to do this globally.

#5.  Virtual 5K

Virtual 5k’s are a great fundraising idea because participants can participate from anywhere around the world. But they are also extremely low cost to host since there are no costs for street closures, event permits, security, and all the other costs associated with typical races and fun runs.

Want More Ideas? → See these lists created by Operation Warm, Inc. and Do Something.org.

Need more help? → Contact the PTDOS Support team at support@ptdayofservice.com.

Striving for Racial & Social Justice

Racial justice and social equity will never be achieved by one leader or one group alone. It’ll take an array of activists & organizations operating at all levels, from the local to global, to make change happen.

Read on to learn about various racial & social justice organizations—some relatively young, some with decades of accomplishments—doing everything they can to make racial & social equity a reality. Learn more about their mission and ways in which you can volunteer or fundraise.  We can make a difference, but only if we all stand together.  

Color of Change
The country’s largest online racial justice organization, Color of Change mobilizes its 1.7 million members to knock down the walls that hold Black people back by challenging injustice, holding corporate and political leaders accountable, commissioning research, and advancing solutions.
Learn more here.

Advancement Project 
The Advancement Project operates on a local and national level to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change. Their focus includes issues like prison reform and the money bail system. Supporting their mission means getting hundreds of thousands of innocent people out of jail and back to their families. 
Learn more here.

NAACP
The NAACP has been on the front lines of the struggle for racial justice since 1909. The nation’s largest civil rights organization, the NAACP is dedicated to securing progress for communities of color and all Americans. 
Learn more here.

Dream Defenders
Dream Defenders was founded in 2012, after Trayvon Martin was murdered. They’re developing a new generation of leaders ready to end the criminalization of Black and Latino youth. 
Learn more here.

Know Your Rights Camp
Colin Kaepernick took a knee & changed the world. He founded Know Your Rights to empower young people of color & teach them how to interact with law enforcement. 
Learn more here.

#Cut50
#cut50 is a bipartisan advocacy organization with a mission to cut crime and mass incarceration across America, making our communities safer and stronger. 
Learn more here.

Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter is a dynamic, chapter-based, international organization aiming to create a world where violence is no longer inflicted on Black people. 
Learn more here.

Live Free USA
Live Free is a collection of faith congregations working to create a movement for racial and economic change by increasing civic engagement and economic investment in communities of color. 
Learn more here.

American Civil Liberties Union
Peruse this website to get an overarching look at the most pressing civil liberty issues of our time and what you can do to help make a positive impact. 
Learn more here.

Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 7 million people in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end abuses of human rights.  AI is independent of any political ideology, economic interest or religion.  
Learn more here.  

International Federation for Human Rights
FIDH is an international human rights non-governmental organization comprised of 184 organizations from 112 countries, active in defending & promoting respect for civil, political, economic, social & cultural rights.  
Learn more here.

Global Rights
Global Rights is an international human rights non-governmental organization that works in partnership with local activists in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to build the grass-root movements that work on building capacities of underserved communities and programming in focal areas of women’s rights, access to remedies and disability issues.  
Learn more here.  

List of 8 Racial Justice Organizations adopted from Ben & Jerry’s website

Social Determinants of Health

When a patient comes into your clinic, their chief complaint may be “Low Back Pain”, but they also come in with their lived experiences. These experiences may feed into their discomfort, disease, and disability. Social Determinants of Health describe how the circumstances in which one grows, lives, works, and ages, and the social and economic policies that factor into these circumstances feed into health inequities. (1)

5 Determinants Areas:

  1. Economic Status: Employment, Food Insecurity, Housing Instability, Poverty

  2. Education: Early Childhood Education, Higher Education, High School Graduation, Language and Literacy.

  3. Social and Community Context: Civic Participation, Discrimination, Social Cohesion

  4. Health and Health Care: Access to Health Care, Access to Primary Care, Health Literacy

  5. Neighborhood and Built Environment: Access to Foods that Support Healthy Eating Patterns, Crime and Violence, Environmental Conditions, Quality of Housing

Impact of Social Determinants of Health:

  • Black Americans have a higher rate of stroke. Black Americans are also exposed to the systemic stressors of racism which contributes to higher rates of hypertension, the leading risk factor to stroke. (3)

  • Poor Americans have a higher prevalence of obesity, due in part to poor neighborhoods’ lack of healthy food options and safe outdoor space. Additionally, poor people are more likely to work manual labor jobs due to lack of access to higher education. Both increase the load on joints and their degeneration, contributing to higher rates of osteoarthritis. (4,5)

  • People who are uninsured are less likely to seek both preventive care and services during the early stages of disease due to the cost burden. This prevents primary and secondary interventions, leading to higher rates of chronic diseases and is further compounded by lower rates of health literacy. (6) 

  • COVID -19 has further exposed the link between societal inequalities and health outcomes with those at the intersection of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, combined with poor health status due to comorbidities and lack of access being the most disadvantaged and at risk in the United States during this pandemic. (7)

While these impacts were studied in the United States, the ramifications of inequality and injustice on societies’ health are not strictly an American problem. 

How to Help:

  1. Learn more about how inequities, prejudices, and disenfranchisement can play into an individual’s and society’s health. 

  2. Discuss with your colleagues/peers/classmates how the social determinants of health may play a role in your patients’ health, and how you can best meet the needs of your community.

  3. Take Action! Partner with an organization or create your own sustainable service to combat the societal inequities that feed into your community’s health disparities.

    • Advocate: Whether it be as small as increasing safety by fixing street lights in a park, or as large as funding international programs that strive to minimize inequities, your voice can make a difference.

    • Donate: Financial or physical donations can go a long way in helping folks and creating change.

    • Serve: From volunteering in an afterschool program,  to serving at your local food bank, or creating programming to assist in navigating the healthcare system, there are numerous ways to create positive change based on your own talents and your community’s needs.

As the WHO states, “Social Justice is a matter of life and death” (1). In order to best improve the function of our patients and our larger communities, we must not only treat the individual but also combat the societal inequities that feed into health disparities. Through sustainable service and advocacy at a local level we can combat the social determinants of health and create a healthier and more equitable society, together.

Sources and More Information:

  1. The World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health

  2. Healthy People 2020: Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

  3. American Heart Association: Impact of Multiple Social Determinants of Health on Incident Stroke

  4. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders: Prevalence of arthritis according to age, sex, and socioeconomic status

  5. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders: Arthritis diagnosis and symptoms are positively associated with specific physical job exposures

  6. American Journal of Public Health: Access to Care and Chronic Disease Outcomes Among Medicaid-Insured Persons versus the Uninsured

  7. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice: The Detrimental Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health

Socially Responsible Volunteering

While volunteering our time and resources seems like an inherently good thing to do, sometimes our efforts can have unintended consequences. For example, a clothing drive intended to benefit populations overseas may burden the region’s local economy, hindering local merchants’ abilities to sell their goods for a living. This is not to scare you into thinking that all service opportunities have a hidden dark side, the vast majority do not! Nonetheless, it is always important to consider the impact of any volunteer project you are planning. We’ve compiled a few simple tips below to help ensure social responsibility in your service.

Think before you act – the simple adage is a powerful force. Before partaking in any volunteer service, strive to answer these questions?

Who will this service benefit?
Could be an individual, organization, or a specific population.
What are the possible consequences and impact of the service?
These could be good or bad, despite the best intentions.
When is the most appropriate time to provide this service?
Maybe your efforts in providing balance screenings at the local care facility could be better coordinated with the activities of its residents.
Where will the benefits of your service be recognized?
This is especially important in fundraising and goods donation campaigns.
Why have you chosen this service activity?
While volunteering can be fun and make us feel great, never forget to think deeply about the value of your project.

Consider your project’s feasibility - Based on current circumstances, there are ample opportunities for innovation and novel ways to keep safety in the forefront of your project.

Perform a “needs assessment” – This is a common practice in public health initiatives, and while you may not need a formal assessment for your PT Day of Service, this can be a useful way to find out what the community you want to help needs. A needs assessment compares where a community is to where they want to be, revealing what services may be needed to fill in the gap. Some easy ways to assess your community’s needs include: talking with local officials (city council, park board, etc.), visiting the facility you’d like to volunteer at, researching disparities in your area (a lot of information can be found online), and simply getting out and talking to community members!

Dig before you donate – There are a lot of fantastic charities raising money and resources for noble causes. Here is a great article about choosing charities. Charity Navigator is an easy to use online tool that provides independent assessments of thousands of charities.

Enlist local help – Finding ways to involve the community not just as recipients of your service, but as active participants in the planning and execution of your activities, empowers them with knowledge and skills for independent success in the future.

Always think long-term – Maybe cleaning up that trail will encourage more people to get outside and be active, leading to a healthier population and a lesser utilization of medical resources. Or does your project, while well intended, conflict with goals of other local organizations, thereby delaying progress? It’s easy to focus on the immediate benefits of a service activity, but always consider what you want the lasting effects of your efforts to be.

If you have any questions while planning your service initiative or need some help getting started, our Sustainability, Responsibility, and Support team is here to help! Just send an email to support@ptdayofservice.com and one of our team members will be happy to assist you.

Thank you for your commitment to making the world a better place through sustainable and responsible service!

Community ~ Collaboration ~ Compassion