VOLUNTEER  

I recently read the story of Douglas Vakoch, the only psychologist who works for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, a nonprofit in Mountain View, California . Vakoch directs the Interstellar Message Composition Project. He is working on creating a message to send to other civilizations. “If we only try to express ourselves by talking about the periodic table of elements, or saying we know that two plus two equals four, it'll be a very impoverished view of ourselves," he says.

For the past six years, Vakoch, a psychologist and the only social scientist employed by SETI, has been brainstorming ways to tell extraterrestrials about the better side of human nature, the side characterized by kindness and generosity. (Greater Good Magazine, Volume IV, Issue 4, Spring, 2008). Finding a way to communicate about volunteers would be the answer to his puzzle.

Here at BFL, we have a great appreciation for volunteerism. We salute them in this issue. Barrier Free Living was started by volunteers. BFL grew out of a three year research and demonstration project of the Federation of the Handicapped (now known as FedCap) which provided services to newly disabled New Yorkers. When that funding ended, a group of consumers with disabilities and I believed in what we did so much that we volunteered to keep the doors open until I was able to find funding to hire staff.

Since our beginning, volunteers have been a critical component of our success. We have depended on the volunteers on our Board of Directors to support our work in a variety of ways—we could not be an agency without an active board. We depend on volunteers to assist us with everything from painting our facilities to helping us care for our many children at Freedom House.