National Community Planning Month | Civic Involvement continued, Orange County Register's Be the Change

A special section in the paper pays attention to various volunteer efforts in the county.  

One, the LibroMobile, I've actually been to one of the earlier iterations and talked with its nonprofit leader, Sarah Rafael Garcia (on another visit I talked with her husband who was filling in at the store; he wrote his masters thesis about Barrio Logan and the National Landmark Chicano Park in San Diego)

• "Volunteering for Habitat for Humanity taught me more than how to swing a hammer"
• "Volunteers at this Inland Empire food bank are helping their community fight against hunger"
• "This Santa Ana resident created LibroMobile not just to sell books but to bring people together"
• "When addiction recovery means leaving a pet behind, this Palm Springs nonprofit steps in"
• "This Palm Springs retiree traded his golden years to help Cambodians recover from a war’s awful legacy"
• "Can small museums make our world bigger? This LA author thinks so"

• "LA’s Corita Art Center honors the legacy of a pop artist who wanted to build a kinder world"
• "Force Blue: Veterans become eco-warriors in the battle for ocean conservation"
• "An avid volunteer shares the how and why of getting involved in your community"
• "Volunteers at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance get the chance to help Mother Nature"
• "How running for local office can help you connect with – and help – your community"
• "Shelley Hoss has learned a few things as California’s longest tenured community foundation leader"

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Interesting CNN article, "A White Evangelical Christian man tried to save my soul. It didn’t go as planned – for either of us," about evangelicalism and its turn towards Christian National.  At the end of it, he discusses church as "third place," and the decline of third places or other types of places where people come together as a group and have a common experience.

Volunteering is a form of third place.