How to care for your community with radical hospitality (with Doniece Sandoval)

How to Be a Better Human

TED

Emotional Awareness, Personal Growth, Chris Duffy, Education, Interviews, Self-help, Better Human, Self-improvement

4.1 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you volunteer in your community? Don’t feel bad if the answer is no. Whether you are currently involved in a cause or not, you probably have some mental image of what it means to be a volunteer. Doniece Sandoval has been doing transformative work for years, most recently as the founder of Lava MaeX, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that began by converting public transportation buses into bathrooms on wheels for the homeless. In today’s episode, she shares tips on how to get started with a cause you care about, and debunks myths about volunteerism that might have kept you from taking action in the first place. Doniece’s work is driven by what she calls “radical hospitality”, the idea that raising the bar on how you serve people is revolutionary. Since launching its service, Lava MaeX has transformed the lives of more than 10,000 Californians. Before tackling hygiene for the homeless, Doniece worked in the arts as head of marketing at the San Jose Museum of Art, and in branding at several major private sector companies. Doniece was recognized as a 2017 CNN Hero. To learn more about "How to Be a Better Human," host Chris Duffy, or find footnotes and additional resources, please visit: go.ted.com/betterhuman

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective.
0:02.0	Audio Collective.
0:04.0	You're listening to How to Be a Better Human.
0:10.0	I'm your host Chris Duffy.
0:12.0	So to start off today's episode let me ask you a
0:15.2	question. Do you volunteer in your community? Don't feel bad if the answer is no. No need to
0:21.2	feel bad. Whether you currently volunteer or not you probably have some
0:25.0	mental image of what it means to be a volunteer. Maybe you picture someone who is just
0:30.9	like truly next level, someone who's on a
0:33.4	different plane of existence, a person who is so pure and good that they've never
0:37.9	done anything wrong. Or maybe your mental image is a little bit less generous, and you imagine someone who is very sanctimonious and holier than that bragging to you all about the incredible work that they do in the community.
0:52.0	Like most things, look, the reality isn't typically either of these extremes.
0:56.4	Some aspects of volunteering that I think don't get talked about either way are that, you know,
1:00.8	having a regular commitment can be a great way to meet people to make friends and develop new skills.
1:06.6	For me, I started volunteering when I moved to LA and I didn't know that many people here and I also didn't have reliable work and so let's just say I had a lot of free time.
1:16.1	And also to be honest, I really wanted to have a better answer to the question, what are you up to these days?
1:21.2	Because the one that I was giving kind of made me feel pathetic.
1:24.7	So I've been helping out at a homelessness nonprofit that felt like, oh, that's a much better response.
1:30.4	And I have to say though that by volunteering I did end up making friends and I also learned a lot about one of the most pressing issues that faces this city that I now call home.
1:40.5	And I learned about it by meeting people who are directly affected by homelessness and hearing from them about what would be helpful.
1:47.0	So today on the podcast, we're going to talk about volunteering.
1:50.0	And we're going to talk to someone who's gotten way deeper in on these issues than I have.
	...

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