Shine and Inspire asks those it helps to 'pay it forward'

The nonprofit group wants to know 'if we help you to shine, what would that inspire you to do?'

|
Courtesy of Shine and Inspire
Carol Feldman (left), the founder of Shine and Inspire, is joined by Vivian Dembrosky, a supporter of the nonprofit group, at a recent event.

Carol Feldman had long wanted to launch a nonprofit organization. She was also struck by television shows detailing home makeovers and other acts of philanthropy. She wanted to find her own way to give back.

A few years ago, Ms. Feldman’s ambition became reality when she founded Shine and Inspire, a charity with the mission of meeting the needs of those living in Mercer County, N.J. But beyond providing some form of help, she wanted to make sure that the chain of good deeds would continue.

“We wanted people to pay it forward somehow,” she says. “I am big on random acts of kindness.”

“Paying it forward” refers to a popular novel and feature film. Feldman says that she was not aware of the phrase when she was brainstorming about Shine and Inspire.

Rather, she conceived of the organization as essentially posing a question to its would-be beneficiaries: “if we help you to shine, what would that inspire you to do?”

Shine and Inspire is open-ended about the kind of support it provides, but it encourages those who seek assistance to ask for something that will make a difference in their lives. Then these applicants are asked to tell how they would pay that gift forward.

“We want to have a sense that [what the recipient does] is going to be continuing for a period of time,” she says “I want them to know the feeling of helping someone else.”

One recent beneficiary was in need of a motorized chair scooter after knee surgery had left her unable to walk. Medicare wouldn’t help. Shine and Inspire stepped in and purchased the Trenton, N.J., resident a scooter, allowing her to regain her mobility and freedom.

To help pay forward the gift, last summer the recipient launched a seven-week craft project for children who live in her building.

Another recent Shine and Inspire client, a young mother of three children, asked for a bed for her youngest daughter.

“We have bought a number of beds,” Feldman says, adding that often she is able to work with other nonprofit organizations to purchase things like furniture or bedding.

In order to pay forward the gift of a bed, the mother – a former employee in an assisted living facility – has begun visiting facility residents when they are hospitalized to ensure that they are not alone during their hospital stay.

So far Shine and Inspire has provided support to 15 clients across the county, as well as made donations to food pantries and other social service organizations.

Shine and Inspire has active partnerships with other nonprofits and is seeking out others. Those groups send potential clients to Feldman.

Regardless of how applicants find Shine and Inspire, a pair of volunteers meets with each to discuss their need and the ways in which they plan to pay it forward. The latter component can vary greatly, from stocking food pantry shelves to helping the homeless.

“There are a lot of different things,” Feldman says. “It is really their creativity.”

Feldman runs Shine and Inspire with the help of four other unpaid volunteers. She hopes to expand its reach and bring in a paid staff member.

While it requires a balancing act to manage both her professional practice as a clinical social worker and her volunteer work with Shine and Inspire, Feldman wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It is just who I am,” she says. “I have always liked doing things for other people.”

• For more information about Shine and Inspire, visit ShineandInspire.org.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Shine and Inspire asks those it helps to 'pay it forward'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/Change-Agent/2015/1029/Shine-and-Inspire-asks-those-it-helps-to-pay-it-forward
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe