Just because you’re unemployed or underemployed doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference in the world. And, even if in the long run it won’t pay your bills, doing something that gives back to the community can have infinite rewards.

As our sister site MediaJobsDaily said, when recounting the story of super volunteer and go-getter Laura van Straaten, it’s amazing that “somebody was able to make this thing basically by sheer force of will.”

That “thing” was a CPR training course in New York City, which the underemployed van Straaten developed pro bono along with the Mayor’s office, the Fire Department and New York Sports Clubs. The program, FDNY CPR To Go, offers free CPR classes to all and launched earlier this month — a tribute to van Straaten’s efforts over the past year. As our colleagues at MJD so succinctly put it:

“Where there was not a thing, a program, a class, a benefit to her fellow neighbors, now there is. And you don’t need a job to do that (though getting paid helps); you just need to find something that should exist but doesn’t, and then make it exist.”

When A Citizen Feels Impelled To Help –New York Times

Unemployed? That Doesn’t Stop You From Doing Amazing Things

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