How to volunteer from home during the coronavirus pandemic

Hey guys, if you're anything like me, you find yourself spending a lot more time at home right now. Maybe you have a lot more time on your hands. And in the wake of the pandemic, maybe you're looking for ways to help out volunteer, donate your time resources, but you don't really know how to do that while still respecting proper social distancing. Well, thankfully, there's actually a lot of things that you can do from home using your computer using your phone to help out and still maintaining proper social distance. So let's look at some of those ways. [MUSIC] All right, well, maybe you have a computer or laptop. Gaming them for whatever hanging around they're not really using. You can actually donate that systems time and energy to scientists who are trying to find cures and treatments for the corona virus. How cool is that?. This is called folding at home. This might remind you of a program from a few years ago called SETI that was the search for extraterrestrial life. A number of people had those screen savers running all the time, there was mapping skies looking for aliens. The idea is very similar. You download their client program onto your computer or a laptop when you're not using it. You're essentially mapping Corona virus proteins for scientists. The idea is that hopefully they will be able to understand the Corona virus and hopefully come up with a treatment. [MUSIC] There is also a tone of great ways to donate your time and volunteer from home using your phone or laptop. Alone is a program that provide companionship for elderly people who are living by themselves. So help them avoid that social isolation feeling that a lot of us, let's be honest, are having right now. Now what they'll do is they'll train you. And then they'll connect you with elderly people who are living by themselves. And you'll check in on them every now and then, you know, just with a couple phone calls, all they really ask for is a minimum of two hours a week. It's pretty cool and how good would you feel All right. This is Be My Eyes. This program essentially connects blind and visually impaired people with sighted volunteers. So what you'll do is you'll download this app and then when somebody who's blind or visually impaired needs help with something, you'll get an alert. And then through video chats you'll help them with whatever they need. Maybe it's Reading instructions, identifying colors on something, or just navigating new surroundings. [MUSIC] Bookshare is an organization that gets books to people who have learning disabilities. They're looking for volunteers who can scan books from home, that then eventually get into their system and then can distributed to those people who need them. Also if you have copy editing experience, That also helps them. [MUSIC] The Crisis Text Line is always looking for volunteers. Now. They'll give you free training on how to be a crisis counselor and how to respond to people who reach out over text. In particular, they're looking for people who can volunteer their time between the hours of 7PM Pacific 3AM Pacific Now another way you can help out that's really important is donating blood actually did it today. Now this of course, depends on how comfortable you are leaving your house and going into a public space. But I can tell you from my experience today, they're really taking a lot of precautions to wipe down all the surfaces and things like that. I felt very safe. Lastly, of course, if you happen to have any excess and 95 masks, hand sanitizers wipes, anything like that. You can donate them to your local hospital, clinics, places like that. There's a great website, getuspp.org. You can find the nearest hospitals and clinics in your area that are accepting donations. Now, of course, there are a million different ways to volunteer time and resources. My colleague Katie Connor actually wrote an article, it's on Cnet.com. Make sure you go check that out, put a link in the description for you. And if you have any other ways, let us know in the comments. That's gonna do it for now. Thanks so much for watching. Make sure to take care of yourselves and each other.