Martin Luther King Jr. Day Toolkit

Martin Luther King, Jr. Toolkit in Adobe Acrobat Format: MLK Toolkit

On the third Monday in January, Americans across the country celebrate the national holiday honoring the life and work of Dr. Luther King, Jr. As they have since 1994, thousands of Americans will remember Dr. King by serving in their communities-by making the holiday "a day ON," not "a day off."

In his lifetime, Dr. King sought to forge the common ground on which people from all walks of life could join together as equals to address important community issues. Service, he realized, was the great equalizer. As he once said, "Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.''

In recognition of that spirit, Congress in 1994 passed the King Holiday and Service Act. Since then, the Corporation for National and Community Service, in partnership with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., has taken the lead in helping to transform the King holiday into a day of service to meet community needs.

Last year's Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service was the biggest and best ever, with tens of thousands of volunteers across the nation paying homage to the slain civil rights leader's life and teachings by serving in a variety of projects in their communities.

As the third Monday in January approaches, you can build on the success of past years and help make community service a common expectation for future King holidays.

This toolkit is intended to give you ideas for projects, help you plan and run a successful event, connect with partners, promote your project to the media and the public, and manage volunteers effectively. Additional information is available at www.mlkday.org.

IDEAS FOR PROJECTS

The King Day of Service is a way to transform Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life and teachings into community service that helps solve social problems. That service may meet a tangible need, such as fixing up a school or senior center, or it may meet a need of the spirit, such as building a sense of community or mutual responsibility. How ambitious you choose to be depends on you-and on your community's resources. Here are some examples of what others have done in recent years. Descriptions of additional projects can be found at www.mlkday.org:

In Atlanta, Ga., Hands On Atlanta joined with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc. to hold a Citizen Service Summit that concluded with the conversion of a house into an after-school center in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood.

In Philadelphia, Pa., and Camden, N.J., more than 25,000 citizens engaged in a wide variety of service activities, from training 800 people to be year-round tutors to preparing meals at homeless shelters.

In Houston, Tex., Interfaith Ministries and employees of Shell joined forces to host ecumenical services to honor the memory of Dr. King on the Sunday before the holiday, then participated in service projects on the holiday itself. Projects included teaching children about Dr. King, organizing art and writing projects, and restocking the shelves at the Houston Food Bank.

In Brooklyn, N.Y., volunteers with the Lutheran Medical Center and Sunset Park Family Health Center organized a community-wide book drive and other activities geared toward improving literacy as part of the America's Promise campaign to improve the prospects of the nation's youth.

In Zuni, N.M., AmeriCorps members, Senior Corps volunteers, area firefighters, and youth volunteers-under the direction of the Pueblo of Zuni-cut and stored firewood to be used to help poor and elderly people stay warm in the winter.

In Sarasota, Fla., the Volunteen program of the Volunteer Center of Sarasota used the three-day holiday weekend to renovate a local park, which was dedicated on Martin Luther King Day.

A s preceding examples demonstrate, service projects come in all shapes and sizes. Some are sponsored by single organizations, while others involve wide-ranging partnerships of charities, communities of faith, government agencies and businesses.

Some take place at the most local level-a school or a street-while others are citywide. Some are designed as single-day projects, while others continue long into the future. Some focus specifically on the life and teachings of Dr. King, while others draw on his message to unite people around a common goal. Here are some other ideas:

Remove graffiti from a building and make a public space accessible paint a mural

Serve meals at a homeless shelter

Build a playground

Hold a workshop about Dr. King's life

Participate in a neighborhood watch

Bring meals to homebound neighbors

Run a day camp for children with working parents

Shovel elderly neighbors' walkways

Arrange a health fair

Teach seniors how to surf the Internet

Devise craft projects for children in hospitals