The Sign-In Table blog
Who the work is actually for
Between episodes I write about the people volunteer-led organizations serve, and about what it takes to serve them well. Teenagers carrying something they cannot name. Kids whose drinking nobody has said out loud yet. Older adults who have not spoken to anyone since Sunday.
Written by Matt Angerer, who hosts the show and co-founded VolunteerBadge. If you lead one of these organizations and recognize your own work here, that is the whole point — come and talk about it on the show.
Adolescent mental health
The teenagers who can’t name what’s wrong
Four in ten American high schoolers now report feeling persistently sad or hopeless. Most of them will never see a clinician. The people who actually sit with them are volunteers — and almost nobody asks those volunteers how they do it.
October 31, 20269 min readMatt Angerer
Read itYouth recovery
Fifteen, and already hiding it
Teen drinking is at the lowest level ever recorded, and that is exactly why the teenager with a real problem is now so alone. A smaller group, further from anyone like them, with almost nothing built for their age.
October 31, 202610 min readMatt Angerer
Read itOlder adults
Nobody has called since Sunday
About a quarter of Americans over 65 living in the community are socially isolated. The fix is not clinical and it is not expensive. It is a person who turns up on Tuesday — which is the hardest thing in the world to staff.
October 31, 20269 min readMatt Angerer
Read it
Does one of these describe your organization?Then you’re who the show is for. Being a guest is free, and so is VolunteerBadge.
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