OT Global Day of Service

November 2, 2012
by Paula

Community Getting Involved What are OS/OT?

Last weekend, on October 27th, was the Occupational Therapy Global Day of Service in which occupational therapists worldwide become involved in volunteer efforts in observance of World Occupational Therapy Day. This year, students from USC’s Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy took this opportunity to go out with friends to lend a helping hand while also educating others on the all that the profession has to offer. Students were involved in many different ways for the Global Day of Service.

I was lucky enough to volunteer with an organization called CFY. This group helps families set up their own computer-based Home Learning Center at the beginning of the workshop, learn basic software operations and get hands-on experience using their Home Learning Center to improve reading, writing, and mathematics. In the sessions, we assisted families during the workshop and helped keep the day running smoothly. At the end of the trainings, families pack up their Home Learning Center and take it home. This was a truly humbling experience to be able to volunteer with this group and extremely applicable to occupational therapy as we were enabling families to learn in which was some of their very first exposure to a computer and we were able to give them the tools to interact in an educational manner with their children.

Having grown up in a generation which is so completely engrossed in all things technology, this was an extremely valuable experience for me and a reminder of how different lived experiences can be from one person to the next. I was so excited to participate in this day of service and I am proud of my fellow occupational therapy students and practitioners who also took the time out of their Saturday in order to give back to the community, to pay it forward, and to educate someone else of the importance and applicability of occupational therapy.

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