GREAT KILLS — On the South Shore of Staten Island, the Church of Saint Clare recently hosted two beach clean-up events with around 25 volunteers signing up through the CmtyHelp app. Parents and children from the parish helped to beautify the beach by collecting trash on two Saturday mornings in anticipation of summer shore activities. 

There were gift card raffles for all the participants and other fun activities. St. Clare parish is very supportive of the need to make all generations aware of how important it is to keep our environment clean, safe, and sustainable, which also provides great opportunities to highlight the importance of community building

St. Clare Parish has been making use of a CmtyHelp to manage and track community service opportunities within its close-knit community. The decrease in the number of in-person activities along with community service opportunities has been largely due to the recent pandemic and advancements in technology that emphasize virtual participation over in-person activities; in fact, recent studies have revealed an increase in depression, anxiety, and stress among different age groups due to the increasing isolation that many people feel. 

The St. Clare community values the importance of interpersonal interaction, especially among the youth. Such interaction helps to develop their social values and the leadership skills of compassion, empathy, confidence, trust, communication, and teamwork. The goal of the CmtyHelp app is to utilize technology to increase engagement by providing various community service opportunities. The app is hoping to expand to many more communities.