Sunday, October 27, 2013

Making The World Better Through Community Service

By Sebastian Troup


Community service is something that people want to accomplish since it is considered to be a "feel good" activity though we don't always have the time for it. This is quite apparent since everyone is so busy with their work and family. However, there are several reasons why volunteering is a good use of your time while at the same time also an opportunity to feel good about yourself.

Community service improves your community, and this is the most obvious reason. Why not take the time to make the community that you live in better? Simply by volunteering a few hours a month, you can have a huge impact with just a small investment of your time. Volunteer activities can include events such as park and street cleanups, local school projects, serving food at your local food pantry, helping with youth activities, and more. Volunteering in these activities will have high returns where it matters most to you and your family.

Volunteering makes you an example. Volunteering not only makes an impact on the greater community, but it impacts your family and friends directly. If you have children, this is a great teaching and mentoring experience for them. If you can, do your best to find volunteer opportunities that you can bring your kids to, where they too can volunteer and help. This will teach them that giving back is not only the right thing to do, but helping others and the environment is investing in their future. It's also a nice opportunity to create group volunteer events, which you and your friends can participate in to make an even bigger impact. With social media being so ubiquitous these days, group volunteering with friends can spread like wildfire across networks, which will create a positive word of mouth on the volunteer experience and organization for you and your friends.

Many companies offer some sort of workplace volunteer program, which allows you to volunteer a certain amount of hours per month that are approved during work hours. Why not use this time to benefit the community? It's free time that you are already paid for, so take advantage and invite family members and friends to partake in group activities during work hours to get the most out of it. If your company does not have a workplace volunteer program, make sure to ask your management about it to help get one started!

The benefits of volunteerism are too many to mention though most of them enhance your skills and help you gain more experience. This by far, is one of the most noteworthy reasons to volunteer that others may not realize yet. Volunteering terms such as "micro-volunteering" are becoming well known simply because companies, volunteers and organizations all benefit greatly from this concept. What it all boils down to is that micro-volunteering allows employees to dedicate small amounts of time to a cause and also donate time that utilizes and enhances their current set of skills.

For instance, there are many nonprofits that don't have in-house web designers. There is a constant need for web designers and if you are a web designer yourself, you are in high demand. You can give a huge impact to the community by spending a few hours of your time in volunteering for couple of weeks and sharing your insights and skills to an organization. You can hone your skills and gain additional experience while at the same time the organization can benefit greatly from it. This is a great opportunity for freelance web designers to do some professional work that could lead to a long-term career and contract with the organization once they see how well you do volunteering.




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