How She Does It

National Volunteer Week in is April. A wholehearted “Thank you!” to the many volunteers who give their time to help our community! 

Volunteer week is held annually in April. Volunteering is rewarding for yourself and your community. It’s a win-win situation! I’m sure you’ve heard of the many benefits but you probably have never heard how to get started. If you’re not sure how to begin, follow these steps.

Start by considering these four questions –

1. What are you good at? List all of your skills and talents. List ones you haven’t used in awhile too. If you used to make posters in high school but haven’t done it in a while, put it on the list it. If you know how to sew but haven’t done it in a while, put it on the list. Some skills are communication, critical thinking, mentoring or coaching, strong work ethic, dependable, creative, motivational, etc.

2. What do you love to do? List the activities you really love to do not the ones you simply like to do. Take a moment to think this question through. Your answers will give you a direction into which area of service you would be most interested in.

3. What does your community need? This question seems to have an obvious answer but really think about the specific needs of your community, neighborhood, social groups, or family and extended family. Your answer to this question is important and you may have more than one answer. If you’re not sure what the needs are, scan through social media sites or the community section of your local newspaper for organizations’ activities. This is give you some ideas.

4. How much time are you willing to give? Decide whether you have time during the day, week, or month. Maybe you are only available seasonally, for example during the Winter or Summer months. Be honest with yourself about how much time you can truly dedicate towards volunteering. It’s very easy to over commit because most organizations are in desperate need of help. When you know your time availability this helps you keep your life balanced. Your time volunteering should feel rewarding and not a burden.

Now look at your answers

Do you see a connection between your skills and what you love to do? Do you see where your skills and the needs of your community intersect? Now you’re making progress! But if you need some help, here are a couple of examples.

Here’s an easy example: Let’s say you have a skill for training dogs, you love to be outdoors, you’ve found there’s a need for volunteers at a local animal shelter and you’ve determined you have approximately 4 hours monthly to volunteer your time.

With this information, you can approach an animal shelter’s volunteer coordinator to offer your time and skills. In particular, The City of Stockton Animal Shelter currently is in need of volunteers. The person in this example could volunteer once a month at their pet adoption sites helping with handling the dogs, walking them, and simply comforting them.

Here’s a not-so-easy example: Let’s say you’re not really sure what your skills are but you know you love going to the movies with friends. You especially love discussing the movie afterward. In fact, you love it so much you usually post about it on your social media along with a photo or two of your friends having a great time. You’ve found that there are a lot of various needs in your community and you’re not sure which service or organization you’d like to start with. You did spend some time thinking about your availability and found that you usually have 1 weekend each month when you would be available to help.

The person in this example has the budding skills of a communicator. Retelling a story, sharing a perspective, and posting on social media are skills. The next step would be to attend community events that interest you so you can get a sense of the organization and their purpose. When you’ve found an organization you can connect with, offer to work with their communications department. Though you may spend a some time in the beginning learning their social media style, you will want to make sure you are clear about the time you truly have available. In this example, once a month you could help cover an event on social media.

Volunteering is a rewarding experience. Now that you know how to begin, go out there and get started!

If you are volunteering now but would like to maximize your efforts, check out this post to learn how – Maximize Your Volunteering Efforts

Volunteer Week recognizes the hard work of many volunteers, the partnerships created within our community, and encourage more people to volunteer.