Volunteer Ideas | Get Started!
Where your passion for helping others meets a real need in your community, you will inspired into service. The summer months provide a respite from the chilly winter and spring that gave us good reason to stay indoors; getting outside into the sun and our vibrant communities opens our minds once more to where and how we turn living into making a difference. Get started volunteering with these 4 ideas:
1. Discern your passion: Opportunities to help abound, however, you are your best self as a volunteer when you are doing something you love while making a difference. If food insecurity pulls at your heart strings, contact your local foodbank. If animals make you coo, volunteer at a local animal shelter or hospital.
2. Find an opportunity online: Put down the phone and hop online to search for volunteer opportunities - tons of free websites offer easy ways to search for volunteer opportunities by location, interest and time. Check our our faves HERE.
3. Start your own service project: Is there a need calling to you in your neighborhood that is not being addressed? Tackle it yourself and coordinate a service project with friends and family where you run the show. Perhaps it's cleaning up your local park, fixing up an elderly neighbors garden/walkway, painting the community center, you name it. Use free online signup sheets to quickly coordinate your volunteer group - easy online scheduling and no reply-all emails!
4. Step Outside of the Box: Volunteering is often best done with others. Challenge yourself to meet new people and make new friends by volunteering at group-oriented projects. Chances are your town or city has festivals, performances, shows, parades or other large events that require lots of volunteers. Search online or contact your local Chamber of Commerce for more information on opportunities to get involved.