The Good of Volunteering

You could be helping to feed the homeless, or planting trees to help the environment, or even doing something in your community to help the people around you.

Volunteering can help so many different areas and benefit so many in the end. There is something for everyone out there no matter your interests or schedule. Something as simple as giving a water bottle to someone on the streets could be considered helping your community. The little good things in life really can have an amazing build-up into something great.

What You Could Do

Within every community, there are always the obvious soup kitchens or churches that are always looking for volunteers and people to help them out, especially during the holidays and winters. This could mean going to help cook meals, pass out meals, or help collect toys or clothes.

If you are a pet person, you could go to local shelters. Sometimes they could have visiting hours for the animals where you could go in and give them love and attention. These animals can benefit from even just an hour of playtime in their day. This could also give you an idea of what kind of animals are there and speak out to friends or family who is ever looking to adopt.

The environment is also an area to volunteer in if you are trying to keep the world around you a little cleaner. Simple tasks like composting any food scraps, recycling, biking, or walking to places, can be added to your day to day without causing too much time to be taken from your schedule. Added activities like cleaning local parks or beaches, or even planting flowers or trees. These things can also be done with friends and family and make the experience more fun for everyone.

One of the bigger volunteering jobs out there is helping to build homes in communities. It can be incredible for you to help build one of our famous Habitat homes and for the people you might be helping to volunteer. Or if you are not someone who feels like they are better at volunteering indoors you can also donate your time and help out at our ReStore for Central Oklahoma Habitat For Humanity.

Where Could You Volunteer?

Volunteerism can be an overwhelming idea to some. There is so much out there; how would you be able to know what to do or why it helps? When it comes to these types of questions, it is important to understand yourself or to even go to your local library or local vendor event and learn what they do.

Stepping back and learning your goals and interests can help figure what you would want to do. What gets you thinking? What problem in the world gets you upset the most? Questions like these can narrow down what kind of help you want to put out in the world. The great thing about volunteerism is that it can be extremely personalized.

To find places you could help in it could be as easy as looking to people you already know. Talk to people you work with, your employer even. They may have options through the company you work for. Also, look for places you may already give back to without realizing it. Do you do sports, or go to church? Even looking at the skills you already have could be a way to see what you might be good at when it comes to volunteering.

Thankfully, volunteering is something that can be flexible and fit into your wants and needs of their goals. There are so many options out there, no matter if you are an extrovert, introvert, or someone who has too much free time on their hands. Why not volunteer, it would be helping the community around you and yourself as well.