If you’ve wanted to reach out to your community and lend a helping hand in some way, but haven’t known how, you’re in luck—National Volunteer Week runs from April 12-18. It is the perfect time to engage with and within your community and work to make things brighter for yourself and your neighbors. Volunteering your time, energy and talents benefits everyone involved.
It’s very easy to find volunteer opportunities online through sites such as volunteermatch.org and serve.gov. Serve.gov also encourages people to develop their own projects and offers resources and tool kits to get your project off the ground. Chicago Cares is a more hyper local site to connect to prospective volunteer options.
Volunteer opportunities don’t just exist in your own backyard. You can explore the option of giving back and traveling, also known as voluntourism. Check out Volunteer Vacations to find programs in the United States and around the world to volunteer your time while on vacation.
Get inspired by what others are doing and learn about charitable giving in A Path Appears. Authors Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn profile innovators who are doing good and promoting change where they see cause. The authors also touch on how and where to contribute monetarily, if you can’t volunteer your time, and the best ways to avoid scams and donate responsibly.
In Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, former President Bill Clinton writes about the importance of acts of service and how each of us can change the world, as the subtitle suggests. He highlights ordinary citizens who have made extraordinary differences by giving their time, money, things or skills.
One hour or one year, one dollar or one thousand, any amount of time or money given could make a positive impact during National Volunteer Week and beyond.
Add a comment to: Give Back During National Volunteer Week