The Benefits of Volunteering by Ingrid Herrera-Yee

With busy lives, it can be hard to find time to volunteer.  Many know of the benefits to their community. But did you know that as a volunteer, you gain many benefits as well? Volunteering can help protect your mental and physical health; it can improve your social and even your career networks and so much more!

According to Help Guide and a Harvard Study the many benefits of volunteering to you can include:

• Increased self-confidence. Volunteering can provide a healthy boost to your self-confidence, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. You are doing good for others and the community, which provides a natural sense of accomplishment. Your role as a volunteer can also give you a sense of pride and identity. And the better you feel about yourself, the more likely you are to have a positive view of your life and future goals.
• Decreased depression. Reducing the risk of depression is another important benefit of volunteering. A key risk factor for depression is social isolation. Volunteering keeps you in regular contact with others and help you develop a solid support system, which in turn protects you against stress and depression when you’re going through challenging times.
• Improved physical health. Volunteering is good for your health at any age, but it’s especially beneficial in older adults. Studies have found that those who volunteer have a lower mortality rate than those who do not, even when considering factors like the health of the participants. Volunteering has also been shown to lessen symptoms of chronic pain or heart disease.
• Gaining work experience: working in the field or a position that has transferable skills will help you become more experienced when you are looking for that job.
• Help with resume building: add volunteering to your resume. Businesses, either for or not for profit, want to see you that you’ve been busy, so show them how you took the initiative to volunteer at a local nonprofit and be specific of what you did. Being the leader or creating a new and helpful tool will prove to the potential employer that you are an asset to their organization.
• Gaining new skills: work experience is invaluable; there are some things you can’t learn in school. So by volunteering, you are in a new environment, observing people in their jobs and hopefully you are given tasks that challenge you. Volunteering gives you the opportunity to practice important skills used in the workplace, such as teamwork, communication, problem solving, project planning, task management, and organization. You might feel more comfortable stretching your wings at work once you’ve honed these skills in a volunteer position first.
• Helping you to spread your wings and try something new: try something you are interested in. This way, if you don’t like it, you’ll know before you take classes or apply for the job and then realize it’s not what you want to do as a career.
• Meeting new people: not only do you get to gain experience, but you meet people who can be a potential reference when your job hunting if you made the right impression, or they may recommend a place to apply. Let them know you are looking and ask for them to be on your list of references, after you’ve shown them what you can do!
• The potential of getting a new (paying) job: This may lead to a job. Nonprofits make up a large percentage of organizations in Sonoma County, and therefore many jobs are found there. Prove what you can do, and they may find funding to keep you.
• Improving your College application: College applications ask for community service. But since it’s getting more competitive, not only do you show your volunteer time, but you need to stand out by taking a leadership role or again, creating something new that addresses a need in the community.
• Making a real difference in the lives of others: Lastly, but more importantly, volunteering leads you to find the joy of serving others and helping to improve your local community. Helping others kindles happiness. When researchers at the London School of Economics examined the relationship between volunteering and measures of happiness in a large group of American adults, they found the more people volunteered, the happier they were.

Volunteering is a fun and easy way to explore your interests and passions. Doing volunteer work can be an escape from your day-to-day routine of work, school, or family commitments. Volunteering also provides you with renewed creativity, motivation, and vision that can carry over into your personal and professional life, and all while helping out in your community. It’s a win-win proposition.

Ed4Career offers courses in personal development, personal enrichment and even in health and human services. Learn more about courses that can help you have an edge in your journey as a volunteer or if you are interested in exploring career options in the helping professions visit our website at Ed4Career today!