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Benefits of Community Service
Volunteering connects you to others. One of the better-known benefits of volunteering is the impact on the community. Unpaid volunteers are often the glue that holds a community together.
Volunteering allows you to connect to your community and make it a better place.
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Even helping out with the smallest tasks can make a real difference to the lives of people, animals, and organisations in need. And volunteering is a two-way street: It can benefit you and your family as much as the cause you choose to help. Dedicating your time as a volunteer helps you make new friends, expand your network, and boost your social skills.
One of the best ways to make new friends and strengthen existing relationships is to commit to a shared activity together. Volunteering is a great way to meet new people, especially if you are new to an area. Volunteering also strengthens your ties to the community and broadens your support network, exposing you to people with common interests, neighborhood resources, and fun and fulfilling activities. Volunteering increases your social and relationship skills
While some people are naturally outgoing, others are shy and have a hard time meeting new people. Volunteering gives you the opportunity to practice and develop your social skills, since you are meeting regularly with a group of people with common interests. Once you have momentum, it’s easier to branch out and make more friends and contacts.
Volunteering as a family
While it might be a challenge to coordinate everyone’s schedules, volunteering as a family has many worthwhile benefits. Children watch everything you do. By giving back to the community, you show them firsthand how volunteering makes a difference and how good it feels to help other people and animals and enact change. It’s also a valuable way for you to get to know organisations in the community and find resources and activities for your children and family.
Volunteering provides many benefits to both mental and physical health.
• Volunteering increases self-confidence. Volunteering can provide a healthy boost to your selfconfidence, 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.
• Volunteering combats 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 helps you develop a solid support system, which in turn protects you against stress and depression when you’re going through challenging times. Working with pets and other animals has also been shown to improve mood and reduce stress and anxiety.
• Volunteering helps you stay physically healthy. 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.
I have limited mobility—can I still volunteer?
Whether due to a lack of transportation, time constraints, a disability or other reasons, many people prefer to volunteer via phone or computer. There are many projects where you can help. Writing and graphic design lends itself to working at home, and in today’s digital age many organisations might also need help with email and websites.
If you think home-based volunteering might be right for you, contact organisations you like and ask what some of the possibilities might be. Some volunteer organisations may require you to attend an initial training or periodical meetings. You also want to make sure that you are getting enough social contact, and that the organisation is available to support you should you have questions.
Volunteering: The happiness effect
Helping others kindles happiness, as many studies have demonstrated. 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, according to a study in Social Science and Medicine. Compared with people who never volunteered, the odds of being “very happy” rose 7% among those who volunteer monthly and 12% for people who volunteer every two to four weeks. Among weekly volunteers, 16% felt very happy—a hike in happiness comparable to having an income of $75,000–$100,000 versus $20,000, say the researchers.
Volunteering can advance your career
If you’re considering a new career, volunteering can help you get experience in your area of interest and meet people in the field. Even if you’re not planning on changing careers, volunteering gives you the opportunity to practice important skills used in the workplace, such as teamwork, communication, problem solving, project planning, task management, and organisation. You might feel more comfortable stretching your wings at work once you’ve honed these skills in a volunteer position first.
Volunteering can provide career experience
Volunteering offers you the chance to try out a new career without making a long-term commitment. It is also a great way to gain experience in a new field. In some fields, you can volunteer directly at an organisation that does the kind of work you’re interested in. For example, if you’re interested in nursing, you could volunteer at a hospital or a nursing home. Your volunteer work might also expose you to professional organisations or internships that could be of benefit to your career.
Volunteering can teach you valuable job skills
Just because volunteer work is unpaid does not mean the skills you learn are basic. Many volunteering opportunities provide extensive training. For example, you could become an experienced crisis counselor while volunteering for a women’s shelter or a knowledgeable art historian while donating your time as a museum docent.
Volunteering can also help you build upon skills you already have and use them to benefit the greater community. For instance, if you hold a successful sales position, you raise awareness for your favorite cause as a volunteer advocate, while further developing and improving your public speaking, communication, and marketing skills.
When it comes to volunteering, passion and positivity are the only requirements
While learning new skills can be beneficial to many, it’s not a requirement for a fulfilling volunteer experience. Bear in mind that the most valuable skills you can bring to any volunteer effort are compassion, an open mind, a willingness to do whatever is needed, and a positive attitude.
Volunteering brings fun and fulfillment to your life
Volunteering is a fun and easy way to explore your interests and passions. Doing volunteer work you find meaningful and interesting can be a relaxing, energising 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.
Many people volunteer in order to make time for hobbies outside of work as well. For instance, if you have a desk job and long to spend time outdoors, you might consider volunteering to help plant a community garden, walk dogs for an animal shelter, or help out at a children’s camp.
AUSTRALIAN VOLUNTEERING KEY STATISTICS
• How many people volunteer? According to a 2001 ABS study, 5.2 million people aged 18 years and over participated in voluntary work at least once in the previous 12 months. Of these, 3.1 million (21% of the population aged 18 years and over) were volunteers who worked at least once per fortnight for one or more organisations.
• This figure represented an increase over those in 2000, where 4,395,600 people over the age of 18 volunteered, representing 32% of the population. In fact, the proportion of the population who volunteered at least once in a 12 month period has increased from 24% in 1995 to 32% in 2000 and 34% in 2006. This increase occurred for both men and women across most age groups.
• How often do they volunteer? In 2006, volunteers contributed 713 million hours of voluntary work, up from 704.1 million hours in 2000 and 511.7 million hours in 1995. However, while the total annual hours contributed by volunteers has increased dramatically between 1995 and 2006, the amount of time each volunteer gave has actually decreased. The median annual hours contributed by volunteers has fallen from 74 hours per person in 1995 to 56 hours per person in 2006 - a reflection perhaps of the fact that more Australians are volunteering now than a decade ago.
• Where do they volunteer? In 2006, 62% of volunteers worked with one organisation only, 25% with two, 8% with three and 4% with more than three organisations. The main recipients of volunteers’ work were sport and recreation organisations (more than 23%) and education and training groups (18%) - in fact, these two sectors, along with community/welfare and religious groups, accounted for 74% of volunteering involvements.
• Where do the different genders volunteer? Women constituted the majority of volunteers in community services, education, training and youth services, and health. By contrast, men dominated the composition of volunteers in sport and recreational activities and in emergency services volunteers.
• Who volunteers the most? Women volunteer more commonly than men (36% compared to 32%), but among full-time workers, men were more likely to volunteer (34%) than women (33%). However, 55% of employed women worked part-time, and among these women, 47% were doing voluntary work.
• Does employment matter? Employed people, either in full-time (34%) or part-time work (44%), had a higher volunteer rate than those who were unemployed (26%) or not in the labour force (30%).
• How many hours a week do they volunteer? Employed men gave an average 2.2 hours a week to voluntary work, while unemployed men did 3.4 hours of voluntary work a week, and retired men did 5.9 hours. Similarly, retired women did more weekly hours of voluntary work, 3.5 hours, than other women not in the labour force (2.4 hours), and than those who worked parttime (2.3 hours), full-time (2.1 hours) or were unemployed (2 hours)
• What age group is most likely to volunteer? People aged 35-44 years were in the age group are most likely to volunteer their time.
• Why do they decide to volunteer? In a Volunteering Australia report 80% of respondents chose ‘knowing that my contribution would make a difference’ as the most important factor in their decision to volunteer. The next most popular reason was ‘personal belief for a cause.’
• Why do they volunteer? Helping others or the community was acknowledged as a current reason for volunteering by 57% of volunteers. More than 50% of both male and female volunteers over all age groups and in all labour force status groups gave ‘helping others or helping the community’ as a reason for being a volunteer. However, volunteers also identified benefits to themselves with 44% reporting ‘personal satisfaction’ and 36% ‘to do something worthwhile’.
• What is the best method of recognition for volunteers? According to a Volunteering Australia report ‘being accepted as a valuable team member’, ‘personal thank you’ and ‘feedback about my contribution’ are the most appreciated methods of recognition as selected by volunteers.
