How to Serve Local Government and Help Your Community | Dale Sutherland

Some brief insight on how to better servel your local government and community

Dale Sutherland

Sometimes, we have a hard time finding the best place to serve our community.

There are many ways people can serve: They can serve at their local church.

They can serve at the hospital.

They can be a volunteer for the fire department or police department.

They can serve food at a shelter and hand out food to the needy.

They can also serve with nonprofits that help in all kinds of challenging situations.

What is interesting is often the group most plugged into the needs in our communities is our local social services. They are in every state in America and they place their focus on the elderly and state government.

They have divisions that work with special-needs families and divisions dealing with child protection to help children who have been abused. They also work in our school systems to help the neediest kids.

We are grateful there are so many services our government can provide to the needs of our communities. However, there are also gaps that the government services cannot meet. The way to serve your community through local government is by asking.

When I was working at a church years ago, I got frustrated because I felt like the people we were helping were probably not in the greatest need. I thought there must be people that had a greater need than the people we were serving, but I also didn’t know how to determine who had the greatest need. We were pastors; not social workers. So I began conversing with several different social workers. Those social workers opened up doors for service if we were willing to do things no other ministries or nonprofits would do.

As a result, we started a ministry that serves social workers in the school system, hospitals, child protective services, and the elderly. We did all we could to try to be as responsive and unique as possible. It takes a long time to gain the trust of the social workers, but they are the key to reaching the needy in your community. Otherwise, we often serve those that are most vocal, but not most needy. In order to serve a family with a child with cancer, you must find them. The ones that know who those families are and who are in greatest need are the social workers in the local government.

Volunteering is one most rewarding things anyone could do. It is ten times more rewarding when we see that we are meeting legitimate needs that are slipping through the cracks in government and other nonprofits. Go into your neighborhood and talk to the schools, talk to social workers and offer your availability to help solve problems.

You will be richly rewarded spiritually as you get to see God at work among the needy.