So You want To Volunteer

Russian Orthodox Easter ceremony in Lvov (West...

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Plenty of people are looking to donate their time because it makes them feel great, and others are looking for volunteers. Sometimes, neither party knows where to start. If you don’t belong to a certain organization, you may not know they are looking for help and that they are willing to accept any help they can get. If you want to help someone, but you’re not quite sure where to start, try starting with these simple tips.

Check your local newspaper often, as you may find adds where people are looking for volunteers to help them. This is a good place to look because many organizations will want to advertise that they are looking for people to help them out.

Look into local organizations that host charitable events and are in need of volunteers such as churches, nursing homes, hospitals, and other organizations. You can research these local organizations online and probably find someone to contact. If you’re interested, simply ask them if they are looking for volunteers for any upcoming events. Ask people you know if they know of anyone that needs help. You may find people that are members of these organizations that know of events needing volunteers.

Any holiday is good to find a place to volunteer. At Easter, people will be looking for others to help with Easter egg hunts. At Christmas people are looking for any type of volunteer to help others in need. Search diligently at these periods throughout the year and you should find plenty of people looking for volunteers.

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What Is a Halfway House?

A halfway house is a facility that is connected with a drug or alcohol rehabilitation program. Recovering addicts who have finished the inpatient phase of their rehabilitation are often sent to a halfway house to continue their outpatient treatment. A halfway house can be considered the in-between step in completing the rehabilitation process and re-entering the “real world.” The halfway house provides recovering addicts an opportunity to prepare for returning to society while still offering them a safe place to return at night.

Halfway houses provide counseling and support, just like the inpatient and outpatient programs at rehabilitation facilities. Recovering addicts may have specific chores or duties that they must fulfill while staying at the halfway house. Websites like TheCyn.com can provide more information on what halfway houses offer.

Residents may have curfews and other restrictions, all designed to keep them from relapsing into addictive behavior. These restrictions also help them “ease” back into normal life, something that can be extremely helpful. A recovering addict who is in a halfway house feels that he is being allowed to re-enter society at a comfortable pace instead of being on his own.

Halfway houses often rely on volunteers to staff facilities. Volunteers can perform a number of duties, including providing meals or security at the facility, or providing transportation to and from job sites. Eligible counselors and support personnel can volunteer their time, thus helping keep the expenses incurred by the recovering addicts to a minimum. The work that volunteers do can go a long way towards helping recovering addicts remain clean and sober. This can be especially true when the volunteers are themselves recovering addicts. When a halfway house resident sees and talks to someone who truly knows what he is going through, it can really provide the boost he needs.

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Organizing a Food Drive

Organizing a food drive to help poverty stricken families is an excellent way to serve your community. Whether it originates in the classroom, in the workplace or in the chapel, a food drive is an event that allows everyone to get involved and feel like they are making a difference in the life of another person.

If you are looking to start a food drive where you live, here are some ideas on how you can effectively put one together:

1. Contact a local food bank. The food bank can inform you of what items they need in stock at that current point in time. It will help you to specify what items (canned goods, non-perishable items) you want donated and allow you to coordinate a time and place to drop off donations.

2. Organize volunteers. Recruit several people at your school, church or workplace to help you collect food and get the word out to everyone they know about your food drive.

3. Make containers to collect donations. You must locate designated areas for people to drop off their donated goods. Every food donation container should be placed in an area where it is visible and clearly marked.

4. Use word of mouth. Get creative and make some posters that volunteers can put up in different places. Also, provide an email address or Facebook page that volunteers can use to inform family and friends about the food drive.

5. Set a goal. Let people in your community know what goal you want to reach with your food drive and push everyone to reach that goal. Reward volunteers and donors alike for their contributions. Find a way to thank them for their efforts – be it through a free luncheon or something else.

Remember to always have a start and finish in mind for your food drive. Many successful food drives last at least two weeks to give everyone a chance to make a donation.

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community service scholarships

Corporations and foundations offer community service scholarships to encourage students to become more involved in service-learning. These can be nice tools to help them further their educational goals by getting them to serve others and qualify for these scholarships.

There are many scholarships out there that reward students who volunteer in their community. Here is a sampling of what is available:

• Target All-Around Scholarship: Each year, Target awards more than 600 scholarships to high school seniors. These scholarships recognize both volunteer work and their achievements in the classroom.
• Presidential Freedom Scholarships: Every high school nationwide can nominate at least two students to receive a $1,000 scholarship that spotlights their outstanding leadership demonstrated through community service. Scholarship winners are sent an official letter of recognition and a President’s Volunteer Service Award pin.
• Ronald Reagan College Leaders Scholarships: Students can apply for this scholarship recognizing Future Leaders once they become sophomores. Scholarships are awarded in increments of $10,000, $7,500, $5,000 and $2,500, to upperclassmen in college who show leadership through application of freedom and other constitutional values into their lives.
• Elie Wiesel Prize In Ethics Essay Contest: This is a yearly contest that gives college students a chance to analyze the most pressing modern ethical issues and write personal essays centered on dealing with those issues. $10,000 is awarded and distributed among first place, second place and third-place winners – as well as two honorable mentions – who produce the highest quality essays.

Another avenue, besides obtaining scholarships, for building up your resume through community service exists in The President’s Volunteer Service Award. This award is used each year to spotlight an ongoing resolve to rendering volunteer service. It is given to whatever individual persons, families and organizations have exhibited outstanding volunteer work and community participation throughout a single year.

Award recipients all receive an official President’s Volunteer Service Award pin, a certificate recognizing their achievement, a note congratulating them on their service from the President of the United States and a letter from the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation.



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How to be an effective mentor

Nothing can be more rewarding than being a mentor. A mentor can serve as a good role model and help the youth under their wing mature into an adult who actively makes positive contributions in their community.

Here are traits that will help you become an effective mentor:

Honesty:

Always be honest when you are a mentor. Remember and keep your promises. Admit when your actions or words are wrong.

Consistency:

You must be consistent in all your communications and appointments with whoever you are mentoring. A phone call or an email offers a good way to keep in contact when travel or a busy schedule causes conflict.

Patience:

You should always be patient in a mentoring role. Trust takes time and the youth in your charge may need time to open up to you and fully trust you. Many youth have had their trust betrayed by those supposedly close to them. Building trust is a calculated risk, but it is well worth the effort.

Helpfulness:

Teach those you mentor how to act for themselves. Don’t be the one that solves every problems. Teach them how to be a problem solver. Show them how to think for themselves.

Carefulness:

Do not let yourself become overwhelmed with multiple problems. Help those you mentor deal with one problem at a time.

Preparation:

You should expect setbacks and disappointments in building a strong mentor relationship. For the one you mentor, they may not have ever had a relationship with someone who is consistently there for them.

Listening:

Be a good listener. Find out how the person you mentor feels and thinks. Learn about their world and offer advice when asked.

Awareness:

As a mentor, you should always be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of those under your guidance. Emphasize their strengths and use those things as a tool to show them how to be successful. Only emphasize weaknesses as a means to help them grow as a person.

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