Volunteering has a variety of benefits including meeting new people, learning a whole host of new skills, feeling happier and healthier, and even advancing your career. If you’d like to experience any (or all) of the 4 benefits listed below, start looking for your nearest volunteering opportunity, today!
Connect to others
Many people search for ways to feel more involved within their community, and volunteering provides you the perfect opportunity to do so. Even helping others in your community in the smallest of ways can be incredibly rewarding. And for the person (or organization) that you’re assisting, your help can mean the world. In addition to doing good, you can connect with other like-minded individuals, make new friends, and improve your social skills.
Improve your mental and physical health
Helping and working with others in a voluntary capacity has long been proven to help reduce the effects of depression, loneliness and anxiety, and can actually have a profound effect on your overall psychological wellbeing. By keeping you in regular contact with others, and helping you to develop a strong support system, you’re better equipped to manage the symptoms of a variety of mental health issues and can feel happier overall.
In turn, feeling good mentally can encourage you to take better care of your body, and for those who choose a volunteering opportunity involving an element of physical fitness, you may even begin to feel and look, fitter.
Help you to advance your career
Volunteering is a great way of helping you to get experience in an area of interest if you’re seeking a new career path. Even if that isn’t in your plan, volunteering gives you the opportunity to learn and practice important workplace skills, like working as a team, communicating with others and problem solving, among others. If you are thinking of changing your career, volunteering enables you to try something without having to make a long-term commitment and may even expose you to professional organizations or internships that you weren’t aware of, that could benefit your career.
Many volunteering opportunities also enable you to take up extensive training in your field of interest, and just because the work that you’re doing isn’t paid, doesn’t make it any less meaningful in terms of the skills you gain.
Have fun and enrich your life
Exploring your interests and passions is made easy with volunteering, and provided you choose an opportunity that you enjoy, it can help give you a sense of escape from the more mundane aspects of everyday life, such as work, school or family commitments. You may even discover creative talents that you didn’t know you had and feel more motivated in both your personal and professional life.
Volunteering can provide you with many more benefits than those listed above, and your community will undoubtedly have countless opportunities for you to volunteer and help improve your own life, along with other members of your community.
