Why We Need A Better System For Volunteering

It’s important that you somehow give back to your community. A community is only as strong as how its members contribute to it. While it’s important to do your job, and that contributes in its own way, it’s also important to look at volunteering as well. Volunteering helps to fill in those gaps that may otherwise go underserved or where an organization has problems filling a regular position. In some cases, it may even be traditional for something to be a volunteer position. However, these positions need to be filled somehow as they help the community as a whole; filling those positions can help strengthen the community as a whole, allowing the community to do things it normally can’t do and allowing it to advance.

Volunteering needs to evolve into a better system. Everyone has some sort of skill that they can share, be it a particular knack for fixing a pipe to managing stress in a unique way: Everyone has something. People need to be less afraid of sharing the skills that they have, as shared skills always helps others. It can be as complicated as helping to build homes to as simple as putting in time at a food; sometimes just providing a warm body taking orders from other volunteers. Everyone can contribute in some fashion; it is just a matter of figuring out where you fit best. We need some sort of more efficient system of determining where people can volunteer and organizing the skills of those volunteers, even those who are just volunteering their time.

A lot of people have skills that readily convert to volunteerism. Other have hobbies and interests beyond their jobs that work rather well as well; a chef can help out at a soup kitchen just as much as someone whose hobby is carpentry can help build houses. By talking to an organization that needs help and seeing what they need, someone can be of serious assistance to that organization. Given the sheer number of organizations out there that could use help, you can always find something that your skills and background apply to, no matter how small or large the organization is.

People have been sharing knowledge for the good of the community since the first cavemen gathered around the fire. Today, we are in a really good place for sharing knowledge and experience. If sharing is short but visual, TikTok works; if it’s longer then YouTube. Blogs and podcasts also make for great ways to share our knowledge, especially when sharing the information works well in an oral fashion. In fact, there are already people sharing their knowledge, some just in the hope that those skills, those little pieces of knowledge, will not be forgotten and to ensure that the other generations can pass that knowledge on to the next generation. Be sharing information, we not only make life easier for others, but also continue traditions of sharing started by the first cavemen.

At the very least, people can contribute their time. A lot of volunteers just show up and help, and that is often enough. Food banks are always in need of help, and hospitals need people to help with basic care, such as bathing patients; anything that allows a nurse to worry about actual nursing is a serious plus. Parks always need help with basic maintenance tasks, such as picking up garbage, pulling weeds, and moving rocks. The gift of your time may sound boring some, but it can be extremely important to the right people.

Because of all these different types of volunteer positions, it only serves the community to have a more organized, more methodical way to align volunteers and available positions. Organizations need a more efficient way to get the word out that they have volunteer positions and what they are, as well as for those interested in volunteering to find those positions. By creating and implementing such a system, more positions would be filled and more organizations would find uses for volunteers.

[Yes, there is a reason “organizations” is being used rather than “companies”: For-profit companies should pay any help they receive, even interns, while a charitable or political organization should have access to volunteers. However, some companies are being excluded as some, such as hospitals and some government offices, should have access to volunteers; the good of the community should be the standard that determines if volunteers are available.]

In short, we can do each other a great deal of good by figuring out what we can do to help out our communities, even if it’s just sharing our knowledge and experience. Everyone can contribute to their community in some fashion, however they define their community. If we all pooled our skills and knowledge for the benefit of our community, it would be a truly awesome thing; there would be no limit to what we could contribute as a society. We just need to figure out a more effective way of matching volunteers to needed positions.