You’ve probably walked past people living on the streets or know a family who’s having a tough time in the current economy. Perhaps you’ve seen news reports about people who need assistance after a natural disaster. Maybe you want to protect forests from development or rivers from pollution, but are not sure what you can do to help.

Volunteering gives you an opportunity to change lives, including your own. If you’d like to support a cause but can’t afford to donate money, you can donate your time instead. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

    • Volunteer for an after-school sports programme. Special Olympics games and events are great ways to get to know children with special needs.
    • Serve a dinner to the homeless. Your place of worship may be able to use your help.
    • Play with pets at a local animal shelter. Most shelters depend on volunteers to keep the cats and dogs happy and well exercised – when you’re walking rescued dogs, you get a workout too.
    • Join a conservation group and help with river preservation. Take part in a local park cleanup day.
    • Support a health-related cause. Lots of us are close to people who have a medical problem such as cancer, HIV, or diabetes. You can donate your time to an organisation that raises money for research, delivers meals, or offers other help to people with an illness.
    • Visit your local children’s hospital and offer to lead arts and crafts activities for young patients.
    • Organise grocery shopping trips for the elderly.
    • Coach a person in resume writing and job interview skills.
    • Plant a garden at a local senior citizens home, and help tend it. Flowers for cutting are especially nice.
    • Help tutor a child in reading or math skills.
    • Encourage your company to “adopt” a classroom or local school.
    • Maintain the garden for an elderly or homebound person.
    • Teach environmental awareness to kids.
    • Clean up a neighbourhood park or recreation area.

Where to start

Search the Internet or call an organisation directly and ask if they need volunteers in your area. Look on bulletin boards in your library or in bookstores.

Benefits

Volunteering is a great way develop a new understanding of people who are different from you – people with disabilities, people in financial distress, sick kids, or the elderly. When people depend on you, it can change the way you look at yourself. You can feel proud of the goals that you’ve achieved for an organisation whether it’s helping to organise a 10K race to raise money for breast cancer or running the race itself.

Our Employee Wellbeing Programme (EAP) is available 24 hours a day. If you want to know more about volunteering, call us on the EAP number 0861 872 862.