Volunteering

[El Diablo]

A few people in Cardo's thread mentioned volunteering. I've done a fair amount of volunteering in the past and really love it. I've done it for three reasons:

1) To help people who need help
2) It makes me feel good
3) Meet cool girls (and some cool guys too, actually)

A lot of people have told me that their most fulfilling volunteering experiences have been with people who are really sick or really old. I personally get too sad doing this, so I've avoided it. Selfish, I know, but I'm doing this largely for me. People also talk about the value of making long-term bonds, especially when volunteering with kids. Various opportunities let you work with a young kid for extended periods of time. This is something I'll probably do in the future, but again for personal reasons, I've right now tried to avoid volunteering opportunities where I develop a close long-term relationship where I really have little control about the environment that kid has to live in. Basically, a lot of these things for me tend to be incredibly stressful and emotionally draining, not something I've been looking for out of volunteering. I'm not that much of an animal person, but for those that are, those also have the bonus of having lots of cute girls.

I want this thread to be about specific volunteering experiences and opportunities, but also wanted to get that stuff out as well because I think it's an important part of picking the right types of things for your personality.

Here are some things that I've done that I really enjoy.

Food bank - just sorting and packing boxes. This is manual labor, time goes fast, it's often with a bunch of other fun people. And you're helping people not go hungry. Easy.

Serving meals - tons of organizations exist that serve free meals. Always lots of opportunity to do this on Thanksgiving/Christmas/etc. I've mainly done things like weekend brunches and stuff. Everyone who comes through the line is sincerely thankful and happy to be served. Great feeling.

Habitat for Humanity - this is another great one that many people are familiar with. I bet someone here is more involved with habitat than I have been (just a couple of weekends), so I'll let them elaborate on the experience.

Kids - I like things where you play with kids. Two I've done in San Francisco are basically play days with kids who live in a family shelter or abused kids center. I'll list some of the specific ones below.

Planting trees - I've done this before, but don't get so much out of it or other environment-focused things. Fun day, though, and this is often full of cute girls.

Painting/fixing schools etc - I sorta like painting, but again, I don't get so much out of this one.

So how do you get started?

I got started volunteering in Atlanta w/ an organization called Hands On Atlanta. They basically serve as the middleman between lots of organizations that need volunteers and individuals/corporations who want to volunteer. They have orientations to get you started and then a calendar full of different types of opportunities. Some of these things you commit to doing regularly for some time period (like tutor a kid once a week for four months) while others you can just look to see what project you can go to on a specific day. The same organization exists in the Bay Area, http://www.handsonbayarea.org/. I'm a big fan of theirs and also encourage donating to them directly. They have tons of similar organizations nationwide as part of their network: http://www.handsonnetwork.org/our-network/

OneBrick is another similar organization. http://www.onebrick.org/index.asp I'm not as familiar with them, but have heard some good things. They are in SF Bay Area, NY, Chicago, and DC.

For SF folks, some organizations I've volunteered with and enjoyed (I think most of these currently have active projects on the Hands-On calendar):

Glide Church - various helping the hungry opps

Hamilton Family Center - various tutoring and play day opps w/ kids, this is a shelter for homeless families where the family is kept together and they help w/ job training, job search, etc.

Salvation Army Harbor House - I haven't volunteered with them, but will be doing so shortly. Single parent shelter.

Edgewood Center - this is the most stressful volunteering I've ever done, also some of the most rewarding. This center used to be an orphanage that evolved into a center for kids who have to be taken out of their homes due to severe physical, sexual, or emotional abuse and neglect. Many really troubled kids here. Very tough stuff, but very rewarding as well. This is not something I could do often, but the few times I did was great.

Alright, that was a lot longer than I intended, but hopefully it gives you some ideas and will prompt others to share their experiences and opinions as well.