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.

[Snafu'd]

Good thread idea. It came at a perfect time too because I am involved in a "leadership" program in the town I live in and one of the requirements to graduate from this program is to put in some time volunteering. I find it a little odd that this is a requirement because many facilitators of the program stated that you have to really be interested in the organization you are volunteering for or you are just wasting your time and the organization's. But, I do agree that it is a good way to get people to volunteer that normally wouldn't, like me, so I'm really trying to figure out what organization would be a good fit for me. I'll be watching this thread closely and hopefully others will chime in with their experiences.

[El Diablo]

All,

Some links:

http://www.handsonnetwork.org/our-network/ - Hands-On
http://www.onebrick.org/index.asp - One Brick
http://www.handsonbayarea.org/ - Hands On Bay Area
http://www.edgewoodcenter.org/ - Edgewood Center
http://www.glide.org/ - Glide
http://www.hamiltonfamilycenter.org/ - Hamilton Family Center
http://www.sffoodbank.org/ - SF Food Bank

Links to a number of the organizations I mentioned in my lengthy OP.

[alimoe]

I do two volunteering activities - both in Boston.

I work with kids, middle school through high school, at a program called Mission Safe in the Mission Hill area. It's a program where High School aged kids are paid a stipend to run an afterschool program for middle school kids. I come in and tutor kids, mostly in math, but a little bit in all subjects. I've been working with them for over 5 years now, and it's an awesome program.

At first it was a little tough, b/c none of the kids felt comfortable asking me questions for for help. At this point, all of the older kids who run the program trust me, so I immediately get respect from the younger kids. It's a ton easier for me now.

Also, I helped coach a little league team a couple of years ago, and am going to coach my own team this coming summer. I found out that it's hard to get into this if you don't have kids of your own, b/c the managers are skeptical of people who just want to help out. I'm sure it's out of fear of sexual-type predators. I got a lot of help in getting a coaching gig, b/c I work with Mission Safe. The guy who runs the little league group, knows who I am through Mission Safe and therefore, I have a reputation as a good person.

matt

[lapoker17]

diablo - i bought some homeless dude a calzone last night - i don't have a link though.

[iron81]

Thinly veiled brag?

Seriously, the only real volunteering I've done was for Habitat. I did about a dozen Saturdays with them over a few years while I was at college. There was a student group running the program and I was on their listserve. I'd show up at a place on campus and we'd drive down. I never did the framing work that you see on TV, it was mostly drywall and painting work.

I also helped raise a little money for them. The group sold raffle tickets at NHL games. We had to give most of the money to the team charity arm, but it was still fun because we got to see 2/3rds of the game.

I liked this organization because the work was interesting. Most charity work is rewarding, but not independently interesting IMHO. It was also easy to work with the campus group and there were a bunch of good people involved with that as well.

[suzzer99]

Thanks Diablo. This thread reminded me that I signed up with the local VA to help drive veterans to the hospital. They gave me a phone # to call and follow up and I never did. I will use this thread as a motivation to follow through with this and report. Please someone bug me about it if I don't.

[El Diablo]

iron,

Unfortunately, I can't really brag. I've done a lot of volunteering in the past, but have done almost none the last few years. I've instead given money, which is cool and often more useful to them, but less personally satisfying. I've been meaning to get back into it for a year or so, and I'm doing this partially to help give myself a little kick in the ass to get moving. I think there are a lot of people like me who are into the idea of volunteering, but just don't get around to doing it. I think bringing it more to the front of people's minds and providing some places like Hands-On that make it easier to get started will be helpful to many, I hope.

[octopi]

I have done some volunteering with Big Brothers and Sisters, just their in school mentoring. I have also worked in an old folk's home, visiting with older people and those who need assistance (people paralyzed via car wrecks or multiple sclerosis etc), reading and talking with them.

I got involved with both to hopefully increase my patience level and give me some sort of perspective on when I was having a [censored] day. In retrospect, I'm not sure I really accomplished what I had hoped for. I probably donated an hour or so of my time to each activity each week. I didn't really feel, well, useful. I didn't expect a party each month for what I was accomplishing, but the tasks felt empty and I wasn't sure I was really being helpful. Lack of feedback, I guess. I also felt slightly patronizing.

Lately I've been considering reading for the blind, but there was quite a selection process for it and I was (sadly) really put off of it. I've also thought about driving cancer patients to and from their chemotherapy appointments, but I'm not really sure I have the right personality for it. I'd like to help the world in some manner, but in a way that would be most beneficial to the people I'm helping, and myself. Call it selfish, but I just want to gain something else from what I do than declaring "oh, yes, I volunteer" at the next party I'm at like it's some sort of miraculous event.

[Tuco]

ED,

How do you work with homeless kids and not just end up writing them a huge fat check? Serious question. It's why I haven't done this type of thing yet.

For example, we sponsor a child through the CCF and i'm always telling my wife to send them more $$ hidden in crayons or something.

Tuco.