What It Means to Serve as a Volunteer

Volunteering encompasses more than simply helping others. It means dedicating your time to willingly help improve lives and support your community. It gives you a way to make a difference in the lives of others and in your own life. Here are a few important aspects of what it means to serve as a volunteer:

You are improving your community

Volunteering helps improve community quality and happiness. First and foremost, you are helping members of your community obtain experiences, skills, and benefits that they might not have had access to otherwise. Your help is imperative in making a change in their lives for the better. The more individuals there are volunteering in a community, the more that community will thrive.

You are investing your time to help the future of your community, especially when you volunteer to help children. Children are constantly learning and growing at a rapid pace. Those who might not have many opportunities to advance benefit greatly from the assistance of others. These children will be the leaders of your community in the future, so it’s important to help them obtain all the resources they need now.

You are inspiring others

Many people are often inspired by the actions of their friends, mentors, and leaders. When you serve as a volunteer, you are the one who is inspiring others to follow suit. The more people there are working towards a common goal, the more positive influence and achievements you will see. When you are going to volunteer, ask your family, friends, and coworkers to join you. Not many people would want to miss the opportunity to help others. There is always strength in numbers.

You are helping yourself

When you volunteer to help others, you are also gaining many benefits yourself. A very important benefit is that you are building strong relationships with those you are helping and those who are working beside you. These individuals make as much of a difference in your life as you make in theirs. The more time you spend with them, the more you learn about them and from them. Another benefit is that you are learning more and increasing your skill set. When volunteering for a variety of causes, you are assigned many different tasks that allow you to gain knowledge from these diverse experiences. There are also many physical and mental health benefits that have been linked to volunteering. These include living longer, staying physically active longer, combatting depression, increasing life satisfaction, and reducing stress and anxiety. All of these benefits come from simple acts of volunteering and community service, such as helping a child read.

Here at Education Connection, our goal is to have every child reading by the end of 3rd grade. If you want to learn more about what it means to serve as a volunteer, read about volunteering with us here: https://education-connection.org/literacy-partner-mentor/