WHY YOU SHOULD
THERE are so many great reasons to take up volunteering.
It allows you to give back to the community, learn valuable skills, and meet new people.
Volunteering gives us the opportunity to con-tribute something positive to our community, regardless of your skill set or level of commit-ment you can be sure that you are making a real difference and having an impact on the people and communities you work with.
When you volunteer you open yourself up to meeting new people and getting out of your comfort zone and friendship group.
Through volunteering, people of different age ranges with different interests and live experiences can work together with a shared common goal.
You can share and learn from each other and it will help broaden your mind to new ways of life. Volunteering also allows you to learn practi-cal skills and you would be surprised how much experience you can pick up. Working with dis-advantaged youth groups gives you experience dealing with younger people, volunteering can help to greatly develop your organisational, public speaking, and time management skills.
Volunteering helps to increase our compas-sion and empathy and turns you into a more understanding caring person. It may sound cliché but volunteering really does look great on your CV.
It demonstrates a self-driven attitude and someone who is not afraid of putting.the work in.
Volunteering allows you to explore your interests in a practical and fulfilling way. If you volunteer in an area that you are interested in pursuing professionally it can be a good taster to decide if you want to commit to it full time and can get you some great experience while you are at it. Volunteering challenges us but it also does good to those around us, there really is no downside to giving it a try, it is very rare to hear someone speaking about regretting doing such a good thing. Volunteers, along with Family Carers, a help to hold our societies together. Volunteers are often unseen but their impact on community and voluntary services and supports in their local areas can be transfomiative.
Who sees the voluntary football coach, or the meals on wheels with a warm smile and greeting? Who sees the long hours undertaken voluntary boards as they try to manage centre or a community hall?
Who sees the person who uses their car to take patients to oncology appointments?
Only a few. Often none. It can feel like thankless work, but voluntary services make a seismic difference to the lives of many people whether you will ever truly get to see it or not. The benefits of volunteering should never be underestimated in what they do for those offering voluntary services and those who avail of them.