Spring’s arrival presents a great opportunity for you to get outside and serve your community! Volunteering is a well-recognized way to improve your mental health while being of service to those around you. According to the Mayo Clinic, volunteering improves mental and physical health, provides a sense of purpose, and connects you with others in your community.
Emma Tui, a volunteer and community partner at Acenda, offered some valuable insights into the personal benefits of volunteering, ripple effects it can have on your environment, why volunteers are essential to community organizations, and how you can get started volunteering today.
Benefits of Volunteering
Volunteering has long been recognized as a great way to boost your wellbeing and connect with other community members who share similar values. Tui said that those who volunteer with Acenda’s Family Success Centers often gain a sense of confidence and community connection, greater knowledge of accessible resources, new friendships, networking opportunities, and unique skills that can be utilized both personally and professionally.
Making the time to volunteer at community centers like the Family Success Centers allows you to become more involved and engaged in local activities and events, leading to closer connections and relationships with your neighbors.
“The effects volunteers have on our participants goes beyond what they provide in-house,” Tui wrote. “When participants leave our doors, they take with them the sense of being cared for and the knowledge that they are seen as an individual outside of the context of their circumstances; that continued experience can have a positive effect on the way they interact with the world around them.”
Ripple Effects of Volunteering
Any amount of time spent volunteering can have huge immediate and long-lasting effects on the organization and community you are serving. No matter how small or large the task, any amount of work that can be delegated to and accomplished by volunteers is beneficial.
Tui wrote, “By working at the center, volunteers can help arm parents and guardians with the skills they need to properly care for the children entrusted to them; children who will then hopefully grow up with the resources and support to lead a successful life. Volunteers do more for the community than they will ever know!”
Why Are Volunteers Essential to Community Organizations?
Community organizations are often powered by small, passionate teams who are working hard to serve a population much larger than they are. While they are capable of offering and running many services, volunteers assist them by taking over small tasks to allow them more time to do the behind the scenes work that keeps the organization running. Volunteers also often have closer direct ties to community members that can help to better notify them of resources and services available through the community organization.
“Volunteers help us to expand our reach outside the perimeters of the center that we, as staff, are often limited to,” Tui wrote. “These close connections bring about the spread of resources through personal channels that we don’t have access to ourselves, and allows us to help in ways far beyond what we could achieve on our own.”
When you join volunteer programs at your local community organizations, you are serving as an ambassador, promoting their services and assisting others in finding the resources that they may need.
How to Start Volunteering
Everyone has something to bring to the table as a volunteer, no matter your skills or professional experiences. Many organizations, like the Family Success Centers, tailor volunteer work to suit interested individuals and their availability.
Tui wrote, “We have some volunteers who prefer to sort through baby clothes, and others who love to host crafting workshops – we greatly appreciate each and every one, no matter the size of the task!”
Try reaching out to your local community organizations with your availability and preferred tasks or your skills. Then they can identify where you would be best suited or if they can recommend another organization that could use your help.
If you are located within South Jersey, you can visit a Family Success Center in person to begin the process.
“We’ll sit down with you for a quick chat about beginning the volunteer process and set up a time for you to come back and fill out the associated paperwork,” Tui wrote. During the meeting, we’ll take a few minutes to go over our upcoming calendars, and volunteers can choose which events they’d like to assist with. For those looking for a more behind-the-scenes role, we have an on-going need for volunteers to help us sort through donated baby clothes; volunteers can come at any time during our regular business hours and stay for as long as they want to; it's a very flexible task.”
No matter your schedule or skillset, there are sure to be opportunities for you to volunteer — just ask!
Want to learn more about Acenda’s Family Success Centers? Click the button below!
About the Authors
Emma Tui, BS, is a volunteer and community partner working with Acenda’s Family Success Centers. She coordinates volunteer opportunities and community partnerships to support the FSCs and the children and families they serve.
Riley de Jong, the content & engagement strategist with Acenda’s Brand, Marketing & Engagement team, attended the University of California – Los Angeles for her undergraduate degree in Communication and minor in Entrepreneurship. She enjoys supporting her community, telling engaging stories, and connecting with others.