Benefits of Volunteering

Whether it is important to you to solve a community problem, advance a worthy cause or to develop as a person, volunteering offers many benefits in appreciation for the gift of your time and expertise. Volunteering can help you:

• Make important networking contacts
• Learn or develop skills
• Teach your skills to others
• Enhance your résumé
• Gain work experience
• Build self-esteem and self-confidence
• Improve your health
• Meet new people
• Feel needed and valued
• Express gratitude for help you may have received in the past from an organization
• Communicate to others that you are ambitious, enthusiastic and care about the community
• Make a difference in someone’s life
• Improves the likelihood that children will volunteer as an adult

Family volunteering can also benefit businesses through:

• Improved morale and positive attitudes among employees
• Reinforcing teamwork and breaking down barriers
• Adding an extra dimension of sharing, caring and creating  sense of community among employees
• Quality time for families through learning opportunities and positive role modeling for children
• Skill development in leadership, problem-solving, public speaking and improved organizational skills
• Demonstration of company commitment to the communities in which they do business

Why Children Should Volunteer

“It is such a great feeling to be able to get outside out do some good in my community, especially when my friends are right by my side!” -- Heidi Smith, Grand Haven MI, who volunteered in Greater Ottawa County United Way’s annual “Rake a Difference” event.

Kids feel great and have fun when they volunteer. Here are other reasons why children should volunteer:

1. Enhances Development. Volunteering can benefit a child’s psychological, social and intellectual development. Volunteering increases self-esteem, responsibility and an interest in learning and helps children develop new social skills. It also provides opportunities to apply newly learned material.
2. Promotes a Healthy Lifestyle and Choices -- Children who volunteer are less likely to become involved in at-risk behaviors.
3. Teaches Social Responsibility – Volunteering helps children develop empathy and learn that one person can make a difference.
4. Creates a lifelong ethic of service. Individuals who volunteer as a child or who observed their parents volunteering have a much higher probability of being a volunteer in their adult years.
5. Improves the community. Volunteer activities are essential for advancing the common good, and children can be part of the change.