Volunteering offers great rewards, even if you do it because you have to! It doesn’t really matter that much why you volunteer. I hope you’re looking forward to it, but I think you’ll enjoy it even if you’re a little squeamish right now. Some teens just like the idea of doing something for someone else. Maybe your parents volunteer or maybe someone helped you in the past and now you would like to do something good. Other teens have to volunteer because their school requires community service or because they got into trouble and “volunteering” is their punishment.
If you can choose where to volunteer, there are many options. Typically, you will help a non-profit organization. You can check Wikipedia (which is a non-profit organization itself) for the definition. Here is my short version:
An organization that provides funding, services, programs, or information to the general public, without making money doing so.
Make sense? Here are some of the main categories of nonprofit organizations:
- Environment: This could be the global Sierra Club or a local recycling group.
- Humanitarian aid – like the Red Cross helping where there is a war or an earthquake
- Animal protection – there are national organizations and local shelters
- Education: Many private schools, summer programs, preschools, libraries, and community schools are not-for-profit (this is different than a public school, which is run by your local government)
- The arts: major museums and theaters or your local gallery, theater or choir
- Social Issues: Organizations that work to change or improve conditions for people (racism, homelessness, prejudice) or to help people in difficult situations (provide food, housing, counselling). Clubs like Girl Scouts would also be in this category.
- Charities: These generally exist to give money to non-profit organizations, they can be trusts or foundations.
- Health care: Many hospitals are non-profit, and there are many organizations that work to find cures for diseases such as the American Cancer Society.
- Politics: groups are generally formed to support a candidate or party, they can be national or local.
- Religion: All religions in the United States are considered non-profit organizations.
- Sports: such as a local league or sports club
I believe you should have fun, be creative, and learn when you volunteer. As a teenager, you’re probably starting to get some ideas about what you want to do with your life (and a lot of adults are probably teasing you about it). When you volunteer, you get to explore something you haven’t tried before. That’s the cool part.
Of course, there’s the possibility that someone might want you to do community service that’s boring, dull, or just not your thing. If that happens, you should be prepared with some ideas of your own, so you can take your pick!
Think about your skills and interests. What do you like to do when you have a choice? What are you good at, what do people compliment you on? At this point in your life you – YES YOU – have some talents that make you very special. This is your chance to use them.
Go back and read that again if you still feel like you don’t want to do community service!
What I’m going to give you here is a list of ideas. They may not work for you, may not be available in your neighborhood, or you may not like them. BUT there is enough here to make you think. Your volunteer work can be something that exists (like becoming a hospital volunteer) or something that you create. If you are earning your Boy Scout Eagle or Girl Scout Gold award, you will need to create your own.
Here it goes:
- Do you love the arts? Find a nonprofit theater or performing arts center in your city. Find out what you can do for them, like working the ticket office or being an usher. Be sure to check out the performances for free!
- Do you want to help homeless families? Check with your church, temple or mosque. Many communities have a Family Promise program or Interfaith Hospitality Network. Families with children stay in the congregations for a week at a time. You can play with the children, cook a meal or provide entertainment.
- Interested in gardening or farming? You may want to start volunteering at a public garden or farm. From there, you could start your own community garden. Ask the town for a small plot to use and invite the community to participate.
- Are you a natural organizer? Consider organizing a drive. You could collect food (for a local pantry), coats, gloves or hats or blankets. You’ll need to find out where you can donate them and find storage space at home, school, or your congregation. You should be able to get free advertising in the newspapers. (Make it even more interesting, ask people to buy wool blankets and you decorate them…)
- In the music? Form a choir or band and provide entertainment in nursing homes, shelters, orphanages, or public spaces.
- Love animals? Volunteer to walk and feed the dogs at a local shelter or get trained to work at a zoo.
- Do you have experiences to share? You can write about them or talk about them to groups of your own age. Many organizations that work with children would be interested in these. If you were adopted, you could talk about it. If one of your parents died or left, share it. Organizations that work with teens may have a teen advisory board, find out.
Starting
Check with friends, family, teachers, and neighbors for ideas. Go online or in the phone book for contact information. Hate making calls? (me too!) Get a partner (or a parent) to make the initial call to find out who might be interested in your services. Then go see them.