Do you work with a specific community or organization, or just take opportunities as they come up?
What type of volunteer work do you like to do? Do you like the stuff where you are just a warm body - someone to hold a sign or greet people? Or more involved tasks that are more like professional work? What about shudders door knocking?
While not really a volunteer position, I do spend a chunk of my free time picking up litter in my area. From snack wrappers to cigarette butts to midnight ditch tips, I’ve done it all.
I used to do that at my previous job and used to chuck it up to being good for the business if the boss asked, but in reality, I just liked seeing the street clean while getting paid for it.
Similarly, I use company equipment to pick up the larger amounts of trash or furniture items.
A commercial vehicle backed into a ditch has had the side effect of attracting a few police from time to time, but it’s never been any trouble. No clue if it helps the business in terms of image, but it sure helps me feel better.
Do you have a stabby stick, or do you just wear gloves?
Generally just gloves since most of what I come across is either too small or too large for a picker. They’re also not too useful when there’s a lot to be picked up. Tends to be faster to use a shovel sometimes.
Volunteer firefighter.
Drive the 3000L truck or 1000L tender. Run hoses to hydrant. Use mounted water cannon, or run hoses out. Put out, scrub, bush, structure, or vehicle fires. Rescue puppies from drains.
Getting plenty of training, learning lots of different equipment, have a good team currently.
Eg. Last week at training, I tried out the ‘Hot Stick’ high-voltage detector. For finding live wires, beeps when high current closeby.
Similar to this one.
That sound like so much fun!
It really is.
I felt like I knew small fires pretty well, previously.
It is an eye-opener to learn more about large fire behaviour, backburning, and fire suppression methods.
Things like, a leaf-blower can be used on slow moving grass fires to blow them out.
I volunteer on the board of an arts nonprofit
As someone who works for an arts nonprofit: thank you!
I volunteer at an “intergenerational meetup” and try to explain to older folks how computers and the Internet work. Every two weeks for 2 hours.
Did door knocking as a child to collect money for war memorials in Germany.
This is my least favorite activity.
That said, I think it’s because the people I do it with are not willing to learn.
It’s different from IT support for e.g. my mom. It’s also more in the form of lectures and I might give a little IT support afterwards.
For sure. The more I thought about it the more I thought that was likely. Good on ya tho
I volunteer at a wildlife rehab clinic. I don’t get to treat the animals, but we get to do all the other work. I feed them, clean their area, check them to make sure their recovery is going well, we weigh them, prep various food mixes and formulas. There’s a ton of housekeeping like dishes, laundry, and sterilizing crates. I’ll also greet people that arrive with animals and grab one of the staff to get the intake started.
We also have events where I’ve directed cars where to park, ran games for the kids, and answered animal questions. I got put on the open house planning group so I will help plan and build new activities, and if we we’re able to get a new owl ambassador by then, I will run meet and greet things with it. I also got asked to help design some new shelters due the various raptors.
Our shifts are 4 hours, one day a week, from April through September, but I’ve been participating in random things over the winter.
I like working with animals because most of their injuries are caused by humans, and they are unable to advocate for themselves. I get to work with amazing people and see a ton of rare animals most people don’t even know we have. It can be difficult to see severely injured animals, have a lot die on you, to see people crying bringing in hurt animals, especially little kids, but there is also the reward of seeing animals recover and return to their homes.
I’m mainly there for raptors, but the most touching story was a little boy found a bumble bee with a damaged wing. He took it to his parents and he wanted to help it. They dialed us up and he asked if we could fix his bee. We can often fix butterfly wings, but bees are too tiny, and he was near the end as it was, but we set that bee up in a terrarium with soft bedding and half an orange, and for the rest of his days, we took care of that bee like any other animal we’d get through our doors.
Awww, the bee story :')…
I’d love to do that too but haven’t found yet. The closest I’m getting this year is saving amphibians during their migration period (which starts soon).
Every bit counts! Good luck! 🦎
I volunteer at a small music festival. We’re trying to help keep the village alive at a time when more and more facilities are closing. I run the website and social media, and take photos over the weekend.
Taking the photos is probably the most fun, as you get to be part of the festival and watch everyone enjoy the event you set up, as well as watching some of the acts. It’s exhausting though, as you don’t stop for the better part of three days.
This year I had a lot to do with booking the acts and liaising with the acts and the venues. That was really interesting, but it nearly killed me. I’ve got a chronic illness that tires me out, but I thought this would be ok as it’s mostly emailing and messaging. I had no idea how many random things have to be organised and rearranged in the run up, or how much can go wrong on the day!
I’m sticking to photos next year!
Tool libraries rock! Have volunteered with our local one for years.
Also book libraries often can use volunteer assistance!
I am a founding board member and the treasurer for my regional timebank. I also have done custom software development and IT work for my county and city food bank. In the past, I was a founding board member and technology specialist for the local food co-op. I also used to own and operate a community bike shop where I performed free repairs for anyone who said they couldn’t afford it.
I prefer volunteer work that directly shores up my communities, promotes food security and social equity, connects local food producers to consumers as directly as possible, and empowers non-monetary exchange of labor and skills. For me, timebanks are the sweet spot for these goals. Everyone’s time is valued equally, and everyone has something to offer their communities on an as-able basis. More than that, a timebank promotes members to see all in their community as peers and neighbors despite any superficial differences.
It’s not quite volunteer work, but still donate to food banks seasonally, or monthly when I’m able to. I don’t make a lot of money but I still donate what I can.
I had some crashes in life, I had to rely on food banks. I now give back. It feels amazing. I think a lot of people are afraid of the feelings involved honestly, it’s a strong emotional ride when you donate stuff and see the faces of the people waiting in line for food, toiletries and things like socks and underwear.
I think many people really don’t like knowing that other people suffer. Much easier to pretend that suffering doesn’t exist by not interacting with it. But once you overcome that hurdle of realizing that suffering exists, then there’s so much joy to be found in being able to actually eliminate some of it.
I check JustServe to see what’s available in my area. I do a monthly volunteer thing at a food pantry 30 minutes away. I’ve been wanting to look more into what volunteer stuff my town offers and possibly do more usher volunteer work like I did for the local community college.
Is JustServe alright? The context I learned about it was Mr Beast teaming up with the LDS church, and I wasn’t sure if it was a Mormon thing or not.
One of my favorite things in college was checking out my fraternity chapters website for volunteer sign ups. It was fun to have a menu of opportunities every weekend. It would be nice to just go to an app or something instead of just trying to tune my Facebook algorithm.
Food pantries are great. One of the few good deeds in the world where the impact is something you can very directly see.
I like it a lot. I was recommended it by my therapist as a way to meet people and make friends. Hasn’t exactly worked out for me in that regard, but it has helped me get out of the house every now and then.
Yeah, mostly K-12 STEM stuff. The girl scout council in my area knows me through various volunteering events and call me up a few times a year to help with something. Also a middle school that I helped develop a “music in science” couple day-long summer camp curriculum. I have a decent sized set of work colleagues I’ll draft for help too.
I don’t think I have the skills for door knocking or asking people to sign petitions. Or the right perspective. Like, I’d sign a petition to defund ICE right now, but fuck anyone I would have to argue with to get them to sign it. And I don’t like either major party here (US) so not even for the bad-but-not-tyrannical one would I do work phones or doors for.
K-12 STEM stuff is so fun! I’ve got to be a badge counselor a few times and that was a delight.
I started out fostering cats (mostly kittens) a few years ago. I switched to a different organization a little while back, and started also volunteering for a variety of administrative tasks in addition to fostering. I love the cats, but would like to get more regular in person human interaction.
For the last few years I have been heavily involved in scouts due to my kids. It’s the first time I have had a volunteer role that felt semi-professional: I’m organizing other adults, managing money, planning events weeks or months in advance, etc. I didn’t initially want to be so involved. I gradually volunteered for one role after another because shit needed to get done and nobody else was willing to do it. I feel like I’m flying by the seat of my pants, but everyone seems happy with my work so I guess I’m not screwing up too much.
Previously I did a handful of “warm body” volunteer jobs where I just had to show up on schedule and follow instructions. Fixing kids’ bikes was the most fun, but serving the poor was the most rewarding. The best volunteer role was delivering and serving dinners at a tent city hosted by a local church. We would join them for the meal and talk around the table. That was eye-opening. I went away with a lot more compassion for the homeless, and a lot more disdain for all the little ways my country makes their lives unnecessarily hard.
I contribute financially, but I don’t volunteer.
I’ll be honest, I have my hands full enough as it is with my career.
I do outreach stuff sometimes through my mother’s social work company randomly. Thats usually a few times a year and consists of handing out state/fed benefits type literature to people outside grocery stores. I usually spend a day or two a month at a dog shelter I really like too, two of my dogs have come from there and I just really believe in the way they operate.
