What can you get from being a Volunteer?

Helping other people is one of the unique characteristics that sets humans apart from other creature on this planet, regardless of whether you need to forfeit your own prosperity. Dr. Mark Snyder, a psychologist studied about the psychology behind volunteerism, why individuals help other people they may never meet. He explained about five motivations for volunteering. Helping others and helping ourselves.

Nevertheless, doing a work for free as a volunteer for community service or rescue operations, what else can we really get from this?

Connects you to others and helps you make new friends.

Volunteering allows individual to connect to your community and make it a better place. Unpaid volunteers are most likely the glue that holds a community together. Through volunteering, it also open to a wide connections of meeting new people and make a new friends. Commitment to a shared activity can also strengthen existing relationships.

Increases social and relationship skills

Volunteerism helps you to develop your social skills. Not all individual are outgoing, some are shy and having a hard time meeting new people. Meeting regularly with a group of people with common interest will help you grow and boost your social skills.

Volunteerism is good for both mental and physical health.

Volunteerism helps you stay physically healthy, reducing the risk of depression. Isolation is one of the factors in experiencing depression. Regular contact with a group of the same interest helps you develop a solid support system and protects you against stress and depression. Working with nature and working with other animals or pets has also been shown to improve mood and reduce stress and anxiety.

Volunteerism can give a sound lift to your self esteem and life satisfaction. Doing good for others and the community create a sense of accomplishment, a sense of pride and identity. Feeling better about your deeds will create a more positive view of life and future goals.

Volunteering open career experience, brings joy and life fulfillment.

Many volunteering opportunities provide extensive training. It helps you build upon skills that you already have and maximize them to benefit the greater community. Volunteerism also a great way to gain experience in a new field. For example, joining basic mountaineering course, basic life support or rappelling trainings will benefits your new potential and skills that could be benefit to your future career.

Volunteering open the opportunity to practice important skills used in the workplace, such as teamwork, communication, problem solving, project planning, task management, and organization. You might feel more comfortable stretching your wings at work once you’ve honed these skills in a volunteer position first.

Passion and positivity

Always remember that the most valuable skills you can bring to any volunteer effort are compassion, an open mind, a willingness to do whatever is needed, and a positive attitude.

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed or out of sorts lately, volunteering can be a way to help bring you a sense of control in a stressful situation—a happy side effect of the vital work volunteers do. Join us and be a volunteer of your community. Let's support each other and be a supporter of our fellow country men.

Kibungan Outreach Program 2016