About volunteering

Volunteering allows me to connect with my community and make a positive effect while also enriching my experience. Volunteer-based firms cannot automatically determine the type of volunteer opportunity sought. In this scenario, I am the one who is most aware of my own expectations, limitations, talents, and skills. As a result, when looking for a volunteer opportunity, I need to be honest about what I can provide and what I hope to gain from helping. This concept reflects how people see their neighbors, with people reaching out to help when needed (Harr & Hess, 2010). I believe that volunteering helps in establishing a stronger, safer, and cohesive community by increasing the social network between the neighborhood and the community.

Criterion for Searching

The approach that I used to search for the volunteer opportunities involved creating a profile on a volunteer opportunities website. This was crucial for me since I wanted to allow the sponsor of the project to search for me based on the skills that I set. The process of setting up my profile involved five major steps. This included a username and password set-up, skills information, residence information, citizenship information, and necessary information. After the registration process, I was able to search all results that matched my preferences. When I hit the search button, all the results that corresponded to my appropriate criterion appeared in a list. The list that appeared had various categories, such as the location of the project, the start date, the type of the program, and the name of the program. I clicked on the name of the project so as to receive the name of the project, and, in turn, the description of the project appeared. The description of the project featured an explanation that is more detailed. This also contained contact information as well as basic facts about the project that I selected. I clicked on the apply button and chose the project that interested me the most.

The Type of Opportunities in my Area

I believe that volunteerism is vital to creating a connected, vibrant, and healthy community. Through volunteering, I feel that I can help shape the future for my community and create a positive impact as well as enhance my experience. On this note, there are various types of opportunities that I found in my area. The first opportunity was the sports as well as the outdoor activities. Here, I found lots of extreme actions to volunteer in as well as instruct contestants in the outdoor activities. Such activities entailed enjoying everything from abseiling athletics, facilitating, and coaching. Another opportunity involved supporting learning. This opportunity was available in an assortment of organizations and causes as well as across all ages. Another potential volunteering opportunity that I found included the student support and literacy tutoring. I was able to locate the volunteering opportunity in supporting learning in my area. An additional type of opportunity that I found in my area includes the youth work. This volunteering opportunity entailed a broad variety of activities that are concerned with young people and supporting children. The few instances of the volunteering activities in the region included being an active role model, facilitating art workshops, becoming a leader in a youth club, and supervising young people. It is crucial to consider the duties, responsibilities, and the rights of the volunteer as a contributing member of the organization and the team (Driggers & Dumas, 2002).

Additionally, another opportunity that I found in my area included counseling. On this note, I was required to offer emotional as well as practical support to others who are recovering from a traumatic experience and enduring a difficult time. Here, I also found numerous ways to assisting and volunteering, from counseling the individuals suffering from depression to lending an ear to people. This was when they are in emotional distress. An additional type of opportunity that I found in my area was based on events and stewarding, which involved organizing community gathering and events. This was to be achieved by offering a warm welcome to the attendees of the case by making sure that the conference or the events run safely and smoothly. A different opportunity was arts, which comprised crafts, drama, as well as music. One more opportunity was the administrative work. Here, I found that many businesses needed volunteers for administrative assistance, such as research, typing, and reception duties. I also found that these enterprises seek volunteers to assist out at busy times with fundraising drives and publicity campaigns. The possible activities comprised managing a committee as well as computing.

What I have to Offer the Organization

Having analyzed the different opportunities found in my area, I believe that there are numerous ways that I can contribute to the organization, and, in turn, advance my career. This is because the opportunities for volunteering entail a variety of goals as well as skills. On this note, I have the responsibility to ensure that the work is ongoing with the duties and tasks as supported by the staff anticipation and defined by the job descriptions. Furthermore, I will guarantee my work is meaningful to the functioning of the company, I will contribute to the overall management plan, and I will complete my tasks within a reasonable time. To achieves this; I will plan my tasks and ensure they are in the context of the company’s activities, which will upgrade my volunteer position from make-do work to a contribution that is positive (Driggers & Dumas, 2002). Another thing that I will offer the organization is to ensure that through volunteer program I can raise the visibility of the company in the community. This will, in turn, enhance the reputation of the enterprise in the eyes of the public. This will as well assist in upholding a hard-earned reputation when the business is facing challenges.

What’s more, I will ensure that as a volunteer, I enhance the social connection between the organization and various sectors by helping build the bridges between them. Furthermore, as a volunteer, I will assist in delivering some parts of public services by participating in raising the youth’s educational performance, adapting to climate change, and leading environmental movement. I will as well lead to sustainable development for the organization. This is crucial because the innovative environmental initiatives depend on the volunteer’s contribution from bottom to up. When engaged in activities of the community, which leverage my professional skills through volunteerism, I will be better connected with other workers, which will benefit the entire company. Other aspects that the business can expect from me as a volunteer include the evaluation of advantages to the firm, managing various legal complexities safely, taking care of all logistic and administration, and end to end facilitation and management of activities. It is imperative for the entrepreneur to identify with their relative priorities as well as their duties and what it entails (Farrell & Schlesinger, 2013).

How Volunteering will Aid in Gaining Experience in my Area of Interest

Based on volunteering, I believe that I will experience both the extrinsic and intrinsic benefits. This is because volunteering has various positive impacts such as economic capacity and advantages in the labor market, career enhancement and training, building resumes, self-esteem, and better health, and social recognition. This means that all these positions will help me in gaining experience in my area of interest. This is because volunteerism will provide me with the opportunity to network with community leaders, develop leadership skills, acquire job-related skills, and explore different career paths. I will be able to achieve this since I will be engaged in activities that strengthen my area of interest. Besides, the volunteer experience will help me to gain useful experience in regards to my area of interest, which is my primary reason for joining the program.

Furthermore, I also believe that volunteering will aid in gaining experience in my area of interest because through such activities I will be able to improve the way that I deal with people and learn how to motivate others. Also, it will help with my interpersonal skills, including understanding people better. Through volunteering, I will as well instill self-esteem and generate the sense of self-worthiness, which is also crucial in my area of interest. For me, the program is also essential since I will be able to put preference to practice; it will provide the opportunity to experiment, and it can represent a vital trial period. Volunteering is an excellent opening to gain experience (Harr & Hess, 2010).

What else I can do to Gain Experience Apart from Volunteering

Other than volunteering, the other thing that I can do to gain experience is to participate in an internship. For me, this is a crucial step because it is an opportunity to learn as much as I can, concerning my area of interest. The program is a great way for me to network with professional in my potential field. Besides, the internship will give me the chance to apply the knowledge and the skills that I have learned in the classroom, which will, in turn, help me gain experience of the real-world problems in the industry. This is crucial for me because without experience, applying the classroom learning will not be helpful in understanding theories and concepts. The internship will further help me to gain experience so as to gain maturity and confidence. The program will also give me the opportunity to gain experience, which I can discuss later on job interviews. This means that knowing that I will have more confidence when applying for a job since the internship will make me feel impressive, knowledgeable, experienced, and marketable candidate than with no or little experience (Bella, 2012).

Conclusion

Volunteerism influences an organization as well as an individual deeply and diversely. This concept is perceived to be a type of social capital in community renewal and community building, social actions, and in promoting social inclusion. Regardless of the setting, the past work experience, in this case, volunteerism, says a lot about an individual. This includes whether a person gets along with others, complete assigned tasks could operate on a schedule, and if they are responsible enough to stay on the job. Apart from volunteerism, an internship is also an ideal program whether it is unpaid or paid since it is the experience gained from it that counts. It is crucial to consider the duties, responsibilities, and the rights of the volunteer as a contributing member of the organization and the team (Driggers & Dumas, 2002).

References

Bella, L. (2012). Internship & Volunteer Opportunities for People Who Love to Build Things. The Rosen Publishing Group.

Driggers, P. F., & Dumas, E. (2002). Managing library volunteers: a practical toolkit. Chicago: American Library Association.

Farrell, R., & Schlesinger, K. (Eds.). (2013). Managing in the Middle: The Librarian’s Handbook. American Library Association.

Harr, J. S., & Hess, K. M. (2010). Careers in Criminal Justice and Related Fields: From Internship to Promotion. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.