Volunteer Benefits

Volunteering is one activity that not only impacts one person’s life, but it also impacts many other lives as well. By volunteering, tasks that one person struggles with get completed by the volunteer, making the one person’s life much easier. When one volunteers, they may see extraordinary changes in not only their life, but the lives of those around them as well. Volunteering is one way that an individual can make a positive impact on the community they reside in, or even one they have travelled to. People travel all across the world to volunteer and help less fortunate people with jobs that would take them an unimaginable amount of time and money. Some people volunteer through their church, some volunteer through an organization, and some

The authors Jeanne Segal and Lawrence Robinson both state in their online article “Volunteering and its Surprising Benefits” that some people volunteer to make new friends and make their existing relationships stronger because they enjoy being social. The authors state in their article, “One of the best ways to make new friends and strengthen existing relationships is to commit to a shared activity together. Volunteering is a great way to meet new people, especially if you are new to an area. It strengthens your ties to the community and broadens your support network” (Segal, Robinson). Volunteers interact often when completing tasks so they are able to make new connections with the people around them and also strengthen their already-made connections. By meeting new people and talking to other volunteers, individuals pick up on new information and they are also taught by other volunteers information they did not know before. Since people meet new individuals and strengthen ties with existing friends, their social life is improved and they are happier because they have others to socialize with. By gaining new friends and strengthening existing relationships, new information is presented to the volunteer and they gain more knowledge from the new

In an online article created by Jeanne Segal and Lawrence Robinson, both of the authors collectively agree that by volunteering, the individual is given newfound knowledge and the person learns certain skills and assets they would not normally obtain when working a normal, everyday job. The article written by Segal and Robinson states, “Just because volunteer work is unpaid does not mean the skills you learn are basic. Many volunteering opportunities provide extensive training.” By saying this, Segal and Robinson agree that by volunteering to do certain jobs or volunteering in certain areas, the person volunteering obtains the necessary skill set to complete the job they are given so it will be done correctly. The authors even take it one step further and provide an example such as someone becoming an experienced crisis counselor from working at a women’s shelter or someone becoming a knowledgeable art historian while volunteering at an art museum. Volunteering also provides the individual with certain skills needed to further their lives and careers in the future. Overall, volunteering not only affects the lives of those being helped, but it also affects the volunteer’s life in many helpful