How to Volunteer: Ways to Get Involved in the New Year
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Looking for new ways to get involved in volunteerism and giving back? I’m sharing many amazing ways to get involved and how to volunteer.
For many years, volunteering has been a big part of my life. I was very involved with planning a community focused event or two for each month of the year.
I took a bit of time off from volunteering while pregnant with four back to back pregnancies. But it has been a goal to get my entire family involved in volunteerism.
And we found other ways to give back when attending community events wasn’t an option in our daily activities.
And since the new year is approaching, my husband and I have been planning out ways to get our family involved in giving throughout the coming year.
Here are a few ideas for giving back when unable to participate in a volunteer event:
- Sponsor a holiday meal for a family in need.
- Donate supplies to a local shelter, school, library, etc.
- Perform random acts of kindness.
How to Volunteer
I’m sharing a few of my favorite ways to volunteer in just a bit. But first, I wanted to provide a bit of information on how to volunteer.
The first step that I would suggest is to think about a personal connection. Is there a cause that has some sort of personal significance. Examples: a local hospital, animal shelter, food bank, etc.
Next, find their volunteer coordinator and reach out. It really is as simple as that.
Volunteer Match is a great resource for finding local opportunities.
Do you or your partner have available community or volunteer group events through your workplace? It might be something great that you could do together.
There are so many different ways to get involved with volunteerism. I’m going to briefly share a few of my favorite ways that I liked to participate in volunteering.
Here are 10 volunteer activities to help get you started:
- Serve meals at a homeless shelter (they usually need volunteers year round!).
- Help sort donations at a food bank.
- Plant a community garden.
- Spend some time helping out at an animal shelter.
- Volunteer for an event at a local museum or theater.
- Read to children during a literary event at a local school or library.
- Trash clean up at a neighborhood park.
- Spend time with the elderly at a nearby senior center.
- Write letters to soldiers stationed overseas.
- Sort or put together care packages for military overseas.
Need some more inspiration? Here are a few of my favorite past events and non-profits to consider. Most of them are local to the Omaha area.
But I hope they inspire you to find something similar or meaningful to you.
These are my top 3 favorite non-profits:
And here are a few more that I like to get involved with:
- Read Across America
- Open Door Mission
- National Night Out
- Shakespeare on the Green
These are just a few ideas to help inspire giving to the local community. I really like to just find an organization that I’m passionate about and search the site for ways to get involved.
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