This week, April 6 - 12, is National Volunteer Week.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED FROM VOLUNTEERING
1. Even a tiny bit can help a whole lot.
Many people who volunteer only work 4-6 hours per week. Some people have volunteer commitments that require even less time from them but which still make a huge impact. I have friends who volunteer to man the polls during elections every 2 or 4 years or who only do "seasonal" volunteering every year by helping the elderly or other low-income people with their tax returns right before tax day. You do not have to give up a big chunk of your time to help an organization out as a volunteer to make a big contribution.
2. Most volunteers don't do it for their ego.
I sometimes hear people criticize volunteer work as "something people do just to brag about it" or they'll say that volunteers are people who are just desperate for other people's approval or admiration. They imply that if volunteers didn't get constant appreciation for what they do, they wouldn't do it. It's true that some people enjoy their volunteer job so much that they can't stop talking about it all the time. I am guilty of that myself. When I first started volunteering at an animal shelter, every time I said something about my work at the shelter, someone would say, "But I thought you worked at the university." So, to keep from confusing people, I quickly became accustomed to saying, "my volunteer job at the shelter" instead of "my job at the shelter." However, just because we may enjoy talking about our volunteer experience, doesn't necessarily mean we see it as a reflection of our self-worth. Feeling appreciated or recognized for the work they do is not the reason most people I know would give for their interest in volunteering. Many of the volunteers I work with opt not to have their names listed in the organization's publications or to be considered for "volunteer of the month" awards because they don't want the attention. A few years ago, the shelter I work for sent the volunteers a survey to gauge our perceptions of how helpful and instructive the full-time paid staff were when we needed their help. One question asked if we thought the full-time staff members were appreciative of our efforts. I responded by saying that I was there to help the animals - the staff's appreciation (or lack thereof) wasn't going to be a motivating factor for me. Most of us volunteer because it's a job we know needs doing and we have the required skills to do it.
3. Just because there's someone with a "volunteer coordinator" title in the organization, does not mean volunteer duties and activities will be carefully planned out.
If you're the sort of person who prefers a more structured work environment, you should consider that when you apply for a volunteer position. I have volunteered for several organizations in my life and most of them provide a training period in which your job duties will be outlined. However, once you're past the training period, it's up to you to identify the work that needs to be done and just do it. I have seen a lot of volunteers slowly lose interest in a job because they didn't have a supervisor constantly finding things for them to do. At my current job at the shelter, we often ask the full-time staff people if there's anything they need to have done before we go on to look for other tasks on our own.
4. Even in college towns, the majority of volunteers will probably not be teens or young adults.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the majority of volunteers tend to be people aged 34 - 44. Because I live in a college town, friends often ask me if most of the volunteers I work with are college students. They are always surprised when I tell them that the majority of the volunteers at our shelter are middle-aged women. Although we do have some college students among our volunteer staff, the shelter is far enough from campus that it isn't very convenient for students to get to without a car. I work with college students Monday through Friday at my university job. It's a nice change to work with older people at my volunteer job on the weekends.