Volunteering

I have been sorting out some old boxes over the past few days and came across an award that I won a few years ago. My award was a youth volunteer award that I won in 2002 as a part of my work for the YMCA most of my work there was as a volunteer leader on holiday programmes which I started when I was fourteen.

This started to get me thinking about volunteering, the definition of which is unpaid for the benefit of the community, and done with one’s own free will. I spent a good part of my school holidays volunteering on holiday programmes, as young adult I was a tutor on training programmes and as an adult on committees and board of trustees. So why do we volunteer?

Well to be honest I volunteer when I think I have some kind of skill that will benefit the group, but I also volunteer when I personally benefit from doing so. For me over the years being a volunteer has been for friendship, meeting new people, benefiting my children/or family, knowledge or the opportunity to learning new skills.

Not all volunteers are involved for the same reason and all volunteers bring different skills to the organization. Making the most out of a person who volunteers will benefit the organisation and the person. The value of the volunteer is amazing they can offer so much often at a time when the organisation needs them the most such as when they are starting up or when finances are slim.

When you next have a volunteer at your OSCAR programme think about why they are there, how they can benefit from being a part of your organisation and how can your programme benefit from having a volunteer involved.

Take care of your volunteers.

Ariana