Your guide to finding the right volunteer opportunity.
When you first decide to volunteer, the anticipation can be exciting. You’ve found some capacity in your life and volunteering is how you have decided to use this time. You’re feeling proud of yourself and ready for the opportunity to help others.
International Volunteer Day is a United Nations recognised occasion, occurring every year on December 5th. It offers us an opportunity to reflect on all the amazing volunteer work being done in our communities, as well as shed light on some causes that still need a helping hand.
Think volunteering is off the table just because you’re an introvert? It doesn’t have to be. Introverts possess an array of unique skills and aptitudes (some that you may not even be aware of yourself) that fit perfectly into the volunteering landscape.?
With the rising cost of living, individuals and families are leaning on community services more than ever before. In many instances, the only way organsations can meet the increased demand for their services is through the help of volunteers.
While many people have plans with loved ones over the Christmas season, there are also countless Australians who spend the holidays alone.
Time. It’s the main barrier to volunteering. Most of us want to volunteer but can’t find enough time. Combine this with the warmer weather and local communities encouraging people to head out and about again, events are now returning to our calendars.
Whether you’re someone who makes New Year’s Resolutions or not, the closing of one year and the beginning of another offers an informal milestone to reflect on the past and plan for the future.
Trying to find the right volunteer opportunity can take time. SEEK Volunteer has many useful ways which can help you search thousands of opportunities to help fast track your journey to volunteering.
It’s been over a year since our country catapulted into a procession of droughts, bushfires, flooding and the global pandemic. Amidst these disasters, almost six million volunteers dedicated over 600 million hours to help others
Take a big deep breath out. 2020 has turned its final page and a new year is upon us.
Do you want to spend quality time together as a family? Why not volunteer to help others? Volunteering as a family can be very rewarding and at the same time give back to the community.
Whilst we may not all be able to write songs like David Bowie or paint like Picasso, at some level, we are all creative. It might be as simple as a knack for capturing the perfect photograph, a flair for flowers, your prowess in the kitchen or perhaps you just have an innate ability to look at things in new and unorthodox ways.
I started being a volunteer in 1995 with a group called Kids camps. I was a street kid living in a youth hostel at the time and had no real direction till one of the youth workers asked if I wanted to help on one of these camps.
I decided that a great way to start my volunteering was to apply to St Vincent De Paul’s, a wonderful chain of op-shops that donate to the less fortunate.
I first started volunteering at the Centre when my children left home and I had retired. The initial decision was made because it was so close to home, but now it has become an integral part of my week.
Every year at SEEK we are provided with a volunteer day where we can leave the office and choose to volunteer with an organisation of our choice. Last year, my team chose to volunteer as a group at the Royal Children’s Hospital in the cancer ward.
If you’re thinking about volunteering, it can help to understand more about the impact you can have. Volunteers help to deliver critical services to our community that wouldn’t otherwise be delivered.
It is an all too common occurrence. It’s July, and you realise you haven’t seen your best friend since February. You both reach for diaries to find a time to get together but between kids’ sport, work trips, holidays and a seemingly endless stream of birthday celebrations, you both realise that the first weekend you both have free isn’t until late October. Yep, October.
We knew we were signing up for a physical challenge, but we didn’t realise the extent to which it would provide us with a mental challenge, team building experience, and how much we would really contribute to Oxfam.
I wanted to use my work/life experience and skills in a meaningful way to volunteer, so when I found the opportunity on SEEK to provide mentoring to an underprivileged child through the Smith Family, I knew it was the right choice for me.
Grandparents Bill and Maree volunteer for Easy Care Gardening one day a week.
The comfort zone – that wonderful place where your tracksuit pants and stained but much-loved Princess Diana commemorative coffee mug are free to roam. A place without hustle or hassle, a place of routine and familiarity.
Many of us are already volunteers without really considering ourselves as such. Our passions, interests and communities often instinctively lead us to become involved in volunteer activities which are close to our heart and strengthen our immediate communities.
Now that the clock has ticked past January 1st, so begins that little voice inside our head reeling off all the self-improvements for the new year ahead.
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