Volunteering: The Benefits Flow Both Ways

By Colby Stott

At the end of 2010 some 20 ProNet members, joined by family and friends, celebrated the holidays in a very special way:  We converged on the Food Bank of Northern Nevada and volunteered our time.

When our shift was over, we had bagged nearly 6 tons of fresh produce—a mountain of bell peppers, potatoes, and onions—for distribution to Northern Nevada people in need.

“Besides helping others, it felt good to be doing actual work,” said ProNet volunteer Patrick Callahan.  “We were assigned a task, we worked at it, and we accomplished our task.  While searching for a job is work—sometimes very hard, time-consuming work—you often don’t know what, if anything, a day’s efforts have accomplished.  With volunteer work like this, you know what you’ve done, and you know it will be helping people this week.”

We capped our afternoon in the warehouse with an “I Make a Difference” workshop taught by career and personal coach Kit Prendergast of Career Connections of Sierra Nevada.  Unemployment can be a very discouraging state—if we surrender to it.  Through volunteerism, there are many ways we can make a difference in our communities, helping others while giving ourselves a sense of accomplishment.

Help Yourself by Helping Others

In fact, we volunteers can be the biggest beneficiaries.

Brian Summers explores this phenomenon in “Can Job Loss Be a Positive Experience?”  Job seekers and the recently re-employed answer in the affirmative, providing testimonials about turning unemployment into a confidence-building opportunity through volunteerism.

Volunteer gigs can also lead to actual jobs.  If you are going through a career transition, for example, you can start down a new and more promising path by offering your services as an unpaid intern or apprentice.  Such arrangements can be very mutually beneficial—although there is potential for abuse.  Carolyn Kepcher provides some guidelines in “Unemployed and need help finding a job in 2011? Volunteer to get your foot in the door.”

Job search aside, lending a hand in a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, or home for battered women is a great way to get a fresh perspective on your own situation.  Interacting with a lot of people who are much worse off than you are can whip you out of the doldrums and re-energize you.

In some parts of the country, there is talk of requiring people who are collecting unemployment benefits to do volunteer work in exchange.  A Virginia House of Delegates member has actually proposed such a law.

That would actually take the volunteering out of volunteer work, and destroy a lot of its benefits.  It is much better to take the initiative and proactively search for volunteer opportunities that let you give to the community while sharpening—or even expanding—your job skills.

“If you are not volunteering right now, you are missing a great opportunity,” concludes Jonathan Begley, resource coordinator at Nevadaworks.  The Nevadaworks ItsAboutJobs.com job site includes listings of volunteer opportunities.

Some other places to look:

• Food Bank of Northern Nevada
• Nevada Museum of Art
• SPCA of Northern Nevada
• Nevada Humane Society
• Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful

A more comprehensive list of local non-profit organizations can be found at http://www.newtoreno.com/nonprofit.htm.

Designed for and run by unemployed professionals, ProNet is a program of the non-profit JOIN Inc. There is no cost to the members. If you are an unemployed professional or an employer, call (775) 674-5408 today.

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