Summarization Of Volunteer Opportunity. The Volunteer Experience

My drive to help others stems from my time volunteering with the service organization, Rotary, and their leadership program, Camp RYLA. When I attended this camp as a high schooler, I learned invaluable lessons of self-confidence and connecting with others, traits seldom found in a high school environment. My experience at this program inspired me to return as a counselor, where I have been helping foster the growth of today’s youth for the past four years.

At church, in addition to my participation in the worship services, I volunteered at our church’s soup kitchen, medical camps and elementary school for underprivileged children. These experiences opened my eyes to the deprivation of love and care in the world and a dire need of God’s grace for people at large so they could receive forgiveness, healing and restoration in their lives.

He writes his story not to scoff, scold or scorch, but to spark discussion and help people see the simple truth that "Human interaction is a blessing." lives with prejudicial barriers.

Many have developed elements that they believe are the foundation of servant leadership. In summary, included in the fundamentals are healing, creating value for community, empowering, empathy, listening, awareness, behaving ethically, and helping others grow and succeed. Healing refers to leaders trying to help solve problems and relationships. Creating value for community refers to leaders serving as an example and encouraging others to also serve the community. Empowering refers to leaders providing followers with autonomy. Empathy refers to leaders understanding others. Listening is a trait all leaders should possess. In order to understand, one should first listen. Awareness refers to leaders attentive to the things happening around them. Behaving ethically refers to the demonstrating of integrity to gain the trust of followers. Helping others grow and succeed refers to leaders providing support to followers to help them develop and accomplish professional and personal goals.

Our country’s current economic crisis is drastically affecting not just individuals, but businesses and organizations as well, especially when it comes to those that are non-profit. Funding for necessary programs held by non-profit organizations, such as Moses Cone Behavioral Health, have been cut annually, making it more difficult for their institutions to prosper. Due to these substantial declines in donations and funds, local volunteers are needed now more than ever. I chose to volunteer at Moses Cone Behavioral Health Hospital to help combat this loss in funding.

Volunteers of America is not only a nonprofit community organization but also a ministry of service that is committed to helping people in need to rebuild their lives and reach their total potential. The organization is effective in helping people in need to rebuild their lives through its huge workforce that consist of approximately 16,000 paid professional employees. Moreover, the organization also accomplishes its mission through various human service programs such as housing and healthcare. Throughout its history, Volunteers of America has continued to support and empower the most vulnerable groups in America including at-risk youth, homeless individuals and families, veterans, people returning from prisons, and individuals recovering from addictions. Generally, through integrating deep compassion with the highly efficient programs and services, the organization's work touches the heart, body, mind, and spirit of the people it serves.

I was usually too busy at school practicing in sports and completing my club duties until late in the weekday evenings and weekends to join them in their volunteering. I ended having some free time one weekend so I tagged along with my brothers when they went to the shelter. As I walked in and looked around at the familiar surroundings, I saw families huddled here and there chatting quietly, people sleeping on mats with only thin blankets and backpacks for pillows, some were lining up and waiting for diner to be served, children playing or being comforted by their mothers. As I took everything in, I knew and understood what these people and families were going through and how it felt because during the summer before my freshman year, my family and I were in the same boat. We had no home anymore

I got to see how many organizations come together for the better of the community. I also got to see that while these sites have a great network, they can still use more resources. With things becoming, more and more expensive, and work becoming less available. More human service programs are going to be needed. These clients are dealing with more than just hunger. There are health needs, mental needs, physical needs and emotional needs. This experience has left me thinking of ways to address all of these needs, plus the needs of the

Another meaningful experience that sticks out to me is when I regularly volunteered at a children’s homeless shelter in Roxbury, Mass. for two years, and was reminded of the fact that the statistics we hear every day about homelessness are real people – not just numbers. Every child I played alongside,

It gave me the chance to vanquish my fears while also realizing that it is God’s plan for me to help out my community. However, I am not surprised that there are still unanswered questions in my head such as: Why is there such a big hunger problem? Why is this problem not spoken about more often? Is there any other way I can help stop this problem? This service has made me more knowledgeable and aware of my community. In addition, this service project has made me take matters into my own hands. Currently, every time my family goes grocery shopping I make sure they get at least five canned goods for donating. As more of my friends volunteer and more donations come in I think we can end this fight for hunger in southern Louisiana. In addition, I believe that we should all take a step back and be thankful for all that we have because some people don’t have such luxuries. God is omnipresent, He would not want to see His children starving. Finally, I see it as a mission that we volunteers get more people involved to volunteer for the greater

The generosity from attendees of the event was incredible. Although I missed the first session, I felt that the event brought people together. It was more than just getting a bowl, it was about community, awareness and education and fostering conversations that emphasize social issues people face silently.

Upon arrival, our first activity was to work in the trailer park. While these people were not homeless, they were in quite severe poverty. However, they were nothing like one may expect. One was a very friendly older woman who had worked and gone to college in her younger days but she had been abducted and hurt severely in her twenties. Even though that happen, she was cheerful and had poetic talents. Another was a family whose screen door we replaced because they could not afford a new one. The father was hard working and was made sure all of his children had an education and a roof over their head while the mother cooked and cleaned. Each was doing their part to make the best of their lives. The last was a middle aged couple who needed their trailer badly cleaned. They not only were thankful but they prayed over our group before we left. We a blessing to each of their lives but, they were to ours as

Empathy. “The servant-leader strives to understand and empathize with others. People need to be accepted and recognized for their special and unique spirits. One assumes the good intentions of coworkers and does not reject them as people, even if one finds it necessary to refuse to accept their behavior or performance” (Spears, 2004).

Always having loved volunteering, I have pretty done so to an extent over the years. From days of volunteering for medical missions with Pro-Health International to working as an AdHoc volunteer Doctor with Doctors without Borders on emergency response to the measles and meningitis epidemics in northern Nigeria and up until recently volunteering at a local hospital (Union Hospital) in Lynn, Massachusetts. Nevertheless, a strong desire to ameliorate health conditions among humanity strengthened this love and influenced my choice of education and career paths. Having studied Human Medicine (medicine and surgery) at the University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria, I am a trained physician who also holds a Master of Science degree in International Health Policy and

As Neugarten mentioned in her paper, the fact that older people have lived longer than younger people allowed them to accumulate a greater amount of experiences. I can say that I have really enjoyed my volunteer experience with ten older people. Every time that I have a meeting with them, I learned new things. They are all full of energy and ideas. On Sunday, between 10:00-12:00, we read the newspaper and debate about what is going on in the country and around the world. They are like me very interested about the next coming USA’s president election. We have different opinions among our group. Seven people are Democrats, and four are Republicans. However, the