One of our volunteers, Katie, talks about her reasons for volunteering and what she’s learned with us so far.
“I’ve been volunteering since I was nearing the end of college, starting with a short voluntary position for my local parish council and slowly expanding on volunteering once I was finished with college. For me, volunteering means several things; one is that it allows you to commit your time to a good cause where you can help people in your own way in your role.
Another one is that volunteering allows you to learn and develop new skills. You can learn new skills that are a part of whatever volunteer role you take part in, where you originally may not realize at first is possible. Also with volunteering, you can develop your skills further. I could mention more about what volunteering means for me, however the two I mentioned are the top two things with this subject that capture the majority of what volunteering means for me.
At first, I started volunteering because it was simply a way for me to get some experience and keep working on developing skills I was learning at the time, as well as being a way for me to be creative when it suited the task that I was working on for that volunteer role. After that role ended, a few years would pass before I started volunteering for a longer period of time.
When I started volunteering for a longer period of time, I did that as a way to gain experience I was missing so that it would eventually help with getting a job and that is why I first volunteered. However, over time the reasons why I was volunteering expanded to be for so many more reasons than just that, of course it is still one reason why I volunteer.
Another reason why I volunteer is that volunteering allows you to explore different roles and get a good feel for them. This can help you decide if you want a career in that field or not, and that can help when you are unsure of what career path you want to go with.
One of the main reasons why I volunteer is that volunteering allows you to commit time to helping people in whatever way you are comfortable with, either directly or indirectly depending on whether you want to be. Personally, I like helping by using my creativity to volunteer.
The last main reason why I volunteer is that volunteering allows you to learn new skills and learn how to apply them in a professional setting, and at the same time the ability to further develop skills you already have and learn how to use them in a professional setting.”
This is a personal blog by a BuDS volunteer/member or staff/supporter. The views expressed are personal and don’t necessarily represent those of BuDS or our Trustees.