Helping Others

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Helping Hands Day

Here are some ideas for organizing your own "Helping Hands Day" volunteering project.

You can organize friends, neighbors or work colleagues to work together on a project to benefit others.

1. Find a project that needs volunteers. While it seems obvious, this step can take your "Helping Hands Day" in many different directions.

Maybe you already know something that needs doing.

Or perhaps you'll need some ideas. In that case, here are a few thoughts:

--- Cleaning up public parks and roadways brings a sense of civic pride to a community. You'd need to contact your local or county parks commission about their needs. And, check out these ideas for organizing an Earth Day project.

--- Many institutions like schools, libraries and nursing homes have small projects that need doing but that require some extra manpower to accomplish .. or maybe some donated materials too. See how the New York Public Library has set up volunteer projects.

--- There may be a project underway, or in the planning stages, that you'd like to join forces with. See how one United Way sets up projects for groups at member agencies. Also check out VolunteerMatch's database of volunteering opportunities in your ZipCode.

If you connect your volunteer plans to your personal life, you will get more out of your project. For example, if you love animals, you could organize a pet walk-a-thon to raise money for a local animal shelter. Here are 50 ideas to chew over.

On a separate piece of paper, jot down all of your talents, hobbies, and interests. Then pick a social issue or a group of people (like homelessness or senior citizens) and see if you can think of a way to use your personal interest in a campaign or project related to the issue.

2. Establish your timeline. Whether your project is a few weeks away or a few months away .. or even next year .. work backwards to figure all of the things that need to be done beforehand: recruiting volunteers, publicizing the event, soliciting donated materials, collecting funds to support the effort, etc. Here's a sample volunteer worksheet in MSWord, that you can adapt.

3. Start small. A team of 3, 5 or 10 can accomplish a lot!

There's nothing more important than a generous, dedicated and enthusiastic team! The project's needs should determine the size of the team and its members. Look for volunteers who have the needed skills. Consider local companies as sources of volunteers. Ask them to encourage employee volunteering and ask if you can use their people and equipment to help. Even if they don't respond right away, you might just plant the seed of company volunteerism!

4. Have your project planned out in advance. Yes, planning is key. Divide the project down into various parts. Give someone charge of each part of the plan. Decide what tools and resources you'll need for the project.

5. Tell people about it! It's not just a matter of tooting your own horn! When people see other folks engaged in doing good, it inspires and uplifts. Even if your publicity doesn't gain you more volunteers, it might inspire someone else to organize a volunteering project!

6. Celebrate your effort! Once you've finished your "Helping Hands Day" project, give yourself a pat on the back. Celebrate! Thank all the volunteers, the sponsors and donors. Evaluate how it went. Think of ways to improve next time and around.

See if there is a way to make volunteering a regular part of your life. Get your group to commit to an annual "Helping Hands Day" .. or consider taking on smaller projects and having a quarterly or monthly "Helping Hands Club" project.

Repainting the activities room at a school or day care center, or putting up shelving in a nursing home's community room may seem like a small project, but for the places you serve, it might just be just that spark of energy or bright light of encouragement they need so that they can keep pressing forward doing their work for others!