Four Small Ways To Make A Difference In Your Community
Volunteering within your community is the perfect first step to volunteering abroad, and eventually entering the workforce. Community work is undoubtedly a rewarding experience, as you are essentially ‘giving back’ to the environment and social network in which you live in. If you’re looking to make a positive impact in your community, you needn’t think in grand, bold terms. Most of the people who have made enduring and substantial changes in their communities have done so by doing plenty of small actions that add up to a substantial whole.
Teach a Swim Class: If you consider yourself an efficient swimmer, then head on down to your local swim school, and organize a swimming class. Even though swimming may seem like an easy activity to most of us, there are plenty of people in our communities that only have a vague idea about how to swim, and others who have no idea at all! Drowning is a silent killer and is the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide. Children are especially at risk, with drowning listed as the second leading cause of unintentional injury death in children aged 1-14 years old in the USA. By teaching children, teens, and adults in your community how to swim, you will undoubtedly be saving lives.
Sit with a Senior: A lot of senior citizens might not be visited as much as they would like to be, or maybe they have recently lost a spouse or friend. Whatever the reason, there will be quite a few senior citizens in your community that are feeling lonely, and in need of a friend. Reach out, and sign up for a retirement home to sit with a senior citizen once or twice a week. You may have a cup of tea or coffee with them, maybe watch a spot of TV together, tell them about school, and learn about their life-story. No matter what you choose to do with them, you can be sure that your elderly friend appreciates your friendship.
Clean up your Waterways: Time to get your hands dirty! Clean-ups don’t necessarily have to be an activity where you force yourself to pick up rubbish alone for an hour. Instead, you can recruit family and friends, and set fun challenges for each other. Whether you live by a river, lake, stream, or a sea, cleaning up any litter and debris that you see lying around, or in the water can make a huge difference. Not only will it make your local waterway cleaner and safer for your community, but you will be saving your local, and international species of marine life. It is a well-known fact that most major rivers lead to the ocean, so the plastic bags and food wrappers that you see floating around now could eventually kill a marine animal. By helping clean-up your waterway, you are contributing towards the preservation of our world’s valued marine-life.
Volunteer at your local animal shelter: Your local animal shelter could always use more volunteers to care for the daily influx of neglected, abused, and mistreated animals in your community. Extend a helping hand towards our furry friends, by volunteering at your local animal shelter. You will be tasked with giving the dogs and puppies their daily exercise, cuddling with shy and mistreated cats and kittens, and of course, there will be plenty of pens to clean out! You can also fundraise on the behalf of your local animal shelter, and teach your community about how to treat animals humanely, and the importance of it. The community doesn’t end with humans, so make sure to care for all the members of your community - no matter their species.
By reading this article, you may have realized that it is the small actions you undertake that can have the biggest impact on the lives around you, and your community. Now that you understand just how simple and doable it is to make a difference in your community, try thinking up other small ways that you can make a difference. You don’t have to think big when you are making a difference in your community, as the great artist Vincent Van Gogh said; “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”