Blog Post

3 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD VOLUNTEER

We all know that volunteering is helpful to others and necessary for non-profits. But what benefits does it actually offer you? Sponsored by GRACE has some amazing volunteer opportunities and here is how you can help yourself by helping them. 

1. Volunteering helps you connect with other people. 

When you volunteer you often work with other people. Learning how to work with other people who have different personalities than you is an essential part of human growth and social competency. Even if you go volunteer with a group of people you know, you still have to work with volunteer coordinators that you don’t know. Learning to take direction from other people and working with your team is a great way to continue to expand and develop as a human. You also get to connect with the people you are serving. For example, if you were to serve on an Impact Saturday with Sponsored By GRACE, you would get to meet, play, and talk with around 50 kids from the most impoverished community in Jacksonville. 

2. Volunteering opens your mind to what is happening around the world and in our own backyard.

Many people who live in Jacksonville, including myself before I heard about Sponsored by GRACE, do not even know the kind of poverty and violence that is happening 30 minutes away from where they live. The 32209 zip code is the most impoverished area in Jacksonville, Florida. Sponsored by GRACE focuses their efforts in the Vista Landing Apartment complex, which is in the 32209 zip code. The Vista Landing Apartments have 200 units and 1,000 people live in those. That means on average, five people are living in ONE small apartment. This area is also extremely violent. Just over a month ago 3 men were shot at the Vista Landing Apartments, according to First Coast News. Had it not been for Sponsored by GRACE my eyes would not have been open to these things happening in my own backyard. 

3. Volunteering is good for your health. 

In an article by Help Guide they state six ways that volunteering is good for your mental and physical health. For more details on how these ways work and are proven visit the article linked above.

1. Volunteering helps counteract the effects of stress, anger, and anxiety.
2. Volunteering combats depression.
3. Volunteering makes you happy.
4. Volunteering increases self-confidence.
5. Volunteering provides a sense of purpose.
6. Volunteering helps you stay physically healthy.

As you can see there are extremely tangible ways that volunteering helps your health. Right now our country and world is in a season of sickness and volunteering can help you combat that. In the article it states that volunteering lowers risk of heart disease, lessens chronic pain, and lessens the likelihood of getting high blood pressure. 

Sponsored by GRACE is giving you the opportunity to serve and get involved with the community. Not only do they need your help, but your health needs it too! Don’t wait any longer to start getting involved. If you want to help make a difference in our city and in the world start volunteering now. You have no idea the kind of impact you could have on someone’s life, and how that someone could affect another person, who affects another person and so on. Let the change start with you and start now. Get involved at https://sponsoredbygrace.org/serve-with-us/.