Priceless Opportunity

Volunteering: Insights and Tips for Teenagers

“One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.”
- President John F. Kennedy

Summer brings different kinds of days for most young people—generally less structured than school time, maybe some days with a grandparent, some weeks at camp, and weeks when it could be good to find something else to do. Getting ahead of the curve—perhaps brainstorming as a family to explore possibilities—can lead to great ideas about how to spend time.

For teens, summer activities could include volunteering, and Volunteering: Insights and Tips for Teenagers by Jean Rawitt is an ideal handbook to get started discovering opportunities. Choosing to be helpful by offering one’s time and skill without getting paid can be as straightforward as assisting a neighbor to weed his garden or helping him do his grocery shopping. It can be sharing good technology skills with people who are new users of computers or cell phones. How about regularly conversing with a language learner in a conversational setting hosted by the public library?

While volunteering “seems like the right thing to do” with so many people and agencies needing support, it can also be a bit scary to begin. Author Rawitt, drawing on her long experience as volunteer coordinator and mentor of teens in a hospital setting, features the voices of teens throughout the book as they reflect on their volunteer responsibilities in a wide variety of settings. The stories are informative and confidence-inspiring, even when a teen tells of a challenging moment as they volunteer.

Some teens begin their experience by participating with their family. Kate shares the dynamics of her family’s response following a hurricane disaster in another part of their state—delivering baby clothes and supplies in numerous trips. Others jump courageously into a new opportunity on their own. Emily realizes that holiday gifts offered to new parents at the hospital were needed year around as “necessary baskets,” and she and her sister raised funds to do that project. Evan and Sam gain volunteer experience by being part of a student group—one locally, the other internationally.

In every case, volunteers learned something new—about the realities of special need preschoolers or people living with a disability, about the importance people place on community contact if they live alone, about ways of thinking about priorities, about the nature of one’s own personality and skills.

Hints about finding volunteer opportunities are provided: questions to ask oneself about interests or capabilities, and how to apply for a volunteer position and prepare for an interview. The aspects of seeking a volunteer job may seem clear, but seeing them discussed is helpful in identifying a satisfying opportunity. The second part of the handbook considers what makes a successful volunteer, such as understanding the expectations of both supervisors and volunteers, and how to meet difficult situations that may arise. “Self-confidence. Leadership. Time management. Communication skills. Problem-solving. Self-awareness. Compassion. Empathy. These are some of the valuable skills you can gain as a volunteer.” Plus, meeting people whose lives differ from one’s own can provide new perspectives. And, not surprisingly, a benefit of volunteering can be learning more about one’s specific interests and skills, which might be carried into future study or a career.

While the local community or neighborhood can present just the right volunteer job, a compendium of forty-eight “Selected Resources” ends this valuable book. Each entry includes contact information and a short description of the organization’s purpose. Readers may recognize the names of some agencies, and new ones will be discovered. Websites are specified, giving teens the opportunity to identify current information. The field of opportunities is broad—medical; human rights; disabilities; national parks and recreation centers; food, housing and provisions; social change; climate; animal welfare, global education, and more. The possibilities are endless, and exciting!

Ages 12-17. Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.

Famous quotes about volunteering are offered by United Way of Central Iowa.