Everything You Need To Know About Volunteering

Describes the nature and role of volunteer work, and discusses choosing a cause, beginning as a volunteer, starting a new volunteer opportunity, and continuing to volunteer throughout life.

Restoring historic buildings? Fundraising for your favourite charity? Building schools in Mozambique? Listening to children read? Writing articles for charities over the Internet? Conservation work in South America? Whatever you've dreamed of doing, voluntary work can open up another world to you. If you want to start a career in teaching, social work, counselling, the media or conservation, volunteering can open valuable doors and improve your career prospects. Not only will it introduce you to new people, give you cutting-edge skills ranging from team building to management, but studies also show that employers are more likely to take on someone with voluntary experience than someone without. If you've reached a stage in your life where you've got time on your hands, you will find there are hundreds of different opportunities to use your abilities. This book will tell you everything you need to know about setting up voluntary work and how to get the most out of it.

What is virtual volunteering? It’s work done by volunteers online, via computers, smartphones or other hand-held devices, and often from afar. More and more organizations around the world are engaging people who want to contribute their skills via the Internet. The service may be done virtually, but the volunteers are real! In The LAST Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, international volunteerism consultants Jayne Cravens and Susan J. Ellis emphasize that online service should be integrated into an organization’s overall strategy for involving volunteers. They maintain that the basic principles of volunteer management should apply equally to volunteers working online or onsite. Whether you’re tech-savvy or still a newbie in cyberspace, this book will show you how to lead online volunteers successfully by: -Overcoming resistance to online volunteer service and the myths surrounding it; -Designing virtual volunteering assignments, from micro-volunteering to long-term projects, from Web research to working directly with clients via the Internet; -Adding a virtual component to any volunteer’s service; -Interviewing and screening online volunteers; -Managing risk and protecting confidentiality in online interactions; -Creating online communities for volunteers; -Offering orientation and training via Internet tools; -Recruiting new volunteers successfully through the Web and social media; and -Assuring accessibility and diversity among online volunteers. Cravens and Ellis fervently believe that future volunteer management practitioners will automatically incorporate online service into community engagement, making this book the last virtual volunteering guidebook that anyone has to write!

"This year, over ten million people will go abroad, eager to find the perfect blend of adventure and altruism. Volunteer travel can help you find your place in the world--and find out what you're made of. So why do so many international volunteer programs fail to make an impact? Why do some do more harm than good? Learning Service offers a powerful new approach that invites volunteers to learn from host communities before trying to 'help' them. It's also a thoughtful critique of the sinister side of volunteer travel; a guide for turning good intentions into effective results; and essential advice on how to make the most of your experience."--Amazon.com.

Volunteering: Insights and Tips for Teenagers provides a complete guide to the world of volunteerism. It shows you how to become engaged in what will be among the most gratifying and worthwhile experiences of your life. In this book you’ll learn why volunteerism is so important both to volunteers themselves and to those they serve and explore different types of volunteer opportunities and how to find and secure a rewarding volunteer placement. With advice from professionals and first-hand accounts from teen volunteers, including a fifteen-year-old girl who started a foundation that now helps hundreds of new parents, this book will help you make the most of your volunteer experience. You will learn how to research volunteer opportunities what to expect from the application, interview, and orientation process how to be a successful volunteer how to handle unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations and how to ask for help, and how you can use what you learn as a volunteer to create new academic or career opportunities. With helpful tips for success and a resource list of volunteer opportunities, this book provides everything you need to understand the vital and vibrant world of volunteerism.

A comprehensive guide for Americans who want to volunteer overseas provides case studies, worksheets, and helpful advice designed to help readers find the right program in various regions around the world, as well as a listing of more than one hundred volunteer organizations, financial guidelines, and tips on how to become an effective volunteer. Original.

This book demonstrates the enormous range of opportunites that exist around the world. There is something for everyone. - from the Foreword by Richard Branson