Dear Reader:

In response to several requests, we now provide a brief list of organizations that could use your help. This list is by no means exhaustive and we would encourage you to look around your community that is your work, home or school communities, to see where you can help. Also look at the activities of the various Service Clubs - Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, Optimist and there are others, all engaging in voluntary activities. Find out which one matches your interests and personality and get involved. Remember that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Mustard Seed Communities

Mustard Seed Children's Home & Administration
1 Mahoe Drive
Kingston 11
923-2165
A children's home for physically disabled children
Want to volunteer? Please speak with Ms. Lavern Belnavis

Dare to Care
Duncans Pen Road
Spanish Town
749-3979
A home for children with HIV (A.I.D.S.)
Persons wishing to volunteer their services should speak with Donna Reynolds

Mary's Child * A part of the Mustard Seed Communities
1 George Headley Drive
Kingston 4
967-1821
A home for pregnant teenage girls
Interested in volunteering your services here? Please speak with Michelle Graham

The Jesus Model - You Must Do Something

• The Paralysed Man
  
• Pick up your bed and go home - Luke 5:24
  
  
• The man with the paralysed hand
• Stretch out your hand - Luke 6:10
  
  
• The Widow's Dead Son
  
• Young man, get up, I tell you - Luke 7:15
  
  
• Changing Water into Wine
• Fill these jars with water… Now draw some water out and take it to the man in charge of the feast - John 2: 7-8
  
  
• The great catch of fish
  
• Push the boat further out into the deep water, and you and your partners let down your net - Luke 5:4
  
  
• Healing a Man Born Blind
• Jesus spat on the ground and made some mud with the spittle; he rubbed the mud on the man's eyes and told him, "Go and wash your face in the pool at Siloam" - John 9:7
  
  
• If you want to get something you have never had
  
• You must be willing to do something you have never done

The Power Of Youth

• The young do not know enough to be prudent
  
• And therefore they attempt the impossible - And achieve it
  
• Generation after generation
  
• Pearl S. Buck - Positivepress.com

The Role of Education

• Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one
  
• Malcolm S. Forbes

BEST WAY TO GET A JOB

• Give away your time
  
• p Better to go out and work for nothing
  
• Than to stay home doing nothing
  
• Puffy

The Benefits to Volunteers

• Develop Competencies
  
• attain transferable skills for career
  
• try out different skills
  
• exercise leadership
  
• problem-solving
  
• creativity

The Benefits to Volunteers

• Enhance personal development
  
• Gain confidence
  
• Gain self-esteem
  
• Fulfill need to achieve
  
• Meet new people

The Benefits to Volunteers

• Obtain Knowledge of Work Environments
  
• explore careers
  
• acquire sense of career direction
  
• determine if interest is temporary or long-lasting

Network

• make new contacts to locate job possibilities

The Health Benefits of Volunteering
It improves the quality of life and the health of communities
Volunteering as a Vehicle for Social Support and Life Satisfaction

• Volunteer work improves the well-being of individual volunteers
  
• by enhancing social support networks

Social Support Networks and Health

• Support from family and friends acts as a buffer against stress and illness
  
• People with increased social contacts and stronger support networks
  
• have lower premature death rates
  
• less heart disease
  
• fewer health risk factors

Some experts have concluded

• the health benefits of social relationships
  
• may be as important as
  
• health risks such as
  
• smoking
  
• physical inactivity
  
• high blood pressure

Social network size

• is consistently related to health and well-being

Social networks

• provide both emotional benefits and actual assistance in time of need
  
• An individual's perception or awareness of the availability of support is health-enhancing

Social Support and Volunteering
Volunteering helps individuals form interpersonal ties and develop their social networks

Social participation

• Also promote health
  
• by positively affecting thoughts, emotions and behaviour

Volunteering and Self-Enhancement

• Volunteering provides opportunities
  
• to enhance their employability
  
• Self-esteem
  
• Personal coping skills
  
• Resources
  
• all of which have health benefits

Self-Enhancement and Health

• This is a person's sense of confidence
  
• self-esteem
  
• belief in their abilities
  
• related to
  
• one's resources
  
• skill development
  
• learning

Self-Enhancement and Health

• People with a strong sense of their own effectiveness, coping abilities, and social usefulness
  
• who are socially active
  
• tend to have better health
  
• lower mortality
  
• healthier lifestyles

Self-esteem and confidence

• related to reduced blood pressure and improved immune function

Multiple roles also enhance health and longevity:

• This aids in coping with stress
  
• People who are unemployed
  
• Tend to suffer from more health problems

Volunteering and Self-Enhancement

• 3/4 of volunteers surveyed in the National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (NSGVP)
  
• reported gaining interpersonal skills

Volunteering and Self-Enhancement

• volunteers also developed
  
• Communication skills
  
• Organizational skills
  
• Managerial skills

European Research

• found that those who leave school early
  
• or come from disadvantaged backgrounds
  
• yet volunteer
  
• show levels of psychological well-being equal to educated, professional non-volunteers

Volunteers often report a "helper's high"

• a physical and psychological "feel-good" sensation
  
• linked to physiological changes

Volunteer Participation

• Contribute to Healthy Communities
  
• Participation in voluntary organizations can be a means of developing healthy social environments and healthy communities

Social Environments and Health

• community bonds, social interaction, and relationships
  
• promote co-operation
  
• ease the stresses of daily life

Cohesion in a community

• reflects group membership
  
• civic participation
  
• community networks
  
• levels of trust
  
• information-sharing
  
• All inherent in social relations

Cohesion

• means that a widowed senior would be watching out for her neighbour's children boarding and disembarking from a bus
  
• while her neighbours keep an eye out for the widow's house while she is absent

These factors

• are resources for coping with stress
  
• are conducive to
  
• health
  
• well-being
  
• healthy lifestyle behaviours

Increases in Community Participation

• Membership in voluntary organizations
  
• levels of trust in a community
  
• reflected in increases in community health

Research in the United States

• ties low interpersonal trust and low group membership in a community
  
• to poor health and higher mortality rates

Volunteering: developing community ties

• Social participation through volunteering is an important element of healthy, integrated and secure communities

Volunteering: developing community ties

• In communities where educational and financial resources are low
  
• developing social cohesion may improve health

Volunteer Organizations

• positively impact factors that influence health
  
• by encouraging interaction between community members

Why should governments be interested in promoting volunteering?
There are two major benefits of volunteering

First, an economic one:

• Volunteering makes an important economic contribution to society
  
• Activities undertaken by volunteers would otherwise have to be funded by the state or by private capital

Volunteering

• adds to the overall economic output of a country
  
• reduces the burden on government spending

The Economic Benefits of Volunteering

• a survey of volunteering in the UK in 1997 suggested that half the adult population took part in voluntary work
  
• contributing £40 billion to the economy
  
• (Davis Smith, 1998)

The Economic Benefits of Volunteering

• a recent survey in Canada suggested that over 5 million adults volunteered
  
• adding some $16 billion to GDP

A survey in 8 European countries in 1994

• found an average participation rate in volunteering across the continent of 23%
  
• Gaskin and Davis Smith, 1995

A 22-Nation Study

• found volunteer involvement running at an average of 28%
  
• equivalent to almost 10.5 million full-time employees
  
• reported on by the Johns Hopkins Institute in 1998
  
• Salamon and Anheier, 1998

Social Capital

• Volunteering also has a contribution to make as part of the development of social capital
  
• By building trust and reciprocity between citizens volunteering
  
• contributes both to a more cohesive, stable society and to a more economically prosperous one

For political stability

• for government effectiveness
  
• for economic progress
  
• social capital may be even more important than physical or human capital

Volunteering helps in the building of strong and cohesive communities
How?

• It fosters trust between citizens
  
• helps develop norms of solidarity and reciprocity which are essential to stable communities
  
• By helping to build this 'social capital' volunteering also plays a role in economic regeneration

Volunteering

• enables people to meet new friends;
  
• learn new skills
  
• gain in confidence and self-respect
  volunteering brings personal satisfaction
  
• In one study in the UK
  
• volunteering was identified as the 2nd greatest source of joy behind dancing
  
• (Argyle, 1996)

For unemployed people

• volunteering can improve employability
  
• by providing essential work-experience and opportunities for skills development and training

For young people

• volunteering offers opportunities for self-development and risk-taking
  
• provides a valuable grounding in the practice of citizenship

For older people

• volunteering has a positive contribution to make to the process of 'active ageing'
  
• helping the newly retired adjust to life without the structure of the workplace

For older people

• providing opportunities for life-long learning
  
• by improving physical and mental well-being

Volunteering

• Can help to ease tensions between age groups
  
• foster notions of intergenerational solidarity through mentoring initiatives

In Many Countries

• there is an inverse relationship between volunteering and social exclusion
  
• The most marginalized groups in society are the least likely to participate

How Volunteering Help the Poor

• By shifting the focus away from service to others and emphasizing the personal benefits of involvement
  
• broadening of networks
  
• acquiring of skills and experience
  
• help with finding paid employment

How Volunteering Help the Poor

• volunteering is a powerful resource acquisition strategy for those suffering from economic and social disadvantage

Motivations for Volunteering

• To enhance resume
  
• To experience new challenges
  
• To work for social change
  
• To express personal gratitude
  
• To expand your knowledge
  
• To improve your community

Motivations for Volunteering

• To build self esteem
  
• To develop leadership skills
  
• To demonstrate love for others
  
• To be a responsible citizen

Motivations for Volunteering

• To enrich and give new meaning to life
  
• To learn new skills
  
• To have a good time
  
• To build teamwork skills

FORGIVE
p …and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us...

"Pass it On" - 2 TIM 2:2