Paying it Forward to the Youth in Your Community

Voluntary youth work has the capacity to help young people develop key interpersonal, coping, and professional skills, in a way that most educational environments and paid employment situations are often unable to match. Although on a practical and basic level, these skills will prove invaluable in your college application process and make your job resume more competitive, there are a wide variety of less visible benefits that you will be able to proudly carry with you throughout your life.

Working with people much different than yourself, whether in terms of age, socioeconomic status, cultural background, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, ability status, or educational level, helps broaden your perspective of the larger world community, and increase your tolerance and understanding of the differences between people and groups of people. In addition, seeing up-close the disparity between your life and that of others can increase your awareness of social privilege and your empathy for the struggles of those less fortunate than yourself. Having an open mind is an essential tool in having mature, healthy adult interactions and relationships, and will benefit you greatly when you are at a University or in the workplace.

The lack of a paycheck when engaging in youth work means that you need to take more initiative to be reliable, dependable, punctual, and hard-working at their "job." In addition, the compensation is typically intangible - you are adding to your personal growth, not to your bank account. This "intrinsic" rather than "extrinsic" motivation is something that many youth have not previously experienced, due to the mainstream attitude towards young people in sports, education, and the family. However, knowing how it feels to do something for internal reasons, rather than for an external reward, will go far in helping you become an adult that chooses meaningful work and enjoys their career for more than the money it brings them. Finding the area in which you are passionate about, and keeping that a part of your professional and/or volunteer life, is sure to greatly enrich your life.

Extended volunteer work also tends to build independence, assertiveness, and time management skills, as well as teach you more about how you present yourself professionally, and how to improve upon that.

Whatever the focus of your volunteer work, someone is being impacted directly by your actions. You may be doing something concrete for them, like helping them have a meal they would not have otherwise had, or have shelter that they desperately needed. You may be helping them in a less concrete manner, such as nurturing elderly people or bringing joy to the lives of small children. You may be using your energies to help abandoned animals in a local shelter, or to focus on cleaning up the natural environment in your community. In any case, however, your work as a youth is impacting much more than yourself: one person can and does make a big difference in the lives of others, and for many, this is the most important benefit of all.