Group of Volunteers in Ghana
Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.
Tony Robbins
National Volunteer Week 2011 will take place April 10 – 16, 2011. This is a week to acknowledge the great work and value that volunteering and volunteers add to this country. Volunteers make a tremendous impact everyday- tackling some of our biggest challenges. I honor and salute them.
I am going to be honest, not all volunteers are created equally. I have supported thousands of volunteers over the years . I have seen great volunteer experiences and some horrible volunteer experiences. Creating awareness can be more disturbing than comforting.Volunteers feel vulnerable and exposed and guilty. Volunteering is hard work and may push you physically and emotionally.
Volunteering is the medium that will help change people’s perceptions of the poor and marginalized and in doing that help people change their perceptions of themselves.
It takes courage to serve.
It takes courage to enter communities you do not know and work side by side with others that may not look like or think like you. It takes courage to stay in your own community and call out a problem to friends and family.
Transformation is the vehicle for personal and institutional growth, recognizing its promise for improving the quality of life of our society. This is not an easy or a straight forward process and can make for a bumpy ride.
We become by doing.
As individuals, as institutions as communities….we become by doing.
I invite you to participate, to engage, to sweat, to DO. It is easier to do “for” a community– than to do “with ” them. Who will you be of service to today? Who will you be “with”, in the purest sense of that word?
Through service we become more than we ever thought possible.
My wish for you is that you are able to step out and become more.
Need help figuring out how to “do and where you can best utilize your skillset”? Contact me. I am happy to help !