Five Benefits of Volunteering with Your Family
It makes you feel as though you have more time.
It might be hard to believe, but volunteering can make you feel less time-constrained. The Harvard Business Review found that being charitable with your time makes you feel more “time affluent,” thereby feeling more relaxed about your time and less rushed. Researchers believe the reason is because giving away our time makes us feel more capable and useful, and thus has a positive impact on our productivity (or at least how we perceive our productivity). We all need that!
It provides health benefits.
Altruistic behavior such as volunteering has been shown to provide both mental and physical positive effects, such as lower depression rates and lower blood pressure. Other research showed effects of altruistic behaviors on people’s stress levels and cardiovascular health. Not to mention the mental effects - it may promote physiological changes in the brain linked with happiness (i.e., it feels great to help others!) And these self-motivated reasons for volunteering are okay! Not every moment of volunteering has to be purely altruistic.
It instills a feeling of empowerment.
By volunteering with your kids, you’re demonstrating to them that people have the ability to make changes. Future generations will need this skill more than ever to deal with the Big Issues (think climate change and political gridlock). And not only does it empower them to face the big issues, it will give them the tools and determination to face their own personal problems and challenges.
It has positive implications for kids’ self-esteem and well-being.
Jane Allyn Piliavin, a former UW-Madison sociologist, studied the links between volunteering and teenagers/young adults behavior, such as the absence of depression, alcohol and drug use, and poor grades. Positive effects such as the development of social responsibility and engagement in their community were also found.
It helps you meet new people and become better connected with your community.
Cities, towns, and neighborhoods are better when the people in them are friends (or at least friendly!). The people in a community who work and play together feel a sense of belonging, support, and have the ability to form platforms for social change. Coming together also helps fend off feelings of loneliness, which has also been shown to have negative physiological effects.
