Posted by beckett2 on September 1, 2017, at 17:45:35
In reply to Volunteering, posted by baseball55 on August 29, 2017, at 18:52:38
> Don't mean to hijack thread, but my "start new thread" button doesn't seem to be working. Scott - could you move this to a new thread?
>
> Anyway, volunteering. People always say, when someone is lonely and at loose ends - do volunteer work! Find something you're passionate about and you will meet like-minded people!
>
> Several years ago, before I discovered 12-step programs, I went on a quest to find volunteer work. Now, admittedly, I live in a big city with tons of highly educated retirees as well as tons of college students. It's might be different in other places. But I couldn't find anything to do. Non-profits were inundated with volunteers. One place brought me on and I found that they had literally nothing for me to do because they had too many volunteers. I tried community health and mental health services and, like Alex said, found that all the volunteers were pre-med students trying to put some kind of health care experience on their med school applications. Legal aid? Tons of retired lawyers and law school students looking for experience. Working in schools? Tons of education students and retired teachers.
>
> I applied to volunteer for this organization that provides care for homeless children and was rejected because of a shop-lifting arrest (and no conviction!) 35 years before.
>
> I did find that meetup.com can be a good way to meet people and do things you enjoy. Not much for volunteering though.This summer, we looked (me and my kid) for volunteering opportunities. All desirable (and even less so) were filled and waitlisted. Especially animal care or rescue, our first choice.
Right now I'm looking for volunteer opportunities in something that interests me. Mental health, shelters. Then there's thoughts of reentering the workforce in some capacity, which is dicey as I am a nervous person and unemployed for 12 years. Online tutoring or content writing. My confidence is basement level :(
There was a meetup I loved that got me out of the house. It eventually dissolved.
poster:beckett2
thread:1094670
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20160906/msgs/1094809.html