Why Volunteering Matters!

Having done a lot of volunteering over my life, I can say there are many benefits all around.

You are helping someone or something else. Your help and support sends a message that this matters to me. It delivers the message to the public. It can be a mood lifter to a person if they are the one being served. And, it can help boost your own feelings about yourself too. I heard in a talk once, volunteering can help lift depression. Nannies can sometimes get the blues. But when I work with grieving children in bereavement programs. I hear stories of what they have been through and what they face now and in the future. All of the sudden some of the people and things I get worked up about don't matter anymore.

When a nanny volunteers she is expanding her network of contacts. I have so many references because of places I have helped with. People get to know one another working side by side. And, when people learn I am nanny it creates a more favorable image of our industry.

Volunteering can offer training in new subjects. As I've worked in some organizations I have had to go through orientation where I have learned things that I can take back in to my day job. I have done a lot of teaching in religious education programs and have been trained to do different styles of curriculum based on various education philosophies. A big one was a concept based on Montessori. Some methods I used in the classroom are now ones I can use with my charges.

Volunteering can lead to mentoring others. I have worked with bereavement organizations. With TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) not only have a learned how be a mentor to a grieving military child, but had to take two classes in the grief process. With others there I have shared with them and Hospice (another place I volunteer with) what it is like to be in the home with the children day and day out who have lost a parent. All these experiences have led me to times when nannies experience a death at work and need advise on how to proceed.

Questions about volunteering get asked on resumes and in interviews all the time. It matters to potential employers. It can be impress them. I've seen this so often in my own career.

When a nanny tells me they are volunteering at places I take notice too. I know our jobs can be challenging and time consuming. I admire nannies who are able to organize their time and energy to be able to volunteer and be committed to other things. Things that are bigger and far-reaching than some issue at work that week.

This is why the volunteering question is important on the application. Not just for this Nanny Contest. But in the application of life in general.