How Can I Give Back and Enjoy It?
I’d like to put my skills to work for something that I would enjoy doing rather than what I need to do to earn my paycheck.
—Rita
Everybody wants to retire and become a teacher or go into a nonprofit. It’s become so fucking popular; it’s terrible.
—voice from a peer group
I want to give back.” “I want to do something meaningful.” “I want to help others.” “I want to make the world a better place.” Refrains like these pop up in nearly every conversation among women over fifty. They are well-meant mantras we can all om to. We genuinely want to be useful and have a positive impact on someone or something. We make life better when we fund-raise for cancer research, educate people about the arts, shop for a neighbor who is disabled, serve on the local planning board, lobby for better voting machines or women’s rights, build a school in Tanzania, or join the Peace Corps. Many of us look for ways to volunteer. Sometimes we wait to be asked. A few of us see something that is needed, articulate it, and bring others together to help meet it.
However we end up volunteering, our instincts are good. But we must ask, Do these instincts jibe with reality? Is the world of volunteering and civic activism ready for us? Are we ready for it? Can we afford to volunteer? Can we afford not to?
Boomer numbers are expected to change the world of volunteering. We have already given ourselves over to multiple causes during our working years, and as we have more and more time and freedom to contribute, we are expected to have an enormous influence on what the world of volunteering looks like. And that also means we can have a major influence on how society’s problems are tackled.
Our motives for volunteering spring from several sources. Generational influences such as the Great Depression, the political and social activism of the sixties, and the self-actualization movements of the eighties have made their marks on us. We are also affected by our different life experiences. If we hail from small communities where civic involvement was a natural part of our lives, or from places where strong ethnic or racial values demanded engagement and action, or where religious affiliations were powerful forces, we are strongly inclined to volunteer.
It has been observed that women seem to volunteer more frequently than men, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. Perhaps it has to do with our historically having more time for activities that focus primarily on our extended home turf of school, church, and neighborhood, as compared with men’s tendency to use their time for broader civic involvement. Another reason may be that men prefer to volunteer for “purposeful activities” such as constructing homes for the poor and developing strategic plans, rather than for the kinds of things that require casual interactions and relationships with people they don’t know.
And then there are the nonvolunteers, commitment-phobic men and women who hesitate to become engaged beyond the most limited volunteer experiences. This reluctance may be the result of practiced self-interest. Or it may be burn-out from the all-consuming sacrifices demanded by their jobs, or the fear that volunteering will jeopardize hard-earned personal freedom.
The Drive to Volunteer
Volunteering our time and services fulfills critical needs in our communities and helps better the world. These are no small things. Most of us volunteer because we believe we owe something for our good fortunes and the advantages our education and abilities have given us. Some of us want to help others because we have seen less-fortunate people suffer and we truly empathize with their hardship. We also volunteer because we have personally overcome obstacles not of our own making and want to stand by others facing similar roadblocks. Such motivations lead us to search for something that has meaning beyond ourselves.
Such a newly emerging desire to be of service may even catch us by surprise as we transition from our overcommitted forties into our caring fifties and sixties, a result of a powerful inner need to give of ourselves and leave an imprint on the future as we get older. Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson identified this as a key developmental impulse in the later stage of our lives, when contrasting inclinations toward what he labeled “generativity versus stagnation” take over. The conflict within ourselves implied by the “versus” is whether we choose to commit ourselves to being creative and productive, and to leave a legacy that benefits future generations, or whether, instead, we are driven by self-absorption, which leads us to vegetate. The way we choose to care for the future and make sense of our lives is expressed by our beliefs, the commitments we make, and the things we do, as well as the things we do not do.
When Rita was growing up in Newark, New Jersey, around the time when the Holocaust was fresh in people’s minds, she vividly recalls a “very formidable rabbi who would get up on the pulpit and say ‘six million Jews’ in a big bellowing voice.” It left a lasting impression on her. So when she was casting about for something to do after she retired from years of teaching, and heard about the Museum of Jewish Heritage, a living memorial to the Holocaust, she knew instantly that this was where she wanted to be. “I feel my mission is to teach others about the Holocaust and Jewish heritage and to fight anti-Semitism. Now, as a gallery educator there, I feel purposeful. I’m in this to make a difference.”
But before we get all warm and fuzzy about the subject of volunteerism, let’s put altruistic considerations aside and look at the personal perks we get from volunteering. After all, if our volunteering does not satisfy us beyond our desire to do good, we are unlikely to stay with it, no matter how noble the cause. So, what is it that energizes us to search for the right kind of volunteer work, decide how much of our time and energy we want to invest in it, commit to staying with it, and truly satisfy the unselfish urges that started us on this track to begin with?
The reasons are many. One of the most important is the opportunity to make our lives more satisfying. We look to volunteer to keep active and involved and have a chance to accomplish things we cannot do by ourselves—and to receive recognition for them. We like being able to apply things we know to areas that may be new to us. We volunteer for the opportunity to uncover our creativity and reconnect with our spiritual side on behalf of something that has purpose. We do it so that we can stretch ourselves and take risks as we try out things we haven’t done before. We do it to expose ourselves to different ideas, new people, and new skills, and in return we seek to rekindle our enthusiasm and zest for life. We also volunteer to add structure and activities to our lives, two things we know we need to keep ourselves physically healthy and mentally alert. And, most important, we do it to be with others and make new friends so that we can stave off the much-dreaded demon isolation. Volunteering also satisfies our negative motivators, not the least of which is the search for redemption for past sins or guilt. It is also a way to offset our indulgences in leisure and self-gratification and counterbalance the “I deserve it” factor.
The feeling of accomplishment, that’s the most important thing. The feeling of doing some good for this organization which you are very fond of or love . . . it’s more of a reward for what you’re doing and the sense of contributing.
—Suzie
Linda started the volunteering habit many years before she retired, working for the parent-teacher association at her son’s school. She eventually got involved in her community newspaper, which was staffed by volunteers who had graduated from the PTA at the same time their children graduated from high school. Once she retired, her flexible schedule allowed her to attend meetings with politicians and hearings at city agencies and report back on them for the newspaper. Much of her volunteer work involves research on the Internet and working with digital photography, which she appreciates because it keeps her up-to-date with recent advances in computer technology. She says about her life now, “When I worked full-time, it used to be that I knew a few people in the community by name. But now I’ve really gotten to know many more terrific people who share my concerns for and pride in our town. I love being an informed and integral part of where I live.”
Lorraine, sixty-two, had been in workforce development on a national level for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations before she realized that she no longer was career building or felt the need to prove herself. Her life became divided into five different areas important to her: family, coaching, painting, exercise, and working with the local community college, where she has served on the board for eight years, the last few as the chair. When she thinks about her involvement with the college, somehow “volunteer” doesn’t describe it. “I mean, that’s a job for me. What I do for the college is a job. I don’t get paid for it.” Instead, she says, she receives nonmonetary rewards. “I use every bit of my skills and I’m getting a tremendous education and opportunity to be out in the community as its representative and to advocate for educational issues that are important to me.” Lorraine is particularly interested in keeping access open to young people coming out of high schools who otherwise can’t afford college, and she advocates, on state and county levels and at national conferences, on their behalf. “When I started doing this I just thought it would be something interesting. I didn’t think it was going to take over my life.”
FINDING THE RIGHT FIT AS A VOLUNTEER
Uncovering the right volunteer experiences for you is not so different from thinking about the kind of job you would like to have. Similar principles apply. Before you consider what you want to do, you need to have a solid handle on the things that motivate and excite you, the skills you enjoy using, the amount of time you have available, and your impetus for wanting to volunteer. Here are some things to consider:
• Why do you want to volunteer? Analyze your reasons for giving of yourself to another organization, group, or cause. Perhaps, for example, you come from a background where civic involvement is an integral part of your family life, and you would feel remiss about not participating. Or perhaps you need a place to go and make new friends. Make sure your volunteering decisions fulfill your motivations.
• What specific things that you enjoy about work do you want to maintain in your life? Consider whether you are a people person who wants to connect with others, a person who enjoys having a leadership role with broad responsibilities, or someone who prefers working alone. Ask yourself if having a place to go where you’re expected and recognized is important. Or whether you desire to stretch yourself in new, untested directions and rack up new accomplishments.
• What kind of environment would you like to be a part of? Consider whether you are interested in working for the arts, with civic leaders, with green groups, or advocating for someone less fortunate than you. Also, think about whether you want a micro-level, hands-on experience, such as working directly with individuals in need, or would rather make things happen on a macro level, such as through fund-raising, communications, or strategic development.
• How much time do you have? Just as with a paying job, when you volunteer you make commitments to show up at certain times and to do what you say you will do. Often, the amount of time you give as a volunteer increases in direct proportion to how much you like what you’re doing. If you’re not sure about making an extensive commitment to something, consider taking on a short-term activity, such as delivering food during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays to people who are shut-ins, or offering your services one day a month.
• Can you try it on first? If you think you may be interested in a particular volunteer program, ask to take on a project with an end date. This will give you a chance to become engaged with the volunteer organization, look at how it is managed, and determine whether or not you enjoy the people you meet. By moving cautiously, you can easily disengage yourself if it doesn’t seem right for you or if you have other commitments.
• Will you be trained? Usually, larger nonprofit programs have a volunteer coordinator who oversees everything that has to do with volunteers, manages your comings and goings, coordinates projects with the paid staff, and makes sure you are trained for the job. This usually is a good sign, indicating that the organization has a plan to effectively train and use its volunteers, and suggests that there is a solid link between the organization’s management and staff and its volunteers.
• Does the volunteer opportunity offer any appealing perks? For example, if you volunteer as a docent for a local opera company, find out if you can attend select dress rehearsals and special performances and get to know the performers.
• When should you say no to new commitments? Usually, there are so many opportunities to become involved within your family and community that you can quickly find yourself overbooked and overwhelmed. Give yourself a chance to evaluate the amount of time and energy you are being asked to give and to gauge your enthusiasm for the activity.
• Can you expect to do whatever you want? Start out prepared to do exactly what the organization wants you to and not what you think it should want. Once you are involved and have had a chance to understand the organization’s priorities and how it functions, you may have some ideas about how to improve something. But be sensitive to the fact that the organization is probably short staffed and underfunded, is likely to be overwhelmed by the need to meet its mission, and has to deal with political issues that may not be immediately obvious. If you feel compelled to offer advice, prepare a proposal that spells out what you want to accomplish, how you will implement it, whether there are any costs involved, and how it can be managed without putting undue stress on the organization’s already limited staff.
Is Society Ready for Us?
So, how will nonprofit and civic organizations use all the good energy, enthusiasm, and desire that’s coming at them? And are they prepared to train and manage us and keep us engaged? We talked with Marc Freedman, a social entrepreneur and the founder of Civic Ventures, a think tank on volunteerism. Freedman sees us as a remarkable, educated resource that is available to work in areas essential to the well-being of society. But he also sees a structural lag: “Society’s outlook toward us is hopelessly behind the times,” he says. And that’s because most nonprofits and government institutions don’t know how to use us. And we are wary too, concerned that our good intentions and abilities will be ignored, underused, or abused. That generally isn’t the case at large service institutions and organizations, which are usually savvy about recruiting us for what we know. Think about large museums, or organizations such as the American Red Cross, which have highly developed programs for training and managing volunteers. The effective ones do a remarkable job of whipping volunteers into reliable and dedicated nonpaid “employees.”
When we volunteer for an organization or institution that doesn’t have a program or policies for managing and training us, dissatisfaction on both sides can be more the rule than the exception. In these situations we often can show up at will, and are frequently asked to do the simplest of tasks—“stuffing-envelopes syndrome”—because no one has thought through or planned how to use us effectively. And, to our credit, we are very willing to accept simple tasks, as long as we know that they will have value and contribute to the larger picture.
Since when we volunteer we work by choice rather than obligation, it is important to us that our efforts be appreciated and recognized. Too many of us are escapees from corporate or bureaucratic jobs and will be turned off by volunteer situations that we discover are characterized by office politics, cliques, hostile staff, misrepresentation of our roles, and abuse of our goodwill. Generally we want to work on concrete, finite projects that have a beginning, a middle, and an end and in which we have clear roles. This is true whether we develop a strategic plan or complete a financial analysis, establish a brand identity, help to fund-raise, work on communications, or do any other such thing. The list of what we can do is endless, particularly for the many, many nonprofits that don’t have the resources to buy our talents but would benefit enormously from them.
An organization will begin to take us seriously when we take volunteering seriously. When we approach a volunteer situation, many of us submit résumés along with applications, and use our professional know-how and experience to solicit interviews, create proposals, and exhibit what we can do. And we feel a commitment to do whatever we take on with the same degree of expertise and engagement that we brought to our paid careers. Victoria, retired from academic life, has six different projects going at one time. Three of them are paid through grants, and the other three are unpaid. “What I notice is that I treat the unpaid work the same as I do the paid work, even covering expenses out of my own pocket.” For instance, when she launched a Web site for her college class, she paid the Web designer herself. As a result of the highly developed site, her class was able to connect with more people than they had before and to raise more money for the school. She was enormously appreciated for her efforts and is proud of her accomplishment.
Madeleine is a victim of good intentions gone sour. She volunteered for several breast-cancer organizations but left when she discovered that “they were more about competing with one another for contributions than fighting for the cause.” She felt a few had even become “cults” that had lost sight of why people were giving their time and money. “That’s just the sort of thing I am not looking for,” she says.
Most organizations don’t know how to use volunteers, and you end up just sitting around.
—Jered
On the other hand, Michele is elated by her volunteer experience with My Own Book, which was launched by a man who developed a small family fund that provides books to disadvantaged children in New York City schools. The program is managed by a fund at the board of education. TTN learned about the project and decided to take along a dozen of its members who wanted a hands-on, short-term volunteer experience. The program reaches third-graders from some thirty schools, most of whom do not own a single book. Even though—or perhaps because—it is a small program, it seems to work flawlessly. Volunteers are assigned to a school to meet with a class and its teacher. “When I go into the classroom, the kids are prepared for me and eager to talk about books,” Michele says. The next time Michele sees her class and its teacher is when they meet up at a Barnes & Noble bookstore that the kids travel to by subway, since there is no bookstore near their neighborhood. “I help the kids find the books they want to own and tell them to write their name on the inside of the cover. You can’t believe the excitement. Their enthusiasm and the serious purpose with which they select their prize is beautiful. The bookstore manager tells us that some of the kids come back with their parents. One of our volunteers had retired from working in book production for a publisher, and her face lit up when a child asked how a book is made. She had a wealth of information and a ready audience of eager listeners. It was an amazing afternoon.” After the kids have owned their books for a while, Michele and the other volunteers return to the school to meet once again with “their” class to hear some children read from their books, or to listen to a book report, or to have a discussion. Michele says, “I go into my school and meet the principal and teachers, who look at me with great affection. I feel I belong there and am giving the kids hope because I want them to succeed and let them know that reading is the path to success.”
Purpose Versus Pay
Because many of us are driven by our desire and need to continue to work, we are effectively displacing retirement with new combinations that involve work for pay and volunteering. Just as discussed in chapter 5, Marc Freedman sees us as taking “false retirements,” which are effectively just sabbaticals from midlife overwork, as a chance to stop and catch our breath before we head into another phase of work. But he also sees that our need to find purpose is becoming as much or more important than compensation as we seek our next work phase. He believes this will lead us to seek a hybrid experience that builds on the benefits of work and the purpose of volunteering, a different kind of work, which will promise tangible benefits along with personal meaning. It might mean that we will do some work pro bono, or we will receive small stipends, salaries, fees, or valuable perks such as tuition reimbursement or health-care benefits.
Dawn is one example of this kind of hybrid worker. A retired academic, she admits to “not knowing how to watch the clock” at her paid, part-time advising job in a lifelong learning program for seniors, and so volunteers far more hours than expected for the low pay she receives. She says she would probably give the job her all whether she got paid or not but then immediately contradicts herself, saying that she wouldn’t do it exclusively as a volunteer because she equates self-worth with paying jobs, even though the amount earned is unimportant.
Elise’s story is an example of how volunteering can morph into something else. In her fifties Elise left a full-time job as a marketing vice president for an international corporation to begin a consulting career, but she found that lunching with clients didn’t keep her from feeling lonely much of the time. She volunteered at a botanical garden, not because she had a particular knowledge of horticulture, but because she thought it was a pleasant place to spend time and meet people. At first she volunteered two or three days a week, eventually increasing the time as she and other volunteers had a “fabulous time” developing a greeter program at the garden entrances and working on a children’s program. After several years of volunteering, Elise was offered a full-time job at the garden. This puzzled her at first, because she was neither a horticulturalist nor an educator, until she realized they wanted her marketing skills and wanted her to run the continuing-education program. That was something she could do, and she happily accepted the position. Eventually, her job grew as she assumed expanded responsibilities, and a few years later she was named vice president in charge of overseeing education programs for the eighty thousand schoolchildren who visit the gardens each year. “It never dawned on me that my volunteering would lead to a new career that I could feel passionate about.”
VOLUNTEERING TO WORK
In our fifties and sixties, we begin to search for more meaningful work. For many of us, the desire to move from the for-profit to the nonprofit sector reflects this sensibility. However, making such a career change is not easy, which is why career counselors tout volunteering as an excellent way to get exposure to a particular career or organization—to effectively “try on” a different field or job to see if it fits. While volunteers can rarely expect to be paid for their contributions, there are potential opportunities for some combination of pro bono and paid work. Such a new approach to work will likely occur first in areas such as education, health care, social services, and government, where huge labor shortages are forecast and careers offer a spirit of volunteerism. It is also expected that when these sectors fully grasp the problem, the divide between the nonprofit and for-profit sectors will narrow, with pay rising in the nonprofit sector along with opportunities for much more flexibility.
Another area with potential work/volunteer opportunities is national service. There currently exist several programs for senior service, including the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), the Foster Grandparents program, and the Senior Companions program. Up to now, national-service programs have focused primarily on American youth, with interesting short-term civilian and military service programs that connect social involvement with educational opportunities. The Progressive Policy Institute has an interesting idea: it suggests that the government initiate a Boomer Corps, in which participants would volunteer for one year in grassroots civic projects to provide at-home care for the needy, or tutor, or organize and coordinate community activities. Workers serving in such a program, the institute poses, might receive a tax-free monthly stipend along with a health-care voucher, an education award to be used by themselves or by their children or grandchildren, or other valuable perks. At the moment it’s just a dream, but maybe someday.
Volunteer Opportunities
The truth is, if we are to find volunteer opportunities that suit us, we first need to open our eyes. Sometimes it’s chance that gets us into the right place at the right time. More often it’s a hunger that forces us to make things happen. Recovering from an illness, Monica was at a point where she was looking for something to engage her. Over breakfast at a favorite café in San Francisco, she watched a table of four women about her age who were obviously having a meeting, because they had yellow pads and were talking animatedly. She thought, “That’s what I want! To be involved in something exciting.” Surprised at her own nerve, she walked up to them and said, “I’ve been admiring your energy and enthusiasm. What organization are you with?” They gave her a folder explaining the organization and how it provided a whole range of services for homeless youth. When she told them about her background in social planning and program development, they asked for her résumé to take to their director. Almost immediately, she became immersed in the organization as a volunteer on its management board. Monica says she thought it was serendipity at first, and then said, “No, I really took the initiative to make that happen. I’m proud of that.” Since then she has attended meetings to go over operations and details, helped to hire an executive director and caseworker who is partly funded by the city, represented the organization at city committee meetings that relate to homelessness and youth, and participated in joint planning with other organizations. “The work means a lot to me, and I adore the people I’ve met,” she said.
The first half of life is about compulsion; the second half is about choice.
—Shoshana Zuboff
Finding the right volunteer opportunity may take more time for most of us than it did for Monica. Cheryl discovered that just because she wanted to volunteer at her nearby children’s hospital, it did not mean that the hospital would simply open its arms wide to embrace her. She had to be persistent in order to get accepted, joining an orientation program, going through interviews, taking required inoculations, and accepting a variety of assignments. The first was in pediatric rehab, which she found fascinating, but she felt there wasn’t a whole lot she could do. Another was to help hospitalized children with their schoolwork by reading to them and bringing them laptops to work with. Finally, after she had given the hospital more than one hundred hours, she was graduated to the work she most wanted, which was to care for the babies in the intensive-care nursery. Cheryl says, “I essentially hold and rock infants whose parents can’t come until the evenings, or who will be going into foster care. At first I was somewhat nervous holding babies hooked up to monitors, but I learned how to deal with all that. The nurses are extremely grateful. And so am I.”
It either works out or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, you find somewhere else to volunteer, until you’re in the right organization, where you enjoy the people and the work.
—Cheryl
Wendy, fifty-seven, describes how she walked into the office of a high-profile senatorial campaign during an election year and was floored to realize that everyone was in his or her twenties. After a while, and feeling ignored, she was approached by someone and asked about her work in previous campaigns. Since she did not have campaign experience, she was turned away. Such a discouraging moment is when we are likely to think ageist attitudes are at work against us. But the truth is that Wendy had no political-campaign experience to offer to that well-oiled campaign office.
What should she do about it? Rather than crawl away to grumble, she should go out and get experience by volunteering for local representatives or for other community-run organizations, which have smaller staffs and fewer volunteers than the more celebrated politicians. It’s not ageism that was the problem; rather, it was her expectation that she could be helpful despite her lack of useful skills.
Mandy remembers her mother telling her never to do volunteer work. “Make sure you get paid for whatever you do because people will not respect you unless you are paid money.” Mandy thinks that, although her mother volunteered for good organizations and did quite valuable work, she felt as though it didn’t count. Fortunately, Mandy, who had been a highly paid business consultant, doesn’t feel that way. She would like to be a hospice worker and remembers her long-ago dreams about going to medical or nursing school. So, after Hurricane Katrina struck and refugees were stacked up at the Houston Astrodome, Mandy felt compelled to travel from New Jersey to offer her services. She arrived to a chaotic scene; no one seemed to be in charge and people needed help. Since she is good at organizing things, she found ways to be useful, helping kids find clothes from the piles of items that had been donated and taking food to those who were unable to get it for themselves. She says she found it tremendously satisfying to do something that did not require a lot of the same kind of mental work she had done during her career.
GLOBE-TROTTING VOLUNTEERS
The Peace Corps is the best-recognized U.S. public-service organization for those who wish to volunteer abroad. Although it traditionally targets young people, it welcomes older volunteers through its 50+ initiative. A Peace Corps tour is normally two years, with the most popular service areas being general education, health education, and disease prevention. During a tour volunteers receive full medical and dental care, a monthly living allowance, and round-trip airfare. Housing is modest but comfortable, and the program provides language and cross-cultural skills and technical training.
One of several other service programs is Global Volunteers, a nonprofit organization that takes small groups of people of all ages abroad (or to select locations in the United States) to work for short periods—two, three, or four weeks at a time—on projects that help people in poor communities better their lives. Most of the volunteer work is centered around helping schoolchildren learn or working on construction projects determined by the community. As a volunteer you must pay a fee that covers such things as your living expenses and a donation to the community.
New Ways to Think About Volunteering
With all the volunteer talent we have to offer and the tremendous need for such talent, why is it frequently so difficult to find volunteer programs that get it right? It seems clear that new models for volunteering are desperately needed and that we are the ones to initiate such change. It will start as we encourage nonprofit and civic organizations to think differently about how to use our skills, and organize and coordinate what we have to offer.
Throughout the country many innovative programs have been developed to pair our energy and enthusiasm for being useful with community services and schools. One such program, Experience Corps, currently operating in some nineteen cities, puts people over fifty-five together with community-based programs in some two thousand public schools so that they can mentor disadvantaged students. Experience Corps is successfully bringing good management skills and leadership to local schools through the deployment of highly committed and rigorously trained members working in teams for maximum impact. The results are that the students learn, the schools improve, and the volunteers who participate in the program are happier and healthier for the experience.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.
—Margaret Mead
Linda Sicher, a member of TTN and a volunteer, looks for opportunities in small organizations where a few people can make a big difference. Through her efforts, a team of TTN members became involved with Bottomless Closet, a local organization that provides professional clothing, career skills, and image coaching to help disadvantaged women negotiate job interviews with confidence and success. Previously, Bottomless Closet had seen clients three days a week, but with TTN members’ input, clients now have access to the program four days a week—a 33 percent increase in services provided. As Linda explains it, “Our group goes in on Mondays to help the women select wardrobes for their job interviews. Normally, each woman arrives in jeans, and a volunteer helps put together outfits, pairing shoes, handbag, scarf, and jewelry for an appropriate presentation. Then we photograph her new look, give her a print, and hang another copy on the bulletin board. And all the while, we talk to her about what she needs, answer questions about what she can expect during a job interview, and offer tips on how to present herself well—the kind of soft skills one needs for interviews.” Once she gets the job, she is encouraged to come back for more outfits and workshops that provide advice on such topics as managing finances, personal and professional development, and parenting skills. Says Linda, “I love drawing on my professional knowledge to help smooth the path for someone without such experience.”
Valuable new volunteer efforts usually begin small and grow out of a desperate need within a community. One example is a nonprofit organization launched by a dozen residents of Boston’s Beacon Hill to help others in the area continue to live at home even after they are no longer fully independent. Beacon Hill Village, now several hundred members strong, provides a range of household services, including computer-problem solving, transportation for members, assistance with weekly shopping, access to home-delivered meals, and concierge services such as mailing packages, hanging curtains, and picking up prescriptions. Residents over fifty years old may join for an annual fee, which is adjusted for those who cannot afford full freight.
The original Beacon Hill Village organizers are social entrepreneurs, a relatively new term used to describe unique individuals who see previously unnoticed needs in society and tackle those needs with daring, fresh solutions. Social entrepreneurs are visionaries who figure out how to make change happen, seize opportunities to improve existing systems, and invent new ways to get things done on a large scale. Above all, they are not ones to sit back to wait for the government or a business to come up with solutions.