What Motivates Some Individuals to Volunteer or Perform Community Service

What motivates some individuals to volunteer or perform community service

When I retired last year I found that there are a lot of people who volunteer their time, efforts and sometime a lifetime of wisdom to others. That got me to thinking what makes a person want to volunteer or do community services. What motivates some individuals to volunteer and risk their life as a fire fighter? Who is that woman at the library who will sit with little children reading a book? Why do some people go to nursing homes to sit and talk to our elderly?

There are many different types of people in this world. There are the ones that are self indulgent and self centered. There are ones that are giving of themselves. People may volunteer there services for personal reasons; some may feel that they are giving back to society for something that may have happened in their own lives. There may have been someone in their lives that made an impression and may have influenced the manner in which they grew up, and to honor that person they may volunteer their own time to assist another with the same kindness that they were shown.

Yet others may volunteer their services and time because they are newcomers to a neighborhood. They may feel that by doing a service for their community they obtain the opportunity to interact and meet new people. There are quite a number of elderly people, who in there life work became experts at business aspects or other skills and these people wish to pass along to a younger generation, those skills and lessons learned. There are others who are looking for relationships and a way of sharing similar interests with like minded people, these folks may just be lonely and by volunteering they are interacting with society and satisfying a need within themselves.

Volunteers vary in their goals. Some may volunteer to test out a career field. They may not be sure if a career in a museum is to their liking and may volunteer their services to obtain an insight to that career field. They may volunteer to see if that career field fits their own personality, likes or dislikes. There are those people who will use the volunteer time to use a job reference.

Then there are those folks who are just civic minded and feel comfortable and satisfied when they give of themselves, whether it is their time or money or both. They may have a feeling of accomplishing a goal, whether for their own private motives or for the betterment of their environment. Some people are just put on this Earth to help others without compensation other than just feeling good about themselves