Volunteering in Your Community
By ShayLa Blake
In times like these, people often feel like giving back to their community, but don’t follow through because they don’t know where to start. Whether you're trying to gain work experience, build your resume, or just feel like lending a helping hand, volunteer opportunities are all around our community.
If you are looking to help out around Owasso, a good place to start would be the city's official website. There, you can find the City Volunteer Program that helps to better the Owasso community. You can apply to do individual community service, community service for school, as well as group based community service. Not only does this help the Owasso community, it also helps those in organizations that require community service hours. To find out more information about the City Volunteer Program, visit the City of Owasso official website.
Volunteering can also be a time consuming task. Finding ways to volunteer with a busy schedule is difficult, but there are ways to give back from your own home. One easy way to give back is to make donations to local charities or non-profit organizations to help reach people in need. On the Homeless Shelter Directory, you can find a registry of Oklahoma based shelters listed by city to help direct you to shelters close to you.You can also find a list of Tulsa based food pantries, soup kitchens, and food banks on the Homeless Shelter Directory website. The Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits is another directory that can help you to find nonprofit organizations in your area. Nonprofits and charities rely on donations to provide aid to those in need and keep their facilities open and running. It doesn’t take a large donation to help, and it's something you can do from your home at any time.
Volunteering is an amazing learning and growing opportunity that just about anyone can do. Organizations like food pantries and homeless shelters are constantly looking for volunteers and donations, especially around the colder seasons coming up. Independent volunteering helps build resumes for future jobs and for college applications, especially if you take an interest in giving back to your community. Visiting the websites listed above and linked below are the perfect places to start when looking into volunteering.
City of Owasso Volunteer Program- https://www.cityofowasso.com/179/City-Volunteer-Program
Homeless Shelter Directory- https://www.homelessshelterdirectory.org/
Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits- https://www.oklahomacenterfornonprofits.org/