Reaching the Community

Some of the hardest things about volunteering as an individual are finding people to help, building relationships with them, learning to count on them, and still being able to adjust as necessary. It's all about the sacrifices.

My first success in this service project was setting up a program to help kids practice their English skills, and having prior volunteer experience at the St. Louis County Library gave me a starting point and some contacts. When I first began volunteering at the library, I organized CDs, shelved DVDs, and passed out prizes for Summer Reading Club, a few hours a week--none of which I thought much of at the time, since I was just allocating my time as I was able to.

Rachel, my first contact when I began my endeavors for this project, helped me with everything from tracking hours to familiarizing myself with procedures, and she connected me to her coworkers that were also looking to start a children's English program. We set up two days to meet in the children's garden/space in the afternoon, calling the event 'conversation circles,' and it was a huge relief for me that something, somewhere, was working out.

Only it didn't. Both days, I sat at the table with some conversation games as kids looked for books or played with blocks for an hour, and wondered how I was supposed to 'serve'. There were still the dozens of teachers and volunteer coordinators that I had emailed before, so I scanned the flyer over to my email and sent it over, hoping that some kind of accommodations could be made so that there would be at least a few moments where I wasn't online, in front of a computer, passively talking to someone else.

The need is there. The connection is just severed. Somewhere between emails and conversations was a gap where people wanted to come but couldn't, or when the time came, it wasn't a priority. Sometimes, that's okay, and it means a different group can be attended to, instead. It hit me in an instant that volunteering isn't just about serving--it's about adjusting, changing, and adapting, too.