5 Things You Can do to Better Your Community in Your Free Time

Supporting your local community can deliver a host of benefits to both yourself and the people around you. 

Besides giving back, you can make friends, build networks, learn new skills, and even advance your career. It also teaches your children the importance of giving back and being involved in things outside of themselves.

If you have been meaning to give back to your community, here are some suggestions to some things you can do.

1. Get Involved In Volunteer Work

Wherever you live, you will find numerous volunteering opportunities. But you have to make sure that it’s a fit.

Some of the things you should consider is how much free time you have and how many hours you can give to the cause you pick. You also obviously need to evaluate what you have to offer. You do not just want to join a volunteer program; you want to do so meaningfully. 

Therefore, assess the life and work experience you have and how these would fit into different volunteer roles. 

The goals here would be to try and find one where your skills would make the most impact. 

With time, you can consider taking a community service course to help you serve your community better. 

2. Lend Your Support to Local Businesses

Local businesses are an integral part of any community, but they often face fierce, and at times, unfair competition from national and multinational companies.

There are many ways to support your local businesses. The first way is by buying their goods and services whenever possible. 

The other is by referring them to your friends and acquaintances whenever they are looking for services available in your locality. 

In addition to this, follow them on social media and leave good reviews on their business pages. This action helps other people find local businesses faster and trust their services.

3. Keep Elderly Neighbors in Mind

1 in 5 Americans feels lonely or isolated. This alone does not seem like cause for concern until you dig deeper.

Lonely people are more likely to smoke, have more physical health issues, are more susceptible to mental health issues, and premature mortality. If they allow you to, try and interact more with your neighbors, more so the isolated ones. Often this will likely be the elderly with no children living at home and possibly widows and widowers.

Chats, helping them with budgeting and chores, and even taking them out for short walks are all thoughtful undertakings.

You can also ask them over on big holidays to spend time with your family. This is especially useful because more people feel lonely around the holidays than they do at any other time.

4. Donate Things

Helping out your community does not always mean spending money.

You can get your friends and neighbors to periodically donate useable items in good condition that they no longer use. 

These can be clothes, utensils, books, toys, jewelry, and so on. Women’s shelters, for one, can do with adult clothing to help women not just be dressed and look good but also to help lift their self-esteem.

Another way to go about it to have people donate items they no longer use, sell them, and donate the proceeds to a charity of your choice. 

5. Give to the Environment

Any actions that make the environment better make your community better.

From planting trees and shrubs to organizing a clean-up drive, the environment and your community will both thank you. 

There is only so much you can do on this, so it helps to rally other like-minded people to get a movement going. The more, the merrier.

There You have it!

If you have the will and some time to make things around you better, there are numerous things you can do for your community.

Your efforts might feel unimpactful, but every small action on your part will directly impact someone in unimaginable ways.