Stress Less, Grow Stronger: Volunteering for Community Resilience

5.3% of Americans are volunteering on any given day, according to the American Time Use Survey.

Here’s a simple, empowering, and positive step for sustainability this week: volunteer. “Local volunteerism is a fundamental resilience strategy and a property of resilient communities,” reports the United Nations Volunteers program. Studies show that “volunteering helps counteract the effects of stress, anger, and anxiety.” Today’s post shares effective strategies for connecting with people in your community to do useful work that benefits everyone — including you!

Results You Can Measure

Give yourself and your team some extra motivation to get out there and do the volunteering that makes our world a better place for everyone. Seek out volunteer projects that benefit our environment, and set a goal for how many volunteer hours per person you’ll contribute this year.

Volunteering

What is volunteering? A helpful definition, thanks to our friends Down Under, is “time willingly given for the common good and without financial gain.” Here in the United States, AmeriCorps studies two categories of volunteerism:

1. Informal Helping…