Volunteering: a must-do!

We all know the importance of giving back to the community.  It not only improves the lives of others and makes the community a better place to live, it makes you feel good, too.  Its the kind of feeling you can't really get elsewhere; giving your time, energy, and commitment to others, for the sake of the greater good.  Its the kind of feeling that when you go without it for a long time, you begin to start itching for it, and you don't really feel whole until you do it again.  I've had that itch for quite sometime now.  My friend and I volunteered at a D.C. public charter middle school last spring, and it was amazing.  6 months have passed since then, and that is just way too long.

This week I started my long overdue volunteer work.  I went on idealist.org to try and find some local opportunities, and I knew that I wanted to do something longer-term this year, to ensure that I continually fulfill this aspect of my life.  I am specifically interested in working with youth in schools, as I miss that from both my college and City Year days.  I found a few local opportunities that were either tutoring or mentoring or both.  I decided to check out two programs, College Bound and another youth center that will remain unnamed, lets just call it "Youth Center," both in D.C.

College Bound:

College Bound, Inc., a Washington, D.C. based, 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization, offers public school students in grades 8-12 academic enrichment and resources to prepare for and succeed in college. Founded in 1991, the organization offers tutoring, mentoring, ACT/SAT preparation, and academic and career guidance free-of-charge to assist students in the District of Columbia metropolitan area in meeting their post-secondary educational goals.

I checked out College Bound first.  Beyond what is described above, it is a well developed mentorship program, matching up D.C. college educated professionals with D.C. public school college bound youth.  Each week, the mentors spend two hours with their mentees, either helping them with their homework, making sure the college app/prep is continuing, or just being someone they can talk to.  The mentors are called "partners."  There are also organized activities that the students and their partners can do together, like college tours and the like.  The organization, from the start, has seemed very organized and well managed.  Right away, they paired me up with a local high school junior.  I spent the first 20 min or so getting acquainted with the program, but my new mentee helped me learn the ropes.  I was able to spend the 2 hour session getting to know her and two other girls that were at the same table (and for some reason did not have partners).  All of the kids genuinely seemed happy to be in the program, and seemed thankful for the partners that were there.  At the end of the session, the students all stand up and say something that was good that happened to them in the past week (a good grade, an accomplished goal, etc.), and the whole room listens and claps.  I am looking forward to the development of my mentorship with my mentee, and my involvement in what seems to be a great organization, College Bound.

The next night, I went to check out a volunteer opportunity at the aforementioned Youth Center.  This was a big disappointment.  The Youth Center advertised that they needed tutors for their college prep program.  The Center itself seemed cool, a real neighborhood community center for youth.  When I arrived, it was quite active and busy.  I attended an orientation session which lasted about an hour.  The jist of the orientation:  the tutor program is new, there is no guarantee tutors will match up with students, and the students don't show up regularly.   In other words, they should not have been advertising for tutors.  I think this Center at its core is a great place.  They provide a lot of programming and whatnot for the community.  However, this particular branch of the Center, the college prep program, was disorganized and mismanaged.  I really don't have time to commute after work somewhere when I may or may not even tutor a student.  Until they get their program up and running, I will just stick with College Bound.

The Youth Center was disappointment not just because of my individual experience.  But it got me thinking about non-profit management in general.  I've been to many different organizations like that.  They mean well, but at the end of the day there is no one there that is managing properly.  It turns out to be a huge waste of resources; time, people, and money.  I hope this Youth Center can turn their tutor program around (or get it off of its feet) because it surely would be a great benefit to the students of that community.

Having had a great experience with College Bound so far, two of my friends have decided to join as well.  This ripple effect may be the most beneficial aspect of all.  Not only that, other friends have been truly interested in hearing about volunteering, and have since told me that they plan to volunteer in their communities soon.  Real, fundamental change happens at the grassroots level.  If youth in schools aren't your thing, there are thousands of organization and causes in your community that would love your time.  Give back, it'll make you a better person. 

More on College Bound in a future post.  Thanks for reading!