i volunteer every second friday at a nice little soup kitchen nearby, it makes me feel like i have done something but its not enough because i want to do more.
my church might be looking for volunteers so i am hoping to do something for them to help, i love kids so i was hoping it would be something with them but i was worried that word might get out that i have this mental illness and some parents might not want me looking after their children, i think if i was well and i found out someone with sz was watching my children i would be worried about this myself,
i dont want people to know about my diagnosis, definitely not.
I’ve been thinking about volunteering. But I don’t know where. There aren’t any soup kitchens around (that I know of). I see flyer at T’s office for MHEP, Mental Health Empowerment Program/Exchange. I’m really nervous about meeting new people.
I’ve volunteered, I volunteered with animals mostly, I worked at a rescue kennels for 9 months after first coming out of hospital they didn’t know but they must have suspected, I loved it with the animals but I was bullied badly and left. From there I went to the RSPCA (British equivalent of ASPCA) where I worked in the charity shop, did graphic work and ran their Facebook page, I even did home visiting a few times. I did this work until December I was there over two years, I got into a routine with them, I was in two days a week and it was flexible if I was bad I wouldn’t go in (I’d ring though, make an excuse) but again they started to treat me badly a year ago (they may have done so all along but I was so unwell I didn’t notice). I haven’t volunteered since but have taken on courses etc I’m more thinking the next thing I do will be paid, at least that’s what I’m hoping.
Good luck on your voluntary journey!
Go steady,
Meg.
I volunteered at a thrift store four years ago sorting clothes. They gave me the boot within two days. Claimed I was not the right fit for their organization. Huh? Fired for working for free.
im going to start volunteering at a homeless shelter here soon and also volunteer at a animal rescue shelter, got out of the hospital not to long ago and need some things to occupy my time interact with others and get me out of the house
I’d never heard of online volunteering before. You guys inspired me. I contacted MHEP and was searching around online and found a river cleanup this weekend that I might go to.
I’ve had three volunter jobs. I did not like any of them. The first one was working at a pre-school. I was living at a Residential Treatment Home at the time and one of the counselors wives ran this day care center. The counselor talked me into volunteering. Me and another guy from the house. Basically we were handyman. We did painting, we tarred cracks in a roof, we pulled weeds, we swept etc. I really didn’t like it. It irked me that this lady was getting free labor that benefited HER. As opposed to a soup kitchen where you’re helping people who really need it. My second one was working at a park, my friend volunteered there, he got me the job. I fed animals and did some yard work. I wouldn’t call it fun. My last one was in1998, at an animal shelter. I really thought i would like it, but it turned out to be endlessly annoying. Most of the animals there were sick or injured birds. My job was to feed them. The birds did not cooperate at all. They squirmed and tried to escape their cages. If there was more than one bird in a cage, the dominant bird would crowd out the other. I just had no patience with the birds. And we had to do a lot of cleaning cages.
I volunteered at my public library shelving books on a Saturday. Very nice place to work! But my lack of motivation got me and I stopped. I might go back, I don’t know, I’ll see…
Yosemite my Great Dane and I go to the local nursing home once a week. I think Yosemite enjoys going as much as the people there enjoy him coming to visit.
When I first got my service dog, I volunteered at Animal Control where is trainer worked.
My job was to take pictures of the dogs up for adoption and upload those pictures to Petfinder so that they had a chance of being adopted. It was very fulfilling.
When I leave NIH and move back to Arkansas, I think I would like to go back and see if I can volunteer there again.
