Volunteering: A Way to Help, Health Quests, Teen Health Course 3

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Health Quests

Volunteering: A Way to Help

Volunteering is one way you can apply your skills to improve the lives of others. Every community has organizations that rely on the help of volunteers to accomplish their goals, and young people everywhere are learning how they can get involved. "Getting involved" might mean giving your time to an organization that is recruiting volunteers, such as "Heal the Bay." But it also can mean identifying a need or problem in your own community and creating your own volunteer project such as organizing a visit to a nearby convalescent home.

In this activity, you will learn how to use the Internet as a resource to find organizations that need volunteers as well as a place to find inspiration for your own ideas about volunteer projects.

After exploring these sites and completing the questions, you will be able to

provide information about organizations that are looking for volunteers in your area.
identify a problem or need in your own community.
design a plan for how you and your classmates can help.

	Use information from the Web sites to create an informative poster about opportunities for students to volunteer. You should select a particular issue or problem on which your poster will focus. Your poster will provide information about an organization involved that helps with that issue as well as your own original plan for how young people can make a difference in your community.

	Health Links
	Identifying the Need People in Need At this Web site you will learn about different groups of people, found in all communities, who are in need of help or support. What are these groups? Which of these groups in your area would you be interested in helping and why? What ideas do you have for helping these groups? http://www.pbskids.org/zoom/action/ways.html Environment in Need Visit these Web sites to learn how young people can focus their volunteer efforts on environmental issues. What needs to be done to improve the environment? What environmental issue would you be interested in dedicating your time to and why? What ideas do you have for cleaning up the environment in your area? http://www.epa.gov/students/projects.htm http://www.pbskids.org/zoom/action/ways.html Designing a Volunteer Project What have other young people done to make a difference? Visit these Web sites and learn what other students have done to make a difference in their community. Choose two of these kids whom you admire. What problem or need did their project address? What did they do to help? http://www.aad.org/Kids/sunsafety.html http://www.giraffe.org/heroes.html http://www.pbskids.org/zoom/action/ways.html Finding the Opportunity How do young people find organizations that need their help? Use these Web sites to find at least four organizations in your area that need the help of young people. What are other ways the sites recommend finding a volunteer opportunity besides a Web search? Using information provided on one or more of the sites, find organizations that coincide with your own areas of interest. What is the name of the organization? Where is it located? What do they need their volunteers to do? http://www.idealist.org/kat/ktvolunteer.html http://www.SERVEnet.org http://www.volunteerconnections.org/VCP_volunteercentermap.cfml

Once you have explored these links and answered the questions, you are ready to make your poster. Your poster should

focus on one issue in which you are interested.
provide the name and location of at least one organization related to that issue.
describe what the organization does.
identify a particular need or problem in your own community.
provide an original idea for how students can organize and volunteer on their own.