Six Extraordinary Ways to Help Your Community

Volunteer Your Time.  Whether you are young or old, volunteering your time is something easy and very beneficial that you can do to help your community.  Ways to volunteer your time could be as simple as cleaning up your neighborhood, reading to children in a classroom or helping at your local community center or senior citizen center.  Volunteering your time to help your community is beneficial not only to your community but it builds character in younger people.

Organize An Awareness Event.  This can encompass any part of your community.  It can be as small as a benefit for a local community member in need of funding for medical or crisis relief.  It can be as big as gathering the businesses in your community for a local party in the park or indoor event center.  Things to focus on are getting your community recognized for what it has to offer and bring people to your community.

Head A Project.  Talking to your local Chamber of Commerce can lead you in the right direction for making a big city-wide difference in your community.  Do a city-wide poll about what people think that their community needs and work to make it happen.  Get in contact with your community Development Authority. 

Host A Week Long Food Drive.  Set up a table at the local supermarket and have a week long food drive.  The best time to do this is near the holiday that people make a big meal on.  For example Christmas and Thanksgiving.  Ask for only one non-perishable food item to help make someones holiday by being able to give them their holiday meal.  Once that is done, sort the food into meal size ranging from three to six people and deliver the food to people in your community that are in need for the holidays.  You can most likely find this out by talking with your local food bank about helping out and also the Department of Public Health and Human Services.  They can usually give you information or head you in the right direction.

Toys For A Cause.  Another way to help people in your community is by donating all your extra toys for children in need.  Many kids don’t get a thing for Christmas while many get everything.  Help out by giving your extra or lightly used toys to an organization that does a Toys For Tots or organize one yourself.  A good way to gather extra toys is by talking to the local businesses about setting up a box or crate in their business that let’s people drop off their extras and have you pick them up once a day or twice or more a week.  Businesses that work great for this are grocery stores, local department stores or even your local Boys and Girls Club.

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Speaking Out.  If you feel that there is a need in your community or you have an idea that you think is worth trying in your community you should speak out.  Great ways to get involved are by going to your city council meetings and voicing your concerns and discuss the type of change you would like to see in your community.  You could also do research about your ideas so you are able to share, with the city coucil, they ways that the city could go about implementing these changes.

There are many things throughout your community that you can do to make a difference.  The only thing you really need to do to make a difference is to be motivated and try.