Is volunteering bad for your health?

Happy Monday! This past Saturday, The Volunteer Center of Story County participated in the Scandinavian Days Parade-rain and all! If you were there, you might have received a sweet bottle of bubbles with the VCSC logo!

Alright quick...think of three benefits of volunteering. Awesome. Now, think of three risks/dangers of volunteering.

The benefits of volunteering was probably easy to answer (hint: check out the archive section for a few examples) But the risks? Not as many people talk about the risks or possible dangers involved.

Now before I have the dare devils of the group rush onto our web site or the current volunteers start questioning the volunteer agency...maybe I should back up.

There are risks, just as there are risks for any job you may have, but those risks are significantly less if the volunteer coordinator takes the time to prepare volunteers for difficult situations that may arise.

Check out this article by BBC NEWS entitled, 'Volunteering, Bad for Health.'

Many organizations require training prior to volunteer work. This may be seen as a hassel but proper training can help minimize stress that would come from a volunteer being placed in an uncomfortable situation of which he/she felt unable to cope with.

Would you like to learn to better manage volunteers? The Volunteer Center has a volunteer management training session coming up in August--more information to come!