{"id":12144,"date":"2012-11-30T00:29:39","date_gmt":"2012-11-30T00:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/carolinegersch\/?p=30"},"modified":"2012-11-30T00:29:39","modified_gmt":"2012-11-30T00:29:39","slug":"help-others-help-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/help-others-help-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Help others. Help yourself."},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the harsh realities of getting older is the challenge of finding time for volunteer efforts. Unless you work for a company like Trott & Trott that makes it easy to get involved, it can be difficult to figure out how to get started, not to mention where to find the time. \u00a0This is a sentiment I hear expressed amongst my Generation Y peers who, by and large, put most of their energy into building careers and starting families.<\/p>\n

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Some of the most popular volunteer sites in southeast Michigan are soup kitchens, food banks, Habitat for Humanity, and tree plantings. \u00a0While I personally enjoy getting my hands dirty at a tree planting, I understand that others might not like this kind of activity, or building a house, or stocking boxes at a food bank. \u00a0If this is you, there are still plenty of opportunities to give back to the greater community. \u00a0Volunteering doesn\u2019t have to be a painful experience. \u00a0In fact, it can (and should) be fun! Those focused on their profession ought to look into giving back through pro bono opportunities. \u00a0More seasoned professionals might consider setting aside a couple of hours per month to devote to coach someone just starting out in the field. \u00a0Speaking as a grateful mentee, the dialogue I have with my mentor, Ed Cherney, is one of the most valuable components to my Challenge Detroit experience. In fact, this mentor-mentee relationship has inspired me to rejoin the group Big Brothers Big Sisters so I can pass on the support and encouragement to someone else in the community.<\/p>\n

And if giving for giving\u2019s sake is not enough of an inducement, then maybe you\u2019ll be motivated by learning that a number of studies show that volunteering has vast physical and mental health benefits, including lower rates of depression, heart disease and cancer. \u00a0Whatever the incentive, just do it!<\/p>\n

This blog post was contributed by Caroline Gersch, Fellow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the harsh realities of getting older is the challenge of finding time for volunteer efforts. Unless you work for a company like Trott & Trott that makes it easy to get involved, it can be difficult to figure out how to get started, not to mention where to find the time. \u00a0This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}