Does this count as serving the underserved?

[nontrad:PP]

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Hi all! I might just be over thinking this, but I was wondering if these volunteering activities would count as serving underserved communities in the eyes of adcoms. I'm still accumulating hours but I'm wondering if I have the right idea in terms of impactful volunteering activities.

I'm a non-trad who is working full time while completing prereqs, so many traditional volunteering opportunities don't really fit into my schedule, but I can adjust the types of activities if it's needed! I'm aiming to apply in 2028.

Red Cross Volunteer (about 110 hours total, spread across a few different functions)

• Blood drive volunteer - checking in donors, answering questions, and supporting the donation center by restocking snacks
• Local disaster response - mainly spent these shifts on call. Responded to a house fire once at a local senior living community but have since removed myself from the call schedule due to schedule conflicts.
• Community disaster preparedness - installing free smoke alarms in the local community. Have been to a lot of diverse and lower income neighborhoods and been in many homes without functioning smoke alarms. I mainly play the role of an educator/documenter while a partner installs the smoke alarms.

Homeless shelter (only about 5 hours lol but I just recently started, hoping to get more but it's tough to get it into my schedule)

• Childcare for women at the shelter
• Meal service and prep

Children's grief non-profit (haven't started yet but am anticipating being a regular volunteer since many opportunities are during weeknights)

• "Buddy volunteering" with children and families who are experiencing grief from the loss of a loved one. I'm still waiting on orientation for this but most volunteers spend time engaging in therapeutic and recreational programming with kids and sometimes their family members. The program has a large emphasis on teaching kids to cope with grief and building community between children and families experiencing grief.
• This is the main one I was wondering if it would count as community service? Maybe I'm just over-thinking it? Since it's a lot of emphasis on facilitating activities and creating a healing space for kids, I worry that it isn't necessarily "going outside of my comfort zone" as I've heard many community service experiences being described.

Any input is appreciated! Thanks 🙂

 

[chilly_md]

No. Only one would be the homeless shelter. The non-profit sounds like a good experience though.

 

[nontrad:PP]

No. Only one would be the homeless shelter. The non-profit sounds like a good experience though.

Gotcha, I'll try to add on some more hours/keep being consistent with the shelter volunteering