Volunteer question

[DarklingThrush]

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[LizzyM]

If you enjoy it and the agency needs you 7 hours per month, why not continue? Do the kids no longer need you? Don't focus on the hours or whether you feel "appreciated" by the directors.. focus on the kids who (we hope) are benefiting from your leadership and mentoring. Are you doing it for the hours and the accolades or for the kids?

 

[965978]

If you enjoy it and the agency needs you 7 hours per month, why not continue? Do the kids no longer need you? Don't focus on the hours or whether you feel "appreciated" by the directors.. focus on the kids who (we hope) are benefiting from your leadership and mentoring. Are you doing it for the hours and the accolades or for the kids?

This would warrant a larger discussion about how an organization behaves with and without volunteers. A few of my friends are at organizations and shelters where the volunteers get worked to the bone while the employees just sit around scrolling through Facebook. But if you go in on a day where there are absolutely no volunteers, it's beautiful watching the employees walking around actually doing their job!

EDIT: Accidentally wrote "employees" at the end of the first sentence when I meant to write "volunteers". I fixed it.

 

[Rachapkis]

I would suggest attempting a conversation with the women who run the youth center. Would it be possible to sit down and talk with them about your reduction in hours--to ask them directly if you're meeting their needs and whether you could do something better?

 

[LizzyM]

Given the way you've phrased this, and given that you have >150 hours to date, it would be no crime to stop now and say that the center was taking things in a different direction with greater involvement by transgender volunteers such that you felt that your time could be better spent in other community support activities with another agency.