Volunteering: Making a Difference for a Stranger Can Help Your Family

It’s easy to recognize the ways that volunteering makes a difference for people down on their luck and in need. When we volunteer for someone who needs our help, they may get a new home, get blood they needed for a life-saving surgery, or school children may get a new playground in their neighborhood.

What is all too often de-emphasized is the powerful difference volunteering can make for the individual or family actually volunteering their talents and services. It is a difference that can change a person’s life, or bring a family closer together.

An excellent example of the power of volunteering to make a difference in the lives of an individual (and their family) is the use of volunteering as a tool for therapy at Montcalm Schools, a private, family-referral residential treatment program for boys and girls. Montcalm Schools is based on the 91-year history of its parent organization Starr Commonwealth, which serves more than 5,000 children, families and professionals every year to improve the lives of troubled children and their families.

According to Dr. Jim Longhurst, licensed psychologist for Montcalm Schools, volunteerism is a critical component of the organization’s treatment philosophy. “Montcalm is trying to rekindle that part of ourselves that is more or less dormant in the kids we serve,” said Longhurst. “Volunteering as part of their therapeutic treatment develops a compassion for others and teaches them to be more empathic.

“Volunteering and making a difference in the lives of others,” Longhurst adds, “helps children who are obsessed with their own shortcomings and life struggles build self-esteem. The magnitude of their perceived deficits decreases and their self-esteem increases because they see someone appreciative of their ability and desire to help.”

The same commitment Montcalm Schools has made to infuse children’s lives with volunteering for the sake of doing good for others can be used at home with any family. When a family volunteers together it does more than just multiply the number of people participating in helping their community. “Working together builds a spirit of cooperation,” Longhurst says. “When the family does something together for the sake of other families, it solidifies those values and helps their children to raise their own families with those same values. It has a tremendous effect on a family’s self-concept.”

In addition, volunteering for children, especially when done in conjunction with his or her family, can offer a child numerous, practical life skills. Through the planning, coordination and participation in volunteer activities, a child learns patience, problem solving, communication skills, empathy, compassion and how to make commitments and follow them through to completion.

The Montcalm Schools is a not-for-profit, private-referral school and treatment program built on the proven tenets of Starr Commonwealth, one of the oldest, most respected children’s organization in the country. For more information, call (866) 244-4321 or visit their Web site at www.montcalmschool.org

Courtesy of ARA Content