Recent Volunteer Question - Comfort Levels

Here is a recent question from a new volunteer that I thought I should share with you. This type of question about how to volunteer within your comfort levels and setting proper boundaries is a frequently asked question.

You sent me a project for grocery shopping & other errands bi-weekly.  How would that work?  Do I drive him around or do I do the errands for him and where are the errands?  I would love to help out, but feel nervous about having a strange man in the car with me.  Would any of the errands be all the way across town on the south side; that’s a 30 minute drive for me & downtown is a 20 minute drive.  I am on the south side once a month though & can get things while in the area.  Thanks for the info.  Take care.

My Response:

Each situation/project is different and completely up to you on how you want to handle it. That’s the best part of volunteering at NL, you get to choose the project and how you want to handle it based on what you feel comfortable doing in relationship to what the recipients needs are. At any time you don’t feel comfortable with the request, you can opt out as long as you leave them in at least the same shape as you found them. For example, re-posting their project so someone else can find it.

I often don’t know the specifics of each project due to the nature of how projects enter our website and the reality that each volunteer’s abilities/willingness is going to be different. So, we get the basic info and leave it up for the volunteer interested in the project to contact the recipient directly to define the actual need further and make the decision of whether or not it’s something they want to do, or are capable of doing.

This is a great question and I hope it helps you understand a little more about our process. We’re in the neighbors-helping-neighbors business and can’t always speak for what a neighbor is willing to do for another. We post the opportunities for those that need a neighbor and pray that someone will help them out.

Please keep these types of questions coming.