“Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness — great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy.”
Jim Rohn
The quote and the pictures above are appropriate because April 21st – 27th, 2013 is National Volunteer Week. As the AmeriCorps Project Coordinator, I want to thank all the people who have volunteered this year with UJA-Fed. NY, Met Council, Connect to Care, TANS, Care for Thy Neighbor, and all other organizations. You all truly understand the meaning of the quote and live lives that provide the opportunity for great wealth, return, satisfaction and joy.
– Jay Litzman
The Value of Volunteering
Just below is an article that supports the quote I wrote about in April. The premise of the quote from the spring, which can be seen on this blog is that if you render service, you will get a lot out of volunteering. The article below says that if you volunteer you are also more likely to get a job than someone who does not give of their time.
“There is one thing that makes you 27% more likely to get a job”
By Greg Baldwin November 7, 2013
Greg Baldwin is president of VolunteerMatch, an online volunteer engagement network.
Dishing up opportunities. Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
“If you are job hunting, or just looking around for new opportunities, you have probably spent a lot of time recently tending to your LinkedIn profile. Updating your experience. Joining new groups. Building your network. Following your favorite new influencers (hint, hint).
But what if I told you there is something else that you probably aren’t doing which could dramatically increase your odds of getting a job?
It’s not about getting a graduate degree, and it’s not even about learning a new skill. And as for changing your perspective, you can also put those Tony Robbins CDs back in the closet.
According to the research, the smartest and most often overlooked thing you can do to get ahead in the competitive job market is to start giving back. That’s right. If you want to improve your odds of getting your dream job, it is time to start volunteering. Here are the facts.
This summer, researchers at the Corporation for National and Community Service, released new findings that tracked the relationship between volunteering and employment for a group of 70,535 respondents over a 10 year period.
According to Dr. Chris Spera, CNCS’s Director of Research & Evaluation, and one of the authors of the report ”Volunteering as a Pathway to Employment,” (pdf) active volunteers were 27% more likely to get a job than non-volunteers. And the relationship held stable across gender, race, ethnicity, age, location, and unemployment rate. That’s a big difference.
Underlying the findings, Spera and his team believe there is a strong relationship between volunteering and the development of social and human capital—key attributes in today’s most desirable candidates.
The findings echo a 2011 LinkedIn survey of 2,000 professionals, which found that 41% of respondents consider volunteer experience to be as important as work experience for job candidates. The survey also found that 20% of hiring managers have offered jobs based on a candidate’s volunteer experience.
So what are you waiting for? Last year 64.5 million Americans volunteered, which might sound like a lot. But it’s really only a bit more than one in four of us. So until everybody else reads this and starts volunteering, you’ll have a leg up on 180 million people.
If you need some help getting started, come visit us at volunteermatch.org. And once you’ve found a great place to volunteer, add it to your LinkedIn profile and let the job hunting begin. ”
Of course if you want to volunteer, you can also contact me for another 11 days at Sid Jacobson JCC or contact others here at the JCC.
Jay Litzman
The Briefcase Project: Career Empowerment Workshops for Women
Conquer that Little Voice That Holds You Back (Workshop)
516-484-1545, ext. 212
Pitch Perfect Lunch ‘n’ Learn – Practice your 30 Second Pitch (Workshop)
P
Job Fair
Above is a flyer about a job fair in Queens at the central Y in Forest Hills on May 8, 2013. Volunteers are needed! All volunteers will be given an opportunity to walk the fair and meet the various representatives from the different companies. If anyone is interested in volunteering and making sure that you get in to see the different company reps., please contact Dan Friedman (dfriedman@sfy.org), who is an AmeriCorps Project Coordinator for two of the Ys in Queens.
Volunteer Week – Long Island Volunteer Fair
In recognition of National Volunteer Week (April 21-27), The Long Island Volunteer Center, in association with the Long Island Community Foundation (LICF), will host the 2013 Long Island Volunteer Fair, on Wednesday, April 24, from 3-7 p.m., at Carlyle on the Green at Bethpage State Park.
The Volunteer Fair provides an opportunity for Long Islanders interested in community work to explore local nonprofit agencies in need of volunteers. In the wake of superstorm Sandy, local nonprofits are experiencing an increased demand for assistance and are in critical need of volunteers. Nearly 50 local nonprofit agencies will attend the Volunteer Fair. A complete list of agencies is available online at http://www.longislandvolunteercenter.org.
National Volunteer Week is about inspiring, recognizing and encouraging people to seek out imaginative ways to engage in their communities. Sponsored by Points of Light, National Volunteer Week was established in 1974 and has grown exponentially each subsequent year, with literally thousands of volunteer projects and social events scheduled throughout the week across the country.
Nassau County UJA Federation of New York's Connect to Care 