Volunteering

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Lilith
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Volunteering

Post by Lilith » Tue Mar 16, 2021 1:50 am

Do you volunteer? Or do community service?

Why and why not?

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Spartan26
Posts: 148
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Re: Volunteering

Post by Spartan26 » Tue Mar 16, 2021 5:08 am

Lilith wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 1:50 am
Do you volunteer? Or do community service?
Yes
Lilith wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 1:50 am
Why and why not?
To stop the bleeding.

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MoneyJungle
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Re: Volunteering

Post by MoneyJungle » Tue Mar 16, 2021 7:47 am

I volunteered at a food bank for years and got jaded. Most of the clientele were ungrateful hustlers. I’m not expecting adoration but I expect civility if I’m going to spend my free time trying to help you. 80% of people were unpleasant and nobody was in danger of starving. I dreaded going there more than any paid job I ever had. I don’t expect people experiencing food scarcity to be chipper but I’m not going to take shit from people if I don’t have to. I accept my moral inferiority for not subjecting myself to this kind of thing anymore. If I could just move boxes for a few hours I’d be happy but every pair-of-hands deal will eventually devolve into dealing with a-holes pro bono. I’d rather just donate stuff than time.

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Madrigal
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Re: Volunteering

Post by Madrigal » Tue Mar 16, 2021 8:05 am

MoneyJungle wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 7:47 am
I volunteered at a food bank for years and got jaded. Most of the clientele were ungrateful hustlers. I’m not expecting adoration but I expect civility if I’m going to spend my free time trying to help you. 80% of people were unpleasant and nobody was in danger of starving. I dreaded going there more than any paid job I ever had. I don’t expect people experiencing food scarcity to be chipper but I’m not going to take shit from people if I don’t have to. I accept my moral inferiority for not subjecting myself to this kind of thing anymore. If I could just move boxes for a few hours I’d be happy but every pair-of-hands deal will eventually devolve into dealing with a-holes pro bono. I’d rather just donate stuff than time.
Wow, that sucks, why would they get hostile? Were there people with drinking or drug problems?

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MoneyJungle
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Re: Volunteering

Post by MoneyJungle » Tue Mar 16, 2021 8:43 am

Madrigal wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 8:05 am
MoneyJungle wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 7:47 am
I volunteered at a food bank for years and got jaded. Most of the clientele were ungrateful hustlers. I’m not expecting adoration but I expect civility if I’m going to spend my free time trying to help you. 80% of people were unpleasant and nobody was in danger of starving. I dreaded going there more than any paid job I ever had. I don’t expect people experiencing food scarcity to be chipper but I’m not going to take shit from people if I don’t have to. I accept my moral inferiority for not subjecting myself to this kind of thing anymore. If I could just move boxes for a few hours I’d be happy but every pair-of-hands deal will eventually devolve into dealing with a-holes pro bono. I’d rather just donate stuff than time.
Wow, that sucks, why would they get hostile? Were there people with drinking or drug problems?
They would accuse me of keeping the good stuff for myself or not giving them more or better stuff out of spite or prejudice. Constant guilt trips. I was an actual sweetie back then (roughly 2011-14. Remember?) and it really made me feel bad, even though I knew it was untrue. There were endless rules about what I could give to who and they had to be in a certain postal code. We only had a couple of guys who lived on the street. I have a hard time gauging who is on drugs, unless they are drunk or have meth-face. I didn’t see a huge amount of these people there. The overlap of substance abuse and mental illness borders on a distinction without a difference. Loads of despair, anger, stress and cynicism. I really just got the sense that people smelled weakness and thought they could bully me.

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ashi
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Re: Volunteering

Post by ashi » Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:19 am

The food bank I volunteered with for years was comparatively very lax as we had no sign-ups or eligibility verification etc. and yet it was no better in terms of people complaining about wait times or accusing us of withholding the ever elusive "good stuff". The great irony there being that the most demanding and impatient of these people would not only arrive early to secure one of the first ten spots but would even attempt to skip ahead in line ... only guaranteeing that they wouldn't be there when the donor of the best food, a local grocery store bringing deli items, would arrive. Excellent work, you insufferable fools.

Aside from that, pre-pandemic I volunteered with a range of women's services and had planned to do so for the rest of my life. When I was living in the American south, something I recommend for essentially no one, this meant dealing with a patchwork of quite literally one billion churches because for the majority of people there taxes are a sin and public service and good works flow exclusively through half-heartedly posturing before a god who must be honoured at all times but whose rules are worth neither remembering or following.

Once I have received the lord's blessing, that sweet injection of covid-killing 5G and autism into my arm, I will venture forth and make a glorious return to a life of charitable work and quietly drowning in the despair of treading water while everyone professes to care so terribly much but no politician or majority of voters can be persuaded to take action to effect meaningful change. Celebrimbor himself could not forge an emoticon capturing the fury and frustration that courses through my veins at all times. :)

Julius_Van_Der_Beak

Re: Volunteering

Post by Julius_Van_Der_Beak » Tue Mar 16, 2021 11:58 pm

Yes, to a couple different left-wing political orgs. Went to a protest on Sunday, actually.

It's important to me that I direct at least a portion of my existence on this planet to something other than myself. It makes me feel like I'm living a much fuller life.

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Spartan26
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Re: Volunteering

Post by Spartan26 » Wed Mar 17, 2021 1:01 am

ashi wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:19 am
Once I have received the lord's blessing, that sweet injection of covid-killing 5G and autism into my arm, I will venture forth and make a glorious return to a life of charitable work
I've gone back to a food distribution program through my old church -- which I'll say in comparison to others, the people have pretty much always been really gracious. But then they know the drill. It's been going on in one form or another I'd imagine since the 60s or 70's, before I got there. They had restarted the program as serving hot meals in the 90s, so it's pretty easy for people to know when to come get your food & clothing and go -- Anyway, after I help out there, I'll generally go to Costco and grocery store and maybe someplace like Target, all in the same w/e, that way if I do get covid I won't mentally negatively pin it on the time I spent volunteering.

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Lilith
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Location: Shangri-La

Re: Volunteering

Post by Lilith » Wed Mar 17, 2021 3:28 am

Spartan26 wrote:
Tue Mar 16, 2021 5:08 am
To stop the bleeding.
What do you mean? Is that a metaphor?

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Utisz
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Re: Volunteering

Post by Utisz » Wed Mar 17, 2021 3:59 am

I haven't ever really volunteered regularly for charitable causes.

In Ireland I paid lots of taxes and there wasn't really a big need for volunteers as far as I know. Aside from charity fundraising to research cancer of Alzheimer's or something, I am not actually sure in what ways I could have volunteered. Maybe some stuff for visiting old people? Not sure. In the Irish context, it sounds like either the family's or the government's job to look out for people in need.

Here in Chile I haven't volunteered either. For sure there's more opportunities to volunteer here. I work a lot more hours than I am paid for, often involving supervision of students, or research. I guess in that way I make myself useful, I don't know.

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