The Navy developed the Personal Excellence Program as a means of giving back to local communities who host Navy families and people. It's important to interface with your neighborhood, wherever in the world your neighborhood is located. We have guys who work with Habitat for Humanity, as one example of folks who've taken their special skills and found an organization that can best use them. Submarine School divers working with grade schoolers from Ledyard's Juliet Long School. Partnerships vary, says Laughery, but volunteers have more in common than they think.
Volunteers are open, they are happy-they have very good communication skills.
There's a desire to have a positive impact in their communities and with the people they've chosen to work with. Those volunteers get to see the results of their efforts both immediately and long term. Ten years from now, the dwelling they helped construct will still be someone's home. I'd suggest that volunteers are 'selfish'-they like to help because it makes them feel good. You have to have people skills, and a desire to share what you know with someone who doesn't yet know it.