Volunteering, 1 hour at a time
By: Marta Mangiarulo
Tags: Volunteering, Helping Others, Startup

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

You are at home with lots of free time, have already rearranged your room for the third time in a month, and movie streaming is just not doing the trick: you’re bored. But it’s not just that; something is missing, you would like to do something useful for others which can also provide you with some purpose and sense of accomplishment.

Volunteering sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? But where to start?

The good news is that thanks to technology, you can help with pretty much anything and everywhere you can think of, the bad news is that the options and opportunities are so many that it’s easy to get overwhelmed! The amount of time you can choose to dedicate to volunteering is extremely flexible, making it a viable option for workers and students alike.

Online you can find many aggregator websites collecting volunteering opportunities for pretty much any field you can think of. Some volunteering opportunities are a one-off instance while some others require a more stable commitment. Some require you to put your unique set of skills at work, some others just require you to, well, be there for somebody.

Not just a talent show (off)

Do you have a particular talent, skill, or expertise you would like to share with others? This is a good starting point. For example, if you are a teacher, you can volunteer to provide online lectures or training. If you are a university student, you can also help with private or group lessons, tutoring, mentoring or, depending on your field, research or outreach too. Do you know more than one language? Awesome! Why not volunteer for translation services or language tutoring?

Think globally, act locally

Maybe you are keen to help your local community. In this case, it might be a good idea to refine your search by location. For example, you could go on Facebook and reach out to mutual help groups based in your area that you will surely find.

Just be there

Sometimes it’s not even a matter of skills, and people just need someone who can keep them company and be there for them for a chat, or who help them with their grocery shopping or with small errands.

Volunteering is undoubtedly a generous action, but do not underestimate what’s in it for you: from a sense of accomplishment and connection to showcasing and strengthening your skills, it’s a highly rewarding activity for you, and maybe for your cv too.

What is 1hour.life?

1hour.life started as a STEM-based volunteer portal to provide remote or in person help to schools with tech volunteers. In light of the current situation, the project is now focused on remote help. We want to be useful in the current situation, providing a platform where help requests and offers of help can meet.

Do you want to volunteer to help? On the website, volunteers can easily register, geo search for requests all over the world, pick one, and get matched.

Do you, or someone you know, need help? On our website, you can create a help request specifying help category, address, a description of your request and a date range. Once you have placed your request, you can approve who will actually help you and you can securely message them to discuss the help you need.

A simple and user-friendly interface makes it easy to register as a volunteer or as a requestor. Thanks to a map and a search bar, the website makes it easy to search for help offers or requests based on activity type and location. Most importantly, our free platform can work for any kind of requests and volunteers, ranging from remote-friendly chats to dropping off medicines. Our website works on smartphones and desktops with ease; we do not have an app, but we are considering launching it depending on the requests and needs of our users.

If you want to know more about our project, you can visit our webpage 1hourlife.org or write to us: info@1hourlife.org

No-fuss, no battery draining apps, no missing notifications: volunteering has never been easier.