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12 Ways to give back to the community

Madhurya
Oct 15, 2021
6 min read

Updated: Oct 18, 2021

Giving back to your community through various means helps those who are in need. These small acts of kindness help build a positive environment around us and help in uplifting our sense of purpose in life.

You can also check-out the audio version below.

Before getting into the ways one can give back to the community, let’s look at the why and how behind it to get a holistic understanding.

Why is it important to give back to the community

This is one thing all of those who are stuck in the rat race tend to think of. “What’s in it for me” is a common question we ask ourselves when it comes to the matter of giving back to our society and community.

Giving back to your community helps improve your mental health, helps improve your physical health, helps in expanding your network, helps you develop new skills, changes your thinking, and helps you gain new perspectives on different aspects of life, it helps in fulfilling your innate need of being human and creates a sense of connecting between you and your community.

How to give back to the community

Find a purpose

It can be very personal to you or can be something that you’ve seen others do and you want to support a similar cause. Find your purpose.

Start small- and start right now

A lot of plans to give back to the community and often find no time or get overwhelmed by this thought that you might have to do a mountainous task for it to have an impact on your community. This is a common misconception all of us have. Start small. However small your contribution may be, it is bound to do some good in at least one other person’s life. Start today, start right now. Stop procrastinating and do things now, do things today.

Create a ripple effect

Once you have a certain motion of community giving in place, influence your friends, your family to do the same things. This will help in building a great community and uplights so many lives.

Find an effort that fits your mindset and your lifestyle

This is a common mistake a ton of us commit while picking a way to give back to the community. Always be mindful while picking your purpose, your purpose shouldn’t cause you any harm or create mental unease and burden your lifestyle. So pick your purpose and community activity carefully so that you don’t burden yourself physically, mentally, and financially.

Become a resource yourself

If you are someone who cannot afford to help your community because of various financial or mental reasons, you can become a resource by yourself. Your time is the most valuable thing you can donate to contribute to your community.

Now that you understand the why and how behind community giving, let’s looks at 12 ways through which you can give back to your community-

Donate your time

Time is an irreplaceable asset all of us have and of which we have a limited quantity.

So pick a purpose and donate your time to contribute to the purpose.

If you have a special skill, donate your time in teaching that skill to the kids in your community.

Plant a tree

This is the most affordable and easy way one can give back to their community. With the developments we see around us, many trees are sacrificed to build infrastructure for us and our future generations.

In order to create some balance to the amount of destruction we’ve caused to nature in the name of development, let’s plant as many trees as possible.

Planting one tree can have a generational impact on communities for years together.

Recycle plastic

Do your part in saving the oceans, you don’t have to go to the nearest beach and try to pick up plastic from the beaches, instead, you can do this from the comfort of your house and your community.

Be mindful of your daily purchases, make a habit of switching to environmentally conscious brands, cut down on the use of plastic at home, segregate your waste and plastic.

We can do our bit by doing these small acts and have an enormous impact on our surroundings and our community.

Influence people in doing the same and make conscious choices and reduce the use of plastic.

Build a home garden or be part of a community garden

Try and build a home garden where you can grow a couple of veggies and herbs, to cater to your daily needs and help yourself build a habit of conscious and green living.

If you do not have the space and time required to build this, you can also try to build a community garden or be part of one if your community already has one. This is a great habit to build and also becomes a source for networking.

Community gardening will help bring like-minded people together and share happiness and good laughs. This is very good for people who are looking at giving themselves some light physical activity to break their monotonous daily routine.

Donate Blood

Donating blood is very much encouraged in our society. Donating blood every 3 months helps in the development of new blood cells in your body and also helps in reducing risks of heart attacks and liver ailments.

The blood you donate can literally save someone’s life. Isn’t that a wonderful purpose and way to give back to your community?

One human being has the capacity of saving 500 lives if they started donating blood at the age of 18, once every 90 days. Isn’t that a wonderful impact to have in life? You have nothing to lose in the process. Donating blood once can save up to 3 lives. If you’re looking at one way to kick start your community-giving journey, I would recommend donating blood.

Support local farmers or small businesses

We are a country with a majority of farming backgrounds and aspiring youth entrepreneurs. It makes total sense for us to support these businesses and professions, but a ton of us are addicted to foreign brands and often forget to show our support to local businesses and local farmers.

You can do your part by supporting local farmers, buying homegrown edibles, and support local businesses. This will definitely enrich your community relations.

Share your pet with others

In a world filled with conditional support and love, pets are among a few things, that give us unconditional love and happiness.

If you are a pet owner, recognize someone in your community who is going through an emotional journey, make your pet a part of their journey.

Spending a few mins with a loving pet can help lighten their mental burden and put a smile on their face.

Many pets are trained to be therapeutic and emotional support. If you have the capability to get your pet trained in being emotional support, you can even donate your pet's time at the community hospitals.

Donate- Clothes, toiletries, food, books

Donating is a common community-giving activity that many of us have been part of. In a world that’s obsessed with consumerism, why not try and donate things that you no longer have the need for to the needy. You can donate clothes, toiletries, books to those who cannot afford them.

You can collectively donate as a community or you can do your part by donating a few things to people working around you and help them out.

Become an organ donor

Keeping aside the superstitions, donating your organs is considered a very noble act of community giving.

Sign up to become an organ donor and help those in need and influence people around you to do the same.

Donate to disaster relief

Living in a pandemic, all of us have understood and lived through disasters of many kinds, personal to each one of us. With first-hand knowledge of how a disaster feels like, one great way to give back to the community is by donating whatever you can to disaster relief and helping a person or a family in need.

Take part in fundraising and charity

Organize fundraising in your community or be part of one and contribute and influence others to contribute to these fundraisers.

Share your abilities or skills with others

Not all of us can afford to go to great schools and colleges to learn new skills and build new capabilities. If you recognize someone in your community that can benefit from your skills, please do share your knowledge with them, this will help in uplifting their lifestyle and help them gain knowledge.

Sharing knowledge is fun. You will get a sense of gratification for having helped someone in need.

Thank you for taking out time to read my blog. These are few ways you can give back to your community. Hope you guys try out a few. If you do try them out, do let us know.

Know someone who would enjoy this blog? Share the blog with them and help them build their community-giving journey.

Thank you for taking out time to read our blog as part of Stensor- The Mind Chapter. Do remember this is coming from our experiences only. This is purely from our journey towards mental health and wellbeing. We are Architects by profession, with a design initiative part of Stensor-The Design Chapter, where we help our audience/clients design beautiful living spaces to enhance their lifestyle. If you’re looking to revamp your spaces, feel free to reach out to us via email at contact@stensor.in or Click Here to know more.