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Given the writing I do in and around politics, for people I know socially, I’ve occasionally become their political therapist—what’s actually worrying vs. what’s just a sensationalist headline, etc.
Needless to say, it has been a rough month. There is a lot to be worried about.
In this informal, unremunerated role as a political therapist, the question I’ve been getting most: “What can I be doing?”
Having thought about this a bunch, my answer: volunteer. And I don’t mean volunteer by knocking on doors for political candidates—that has its time and place. I mean helping neighbors and volunteering for organizations that do good work.
Why?
The most obvious: it’s important and does good. If you are worried about the impact that our government is having, as I am, this is a pretty direct way to counteract that. This isn’t resigning yourself to whatever is happening in Washington; to volunteer is to take a stand.
Volunteering makes you measurably happier and measurably more optimistic [ [link removed] ]. In a political landscape where there isn’t a lot to feel great about, it will literally make you feel better.
It’s measurably good for your health [ [link removed] ].
In a moment where people feel lonelier and more disconnected than ever, it’s a good way to build community and make friends.
Information on how to volunteer is at the bottom of this email [ [link removed] ].
The data on volunteering and charitable giving
The Census Bureau and AmeriCorps, I was surprised to learn, track how often Americans over the age of 16 say that they volunteer [ [link removed] ].
54% say they informally volunteer (at least once per year): helping a neighbor with groceries, offering free childcare, etc.
28% say they formally volunteer through an organization (at least once per year).
Volunteering peaked just after 9/11 [ [link removed] ]. It’s been declining since then, and although it’s recovered from lows during the pandemic [ [link removed] ], rates are roughly flat over the last eight years or so.
Studies very consistently find that conservatives are more charitable than liberals [ [link removed] ], a finding that should give liberals pause—and encourage them to find ways to get involved and volunteer.
Volunteering makes you happier, healthier, and live longer
People are happier when they volunteer more; that’s been reasonably well documented for a while now. The challenge, of course, is assessing causality: are people happier because they volunteer more? Or do they volunteer more because they’re happier?
It turns out that volunteering—causally!—makes you happier, according to a 20-year-long longitudinal study [ [link removed] ]. People who volunteer are also more optimistic [ [link removed] ].
The benefits extend to physical health too, and those who volunteer live longer [ [link removed] ], were less likely to develop high blood pressure [ [link removed] ], have decreased pain levels [ [link removed] ], and experience myriad other health benefits [ [link removed] ].
Volunteering builds community and makes people less lonely
Utah—which as I’ve written about, is a real outlier when it comes to all sorts of community-oriented outcomes [ [link removed] ]—has by far the highest rates of volunteering of any state in the country [ [link removed] ].
On the flipside, Nevadans help their neighbors at the lowest rate in the country [ [link removed] ]. What’s also notable about Nevada: only 27.2% of Nevadans were born in Nevada [ [link removed] ], by far the lowest of any state.
I’ve written about the crisis of loneliness [ [link removed] ] before—it is one of the most pressing issues of our time. And it is no accident that Nevada is the loneliest state in the country [ [link removed] ], at least by one measure. Obviously, lower rates of volunteerism aren’t the sole reason for that, but a lack of community—which ties into that lack of volunteerism—is a clear contributing factor.
It turns out that volunteering is a great way to meet people [ [link removed] ] who share your interests, values, and desire to do good. And sure enough, people who volunteer are less lonely [ [link removed] ]: volunteers are 29% less likely to say that they’re disconnected from their friends.
Volunteering does matter
This comes from a really terrific article in [ [link removed] ]Vox [ [link removed] ] by Rachel Cohen [ [link removed] ]:
Last fall, a reader asked me what they could really do, as one person, to aid people living on the streets. “I often feel helpless to enact change,” they wrote…
My mind immediately went to systemic solutions, like voting for candidates who prioritize building more housing, or supporting efforts to loosen zoning codes.
But when I called experts, their answers surprised me. Some of our ideas overlapped, but many of their suggestions [ [link removed] ] were ones I had admittedly not entertained: passing out socks or hand-warmers, donating items like sleeping bags to local shelters, or giving office supplies and bus passes to nonprofits serving unhoused people.
Cohen’s article—that for too many of us, charitable beliefs are a proper substitute for charitable giving and charitable deeds—is worth reading.
I’m not saying that agitating for policy change is unimportant; it’s very important. But giving back has an immediate and direct impact in a way that even good policy cannot. The overwhelming majority of nonprofit leaders [ [link removed] ] say that volunteers improve the quality of their services and programs.
Americans donate five billion hours of their time per year—the equivalent of $167 billion in value [ [link removed] ]. It may not be enough, but that’s pretty extraordinary.
How to volunteer
The simple answer: what are the causes you care about most? Reach out to those organizations; that survey I just mentioned (that found that most nonprofit leaders rely on volunteers) also say that they have far too few [ [link removed] ].
If you need help figuring out where to go, VolunteerMatch [ [link removed] ] is a great place to start. Beyond that:
For those of you in St. Louis, the United Way Volunteer Center [ [link removed] ] is a good resource. I thought r/StLouis [ [link removed] ] had two good threads too: this Reddit thread [ [link removed] ] and this separate Reddit thread [ [link removed] ].
For those of you elsewhere, reach out to local organizations you know and care about. This [ [link removed] ]AP [ [link removed] ] article [ [link removed] ] has some good guidance. And as above, searching your city’s local subreddit isn’t a bad place to look either.
I’ll speak for myself: I used to volunteer more and then fell off during the pandemic. I’m not alone in that regard [ [link removed] ], but at this point it’s a flimsy excuse—the pandemic started five years ago now.
There’s only so much I can do to change what’s happening in national politics. But this is something that can make a difference and make all of us feel better about the world and our communities.
I cannot think of a more worthy use of your time, or mine.
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