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Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?

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Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?

#61

Post by hprotagonist »

ben509 wrote: post #43
Matticus_Rex wrote: post #22

Donating money is almost always more valuable than donating time, especially if you're not going to donate a lot of time. The time may feel better (or it may not -- I've had volunteer gigs where I didn't feel I could accomplish much, and that sucks), but the money is more useful.

The economic consideration comes down to the real value of the labor, and that depends heavily on the economic benefits of specialization. A day of you doling out soup to people or picking up trash won't be worth any more than what someone who does it for a living is paid. And it will probably be substantially less because you're not practiced at it. A day of you building houses (assuming you have no training) could…

>But otherwise, if in other contexts it'd be a waste of your time, it's still a waste of your time when donating,

Is it?

[We] seem incapable of stating the obvious truth: that we who are well off should be willing to share more of what we have with poor people not for the poor people's sake but for our own; i.e., we should share what we have in order to become less narrow and frightened and lonely and self-centered people David Foster Wallace

Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?

#62

Post by reureu »

kendallpark wrote: post #46

On the contrary, I use volunteer work as a time to take a break from tech. In the past I've volunteered as elementary school classroom help, tutored students of various ages, and coached line for a local high school football team. Yes, as tech workers, we have the ability to use our valuable skills pro bono. But I think it can also be beneficial to step out of the tech bubble and integrate with the rest of non-tech s…

I agree! I think my volunteer experiences doing non-technical work have made me a better communicator and more well-rounded developer. It’s also let me find a community and friendships outside of work (those all-too-rare post-30 new friends). I would hypothesize that volunteering in a capacity orthogonal to your work would have stronger mental health benefits than just doing your job but without being paid.

Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?

#64

Post by nicthesailor »

Mercy Ships is always looking for technical people. The job list is at https://apply.mercyships.org/CurrentOpportunities.aspx

Mercy Ships do free operations for people in Africa. The ship's crewed entirely by volunteers. If you're willing to give a chunk of time, it's both fun and rewarding.

Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?

#65

Post by yjhoney »

xwowsersx wrote: post #55
yjhoney wrote: post #13

Just started a coding bootcamp at a public library to teach ppl how to code: https://www.meetup.com/San-Jose-C0D3 Librarians love it when tech people come in to help. They don't have technical skills and most techies don't seem to think about volunteering at the library. My goal: To help local libraries provide a free coding bootcamp to anybody who wants to learn. Libraries are a beautiful place. They don't discrimin…

Love this. How did you gather interest and get this going?

Last year, a librarian reached out to me asking if I could run a program because they are getting alot of requests for tech education and they didn't have resources. That got me thinking... hey maybe its possible to help the library start a free coding bootcamp, open and accessible to all.

All it takes is to create a meetup account and schedule something! People will come.

The hardest part is to stick to a consistent schedule so people know when / how to find you for help. This usually means saying no to regular social events that your friends may invite you to.

Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?

#66

Post by yjhoney »

kendallpark wrote: post #50
yjhoney wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah last year we did it for 3 months as a pilot program. It was a little messy, but the librarians loved it. I took about a year break to think hard about how it could be more effective and came up with a self-guided curriculum and then launched this yesterday! I plan to start small (intentionally so) to build a core group of students and then slowly grow from there. Over the past year The more senior students will…

Please write up your experiences! What works? What doesn't work? How are you structuring the program? Your idea is fantastic and I think documentation would useful for others that might want to implement something similar.

Definitely! I'm still in the process of learning and figuring this out, I'll write something after this goes on for awhile. The last thing I want to do is start something, write about it like I know what I'm talking about, then stop doing it.

Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?

#67

Post by Matticus_Rex »

hprotagonist wrote: post #61
ben509 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The economic consideration comes down to the real value of the labor, and that depends heavily on the economic benefits of specialization. A day of you doling out soup to people or picking up trash won't be worth any more than what someone who does it for a living is paid. And it will probably be substantially less because you're not practiced at it. A day of you building houses (assuming you have no training) could…

>But otherwise, if in other contexts it'd be a waste of your time, it's still a waste of your time when donating, Is it? [We] seem incapable of stating the obvious truth: that we who are well off should be willing to share more of what we have with poor people not for the poor people's sake but for our own; i.e., we should share what we have in order to become less narrow and frightened and lonely and self-centered p…

If that's the goal, only a small subset of volunteer work is a good way to achieve it.

Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?

#69

Post by lcall »

ryanmercer wrote: post #36

I'd probably give https://www.justserve.org/ a look. See what is near you that's listed, if any of the specific organizations interest you hit their websites and look for someone to reach out to locally or at a higher level (if applicable) to see if your specific skills might be used in a volunteer capacity.

Additionally at that site, organizations can sign up to then recruit volunteers.

Re: Ask HN: Best ways to volunteer?

#70

Post by hprotagonist »

Matticus_Rex wrote: post #67
hprotagonist wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But otherwise, if in other contexts it'd be a waste of your time, it's still a waste of your time when donating, Is it? [We] seem incapable of stating the obvious truth: that we who are well off should be willing to share more of what we have with poor people not for the poor people's sake but for our own; i.e., we should share what we have in order to become less narrow and frightened and lonely and self-centered p…

If that's the goal, only a small subset of volunteer work is a good way to achieve it.

it's _a_ goal. it's not the only one.
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