Volunteering: How helping others helps you too

Volunteering is a great way to connect with others in the community and expand your social circle. 

For Leesa, volunteering at Connect Health & Community has improved her social confidence and made her a bunch of new friends. 

Leesa has written an article about her volunteering experience for Social September to help others come out of their comfort zone and start volunteering too. 

Leesa’s story

The benefits of volunteering have short-term and long-term effects socially. According to Psychology Today, social interaction improves physical and mental health allowing for better brain function and lowering depression and anxiety. 

I believe we should reconnect with each other through face-to-face social interaction to improve overall health and well-being.

Whilst some people are naturally outgoing, like me, others are shy and have a hard time meeting new people. Volunteering allows you to practice and develop social skills through meeting new people who have common interests. 

Once you have momentum, it's easier to branch out, make more friends and connect with people. 

Through volunteering at Connect Health & Community, I have been able to have a better social life and help out the community. 

In between helping out staff and clients at Connect Health & Community, I’m always walking from office to office, and having a chat with my colleagues. As someone who has been to speech therapy, socialising is very important to me because it helps my talking skills. 

The volunteer community is a wonderful social group to be a part of. If I see one of the volunteers feeling a bit off, I will go and have a chat with them to try and make them feel better and they do the same for me. 

The best things about volunteering at Connect Health & Community are: 

• Making new friends.
• Networking opportunities. 
• Having fun
• Helping clients and staff
• Feeling wanted in the community
• Learning skills and gaining work experience. 
• Improved physical and mental well-being. 
• Challenging yourself in a supportive community.
• Getting out of the house for a while. 

If you would like to join the Connect Health & Community volunteer team, meet new people and give back to the community, call us on (03) 9575 5333 or, visit https://connecthealth.org.au/about-us/volunteer-with-us/