Get Involved - it's great for you!

Have you ever thought about volunteering but not known where to start? Maybe you have the honest and very human thought of "but what's in it for me?"

The evidence on volunteering and mental health is consistent and, by now, substantial. Across multiple studies, people who volunteer score higher on measures of self-assessed wellbeing, self-esteem, happiness, and life satisfaction than those who don't, and volunteering is associated with lower symptoms of depression and anxiety. Volunteeringstrategy One large UK study tracked nearly 70,000 people over almost two decades and found that people who had volunteered in the past year were more satisfied with their lives and rated their overall health as better — and those who volunteered at least once a month reported better mental health than those who volunteered infrequently or not at all. Greater Good

It's not just about mood. Volunteering as an intervention in itself is supported by clear health benefits to the volunteer, particularly improved mental health and reduced mortality. PubMed Central Researchers have found these benefits hold from adolescence across the lifespan Springer — this isn't something that only kicks in at retirement.

A lot of it comes down to something simple: connection. Volunteering gets you out of your own head and into a shared task with other people. Rural isolation is a real and documented problem in communities like Huntly, and giving time to something local is one of the most direct antidotes to it. When we help others, we tend to experience what researchers call a "warm glow" — volunteering is intrinsically rewarding, and it helps boost our sense of social connection. Greater Good

Here at Greener Huntly we get it. Life is busy and for many of us we think that volunteering is something that we might do when we're older, or when we have more time. It's a "one day" luxury set aside for if you ever have the spare time. With Greener Huntly you don't have to wait for that. If you join us you can pitch in whenever suits you. Throughout the year we have events and community projects that you could join for just a day, or a week, or longer. You can often bring the family and friends along and make the whole thing a bit of social fun. You can use it as an excuse to meet new people and build new networks. You won't need any special skills or tools because you can learn everything you need as you go.

If this sounds like something you'd be inerested in why not start by dropping us an email at greenerhuntly@gmail.com and sign up for our newsletters. We won't bombard you with things or put any pressure on you but you will get emails about upcoming opportunities to pitch in.

You might also want to join our online Growing Hub. Here you can find articles about growing and join the chat with likeminded folk.

Happy growing, and we hope to see you soon!

Katrina and Dawn