The festive season can be a difficult one if you’re short of money. Whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, the Winter Solstice or Kwanzaa, or just taking advantage of a holiday break to spend time with loved ones, you may worry that you can’t afford to give the gifts or put on the party that you’d like to. You may also feel upset if you can’t respond to requests for donations for people in desperate need. In this situation, it’s important to remember that there are lots of ways you can do good in the world and make life brighter for others, even without money.
Donate your time
There are lots of organisations out there doing good work locally, nationally and internationally, and the vast majority of them are short-staffed. Even without any special skills, there are lots of things you can do to assist them. You could volunteer in a charity shop or your local place of worship. You could get involved in special events such as beach clean-ups or sponsored runs. You could hold a coffee morning in your home, get involved in a crafting project, or help local elderly or disabled people by providing services like shopping or dog walking. Even if your neighbourhood seems quiet, there’s always something going on. You can find volunteering opportunities online or ask around in the community.
Donate your skill
There are some skills that voluntary organisations are always short of. If you can offer assistance with finance, legal issues, translation, counselling or website maintenance, even if it’s just for a couple of hours a month, that could make all the difference to a small charity or non-profit. This can also benefit you by helping to keep your skills sharp if you’re not currently in a job where you can make use of them. And it’s not just professional skills that are in demand. If you can drive a van or minibus, or even just a car, you can be a huge help in all sorts of situations. If you have gardening skills, you can make a valuable contribution to land renewal projects. If you can sew, paint or do a bit of carpentry, you can help to recycle or upcycle used goods for resale.
Develop your own abilities
If you don’t feel that you have a useful skill to contribute at present, but you’d like to be in that position, why not spend you spare time improving your education? Organisations like EdX and Coursera offer high quality online courses for free, and as you build up your skills, you can immediately start using them to help those around you. A new language could help you to make small talk with lonely refugees. First aid skills could put you in a position to help accident victims, or to patch up your own kids when they get into scrapes. Learning statistics could help you to understand the realities behind political spin and explain them to your friends. Education might feel like it’s all about you, but it can benefit the whole community.
Getting it right
Whatever you feel inspired to help with, the first thing to keep in mind is that there is almost certainly somebody doing it already. Don’t waste your time and energy trying to reinvent the wheel. Find out where you can fit into an existing organisation – and keep in mind that if you can’t find one locally, there are always ways to get involved online. If you’re enthusiastic, it’s easy to over-commit, which will cause problems later on, so take your time and be realistic about what you can do. If you plan to contribute as part of a team, find people you can get along well with, as that will energise everybody. Just remember that experience counts for a lot, so when you’re new, make the effort to listen.
The politics of participation
Many people currently feel despair over the rise of the right, and over all the forms of human suffering that are taking place around the world on such a scale that it feels impossible to do anything about them. The important thing to remember is that while this is too much for any one individual to take on, many such individuals working together are the only thing that can bring about positive change. You don’t need to save the whole world. You only need to do your part. By getting involved in your local community or focusing your efforts on a particular issue where you have – or can develop – expertise, you can play an important role in solving the big problems. Fascism relies on ordinary people feeling overwhelmed and therefore becoming passive or apathetic. Every positive action that you take matters, regardless of the scale.
You matter too
In taking on this sort of work, it’s important to remember that you matter too. Indeed, if you don’t look after yourself, you’ll be useless to anyone else. So, rest when you need to, look after your mental health, and make room for a bit of beauty and joy in your life – these things are essential to being able to keep going.
Finally, if you feel that you can make a useful contribution by sharing your ideas or by raising awareness of an important issues, drop us a line here at Bylines Scotland. Media is also part of what needs to change to build a better world. That’s why we do what we do, and we’d love to have you as part of the team.
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