Why Volunteer?

Helping Feels Good!

Volunteering for Athol Kindness Connection not only benefits the person requesting assistance, it provides mental and physical health benefits for the volunteer, too!

According to AARP, volunteering:

• Generates a sense of purpose and fulfillment—and increases your self-confidence while you’re at it!
• Keeps you physically and mentally active. A study released by Johns Hopkins University in 2009 revealed that volunteers actually increased their brain functioning. Volunteer activities get you moving and thinking at the same time.
• Reduces stress levels. Volunteers often report feeling a sense of meaning and appreciation—both given and received—which can be calming.
• Decreases your risk of depression. Volunteering with and for others increases social interaction and helps build a support system based on common commitment and interests—both of which have been shown to decrease depression.
• Creates “The Happiness Effect.” You know that great feeling you get after a vigorous workout? It comes from a release of dopamine in the brain. Helping others has that exact same effect—so the more you volunteer, the happier you become!

Make New Friends!

Many volunteers form close relationships with those they help. When there are especially good matches between members and volunteers, members may ask for the same volunteers to return often! Genuine friendships form. This is one of the most wonderful benefits of volunteering with Nashoba Neighbors.

Help Your Community!

Even though some community groups, like our local Councils on Aging, offer varied services, it is not enough. Volunteering helps address current gaps in service for our seniors.  Your time spent volunteering helps create a model, locally, of mutual support and care.  You are also helping our organization and our wider community reimagine what aging can look like.

Flexible Times and Tasks!

Our volunteers select the type of assistance they will provide and when.  When you volunteer for Athol Kindness Connection, you choose the days and times when you are available, as well as the kinds of tasks you feel most qualified to do and that interest you.

Emails are sent to volunteers with information on member requests. Volunteers select the requests they will fulfill based on their availability. Most activities are about 2 hours in duration.

Athol Kindness Connection would not exist without our volunteers. We are an all-volunteer organization and rely on those who are willing to donate their talents and time to assist their neighbors – frequently people they do not even know.  Our volunteers do it because they care about others and want to contribute. They create a strong network of resources that enables our older residents to stay connected to the people and activities that are important to them.   

We welcome volunteers, ages 18 and older, and members of every race, color, gender identification, faith, sexual orientation, and cultural group.