These Are 10 Ways You Can Help Your Community

Communities are essential for economic and social growth. Having strong neighborhood bonds makes you happier and gives you people to lean on during a crisis. Here are 10 ways you can help your community. 

Volunteer at Your Local Soup Kitchen

Soup kitchens are vital resources for homeless people and might even be the only meal they have that day. In fact globally, 820 million people are hungry. You can help to serve food or cook meals. 

If you want to work directly with people, you can greet regulars and welcome newcomers. Plus, you can meet various types of people, from veterans to children. It can allow you to connect with community members and be more accepting. 

Support Your Church

Churches often need volunteers, especially for community events. These activities usually require people to help organize and run them. You can also help during the service or sing in the choir. Many churches also offer mission trips. 

These are a great way to connect with others and help out struggling communities. For example, you could build homes or teach English in schools. These trips go to multiple places, such as Mexico or Costa Rica. 

Be a Summer Camp Counselor

Volunteering at a summer camp is a fun way to spend the summer. You can help assist children and even engage in fun activities, like swimming. You also have a chance to teach kids valuable skills, like maturity. 

Plus, it’s a fun way to bond with your campers and let out your inner child. If you went to that specific summer camp, it could even bring back fond memories. 

Tutor or Mentor a Child

If you have math or reading skills, then you can help students while earning some extra cash. Teaching can be a rewarding experience. You give the kid one-on-one attention and help them learn the material in their own way. 

As a tutor, determine the kids learning style, such as auditory or visual. If they are more visual, use graphs and images to explain complex materials. You can also mentor a student through programs like Big Pal to help them socially. Often these kids didn’t have a good role model growing up. 

Donate Items

Donations can give your items a new life while helping the planet. Give your things to thrift stores, shelters and charities. Goodwill and Salvation Army are popular options. Think about items you don’t use anymore, including clothes, blankets and shoes. 

Consider donating unwanted books as well. It can help parents who can’t afford children’s books or schools with lower budgets. Besides helping the community, it gives you an excuse to declutter. 

Clean Up Your Local Park

Organize a group of people to help pick up trash from the park. This debris can be carried into oceans and harm marine life. Plus, when the litter breaks down, it pollutes the air. Along with the park, collect trash along roadsides. 

Cleaning the place helps the environment and makes it more visually appealing. To enhance the park’s attractiveness, consider petitioning for a community playground. These help encourage physical activity and social interaction. 

Serve at a Homeless Shelter 

About 15,000 Pennsylvanians are homeless. These shelters give people a place to crash until  they figure out their situation. Giving your time can be a rewarding experience. You could cook food, clean common rooms or teach them a new language. 

If you want to work with children, you can do an arts and crafts project. Suppose you have a busy schedule during the week. Consider stopping by for a few hours on the weekend. 

Go to Your Local Senior Center

Many seniors don’t often receive visitors, especially with COVID-19 restrictions. Visiting can give the residents some company and brighten their day. It’s a great way to connect with your community and even hear interesting stories. 

You can also help with events, such as running bingo and exercise classes. If you enjoy this, consider volunteering at the facility for an extended time. You could bake goods or make cards as well.

Help Your Local Economy

To help your community grow financially, shop at local vendors. For example, get your produce from farmers’ markets instead of grocery stores. It helps the economy and gives you healthier choices. 

Also, shop local businesses for items like clothes and shoes. Look for family-owned businesses instead of retail chains. You might even want to start your own company or business if you have the time and resources. Then you can offer a product your community needs and create more jobs.

Conserve Energy

In 2015, we used about 575 quadrillion Btu of energy, straining communal resources and hurting the environment. Burning fossil fuel releases greenhouse gas emissions that pollute the air. To conserve energy, switch to renewable sources and use energy star-rated appliances. 

Here are some more simple ways to conserve energy:

● Turn off lights
● Use a fan instead of blasting air-conditioning
● Lower your water heater temperature
● Unplug electronics from your outlets

How to Help Your Community 

Communities need to support each other, especially during hard times. You also want to create a welcoming space for you and your family to live in. Consider trying some of these tips to make a difference in your community today. 

About The Author

Ava Roman (she/her) is the Managing Editor of Revivalist, a women’s lifestyle magazine that empowers women to live their most authentic life. When Ava is not writing you’ll find herin a yoga class, advocating for body positivity, whipping up something delicious in the kitchen, or smashing the patriarchy. 

Top 10 Apps That Can Help Fight Climate Change

Humans have had a negative impact on the environment. There is deforestation, waste in the ocean, and rising CO2 levels. Luckily, there are many things that we can do to reduce the effects on the environment. If you want to help fight global climate change, your smartphone can help you. Here are some apps that can assist you in this.

1. Milkywire:

This App allows you to support grassroots organizations worldwide. You will receive updates about the effects of your donation directly from the people on the ground. It’s an environmental sustainability platform that enables the optimization of your contribution, allowing you to get closer and observe your influence. Undoubtedly, this app is your way to make a difference to the environment.

Download these app and support the United Nations Global Goals. 

2.MathTappers:

This is a carbon choice App that educates you on the amount of Co2 you omit with specific actions and the carbon footprint you leave after you. Moreover, it tries to simplify climate change, CO2 emissions, and greenhouse gas emissions. Users begin by tracking their intake in four major areas over a period of a week (showers, entertainment, travel, and food).

3. Skeptical Science:

This app will make all skeptics tremble. The software provides the latest science to refute the arguments, misconceptions, and disinformation of people who refuse to acknowledge the existence of climate change. There are several graphs and figures featured throughout the app. Also, it gets regularly updated with new data, papers, and arguments which are based on primary scientific research.

The climate emergency necessitates action from all of us 

4. Voodoo Skies Normal or Not:

This App tells us if the weather is historically correct or not. It compares the present climate in a region to historical temperature and rainfall trends for that day in the past. It analyses the weather records’ database to do this. The App also provides a 5-day prediction and compares current forecasts to previous ones.

5.EnergySmart:

This British Gas app can keep your energy usage in check while on the go. It allows you to see how much it costs to leave your charging cable plugged in all the time or to leave the heaters on at night. Once you know your consumption, you can begin making changes to consume less and save more on your bills.

Save Money Support Environment 

6. Power Pup:

An Australian sea lion pup leads you on an energy adventure journey and an entertaining/educational world in this app. With this, learn energy-saving tips on protecting the oceans from climate change. Examine energy-saving techniques to help safeguard seas from the effects of climate change as you explore the Great Southern Oceans, evade foes, and race against rising water temperatures.

7. Commute Greener:

With this app, you can change your everyday commuting routine. It provides UK residents with different ways to measure carbon dioxide emissions emitted throughout their daily travel. For example, you can participate in commuting by car, bus, bicycle, or other means of transport. Also, to make it more enjoyable, you may earn points and even compete with friends.

Let us fight climate change together 

8. Chasing Ice:

The official app of the documentary film Chasing Ice. It is an audiovisual trip via nature photographer James Balog’s Extreme Ice Survey’s spectacular arctic findings. It squeezes years into seconds and captures mountains of Ice in motion as they melt at a surprising rate. Moreover, it uses groundbreaking time-lapse cameras to record multi-year records of the world’s shifting glaciers.

For a peaceful planet, let’s combat climate change 

9. Pollution:

Now you can track pollution with the help of technology. Furthermore, with an interactive map and a complete list of nearby fossil fuel plants, this app informs you about pollution levels in your neighbourhood. Moreover, it provides you with information on potential local health hazards while keeping you informed with regular database updates. This is an app for active environmentalists.

For every step counts, act now 

10.Climate Counts:

Concerned about climate change? With this app, put your money to work by supporting the right companies. Create a change by voting with dollars for every purchase! Companies are ranked based on how well they deal with climate change, so you may shop with the high scorers and send comments to the poor scorers pushing them to take climate action.

Bonus App AlertMe Energy: This App determines if your community is doing its part to reduce carbon emissions. Determine the average annual energy expenditure per home in your location, the amount of electricity/gas consumed, and the amount of carbon emitted. Then compare your borough to others in the UK regarding energy use and CO2 emissions, with the aid of the App.

Use apps, fight climate change, and save the world 

So, let us all make a difference and put our smartphones to excellent use today. Make minor modifications in daily habits, and soon we can lower our carbon impact and perhaps achieve carbon neutrality. Lastly, if we all work together to do this, we will surely better the environment around us. Fortunately for us, there are great Apps to tackle this.

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