Join Serve Albany to Find Nearby Volunteer Opportunities in Albany, NY
Volunteer. Connect With Others. Feel Awesome.
From mentoring students to cleaning up trails and participating in food drives, there are so many great ways you can volunteer in the City of Albany. To help connect people with local volunteer opportunities, Christ's Church Albany established Serve Albany, a nonprofit group that makes it easy to find places where you can serve and make a difference.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is especially important as volunteers are needed more than ever to support the Albany community. Would you like to donate your time to a good cause? Read on to learn more about Serve Albany, the benefits of volunteering, and how to get involved today.
Together, We Can All Make an Impact Through Volunteering
Giving back to the community has always been a core part of Christ's Church Albany, a nondenominational church in Albany, NY. For them, church is about bringing people together to make a difference in other people's lives and in our world. To further this mission, they created a Serve Albany webpage and public Facebook group.
"Nonprofits need an easy place to list and share their volunteer needs," Jonathan Hentrich, senior pastor and co-founder of Christ's Church Albany, told us. "Potential volunteers want an easy way to find volunteer opportunities. The Serve Albany group makes both of those easy."
Any local group or organization in need of volunteers is welcome to join and share upcoming volunteer opportunities and events on Serve Albany's Facebook page.
Serve Albany Provides an Essential Link Between Nonprofits & Volunteers
Pre-COVID-19, Christ's Church Albany hosted an annual volunteer festival in Albany called Ignite, which was their main way of introducing people to the area's nonprofit organizations. However, due to the pandemic, they could not organize this event at a time when nonprofits needed help to provide critical services to the community.
As a result, Christ's Church Albany focused their efforts on Serve Albany and used their Facebook group to, as Hentrich explained, "promote all kinds of needs and link volunteers with places to serve." Some examples include:
- Unpacking food and products donated to local charity Feed Albany
- Packing meals for Albany City Schools
- Assisting local food drives
- Delivering groceries to families in Albany
- Sharing donation needs/nonprofits' Amazon Wish Lists
- Highlighting volunteer work at nonprofit organizations, such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Capital Area
Their Facebook page features volunteer opportunities both big and small, and any amount of free time you can spare is greatly appreciated.
Discover How Helping Others Is the Best Way to Live
Serve Albany believes that "while the problems facing the people in our city aren't that unique, we are in a unique position to make an impact - we live here!" The group has linked hundreds of volunteers with places where they can serve in the Albany area.
And, volunteering doesn't just make the community a better place, it also has some surprising personal benefits that can make it extremely fulfilling. If you're feeling isolated during this period of social distancing, a volunteer position is an amazing way to meet new people, develop skills, and have fun outside of your day-to-day routine.
Not only that, but volunteering gives you a sense of purpose and accomplishment, and you can feel good about contributing to a worthwhile cause. Serve Albany exists to help you find the perfect opportunity near you.
Visit Serve Albany's Page & Get Started
Are you ready to volunteer? Check out Serve Albany's Facebook page to browse the latest volunteer opportunities from local nonprofits. Or, if you're an organization in need of volunteers, you can use the page to share all of the relevant details about the position.
Take the next step and become a volunteer today!