Blog post 2-part 2

I have done some community service in the past, and in some ways volunteering with Positive Impact has a lot in common with those experiences. For one thing, I have the same sense of satisfaction in volunteering to help a non-profit organization and the community. Even though the project is one that I’ve been forced by school to undergo as a class requirement, I still am proud to be involved with Positive Impact. Another similarity to other volunteer organizations I have worked with is the people-they are all incredibly interesting, determined and positive people. The people I have met at Positive Impact all energize and inspire me, just like most other people I have worked with that are heavily involved in community service.
My experience so far with Positive Impact has also differed greatly in many ways from my previous volunteering experiences. The largest difference is the amount of freedom our group has in our work. Positive Impact has provided us with the background information we need, and made us feel fairly at home with the organization. They have also provided us a direction in which to direct our energies. Despite this, we are given a broad set of goals and left free to our own devices during a large part of our volunteer hours. The members of Positive Impact we are working with seem very confident in our abilities and so far have allowed us to direct ourselves during our week. At this point in the project we seem to be meeting or exceeding all of our goals so I see this trend continuing. Perhaps we will be given even more free reign as we continue working with the organization. I would have to say that the goals of the organization differ a lot with this organization than the others I have worked with when I was younger. HIV/Aids is a sensitive subject in our society and one that young people aren’t often exposed to. During my other experiences with community service I worked with much less touchy issues.
I believe I am learning some valuable lessons by taking a more professional role in volunteering with Positive Impact. For one thing, the project is helping to reemphasize the importance of punctuality, hard work, and using time valuably. I am also soaking in the incredible effort that it is to run an organization like Positive Impact. For such a small organization it requires an incredible amount of work. I’ve learned more about what exactly people like social workers, counselors and psychologists do and how they help others. I’ve also learned about the importance of privacy for those served by Positive Impact. I hope that as we work with Positive Impact I can continue to learn more about the organization and what’s required of a non-profit service organization.