Sober living often involves attending meetings and possibly sponsoring others who are also in recovery. For many people in recovery, participating in various activities, such as helping out at meetings is a great way to “stay busy” and focus on recovery. One of the things learned through attending 12 step meetings is that helping others is an important step in maintaining your sobriety. Although there are a number of opportunities to help others who are in recovery, there are also a number of volunteer projects you can do outside of meetings that will not only help to strengthen your recovery but will provide you with the meaningful pleasure that is found from helping others. Here a few ways you can volunteer and provide service to the community.
Spend the Day With Seniors
Spending the day with the elderly is not only a rewarding experience for you, but it is a great way to gain perspective from the views of others. There is a host of ways to provide service to the elderly. For example, you can go to an elderly residential center and spend time doing crafts, reading or simply engaging in conversation. Even stopping in to have a snack and watch a television show with an elderly person is a rewarding experience for both people involved.
Donate Your Time to a Shelter
Whether it is serving a meal at a homeless shelter or playing a game with the children at a women and children’s center, your service will not only be greatly appreciated, but you will also find this type of volunteering to be extremely rewarding. To volunteer at a shelter, make sure to call the shelter first to inquire about the volunteering process, some shelters, such as a shelter for women and children of abuse, may require a background check, which may take a few days for approval. Homeless shelters are a great way to provide service in ways other than serving meals, for example, you can have a charity drive to collect clothing, blankets and personal items that can be dropped off at a local shelter.
Volunteer for the Environmental
If you want to volunteer your time, but prefer to do something for the environment, consider donating your time to cleaning up a park or get involved in planting trees in local neighborhood areas. If you enjoy working with your hands, a meaningful way to provide your service to families in need is through an organization such as Habitat for Humanity.
These are only a few ways you can provide service to the community while in recovery. Sober living doesn’t necessarily mean you only have to provide services to those who are also in recovery. Simply step outside of the box, get creative and volunteer doing something you wouldn’t typically do. Learning new things is a part of sober living and what better way to learn than through helping others.
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