If you’ve been considering a company outing and are trying to decide on something that would be fun, good for team bonding, and would like to help your local community, then consider various volunteering programs as a way to give back while bringing your team together.
Just recently, we at Hybridge decided to give back to our local community and volunteered at the St. Vincent De Paul Society of San Francisco. We assisted during the dinner service in general set-up, assembling the food and drinks, manually handing out the food and drinks, and general clean-up of the cafeteria. This experience was fun, enriching and allowed us to give back to the community. It had the added benefit of inducing some happy and helpful team bonding as we had to work together in a fast-paced close-quarters environment where we were all out of our element. It was great to see our CEO cleaning tables and pitching in side by side with the rest of the team. It led to people sharing personal stories that helped get to know each other better. We’ve chosen to do this as a company on a regular basis and we continue to get more out of the experience every time. We highly recommend you explore these types of outings for your team if you are not already doing so.
There are also companies whose business is to craft volunteering outings for other companies. However, there are a lot of entities who would be happy to have your help and already have a structure in place to do that. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Animal Shelters – Local animal shelters, such as the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA are always looking for volunteers, and who doesn’t like helping out animals?
- Homeless Shelters/Food Pantries – Helping people locally who have fallen on tough times with various efforts is a very nice way of giving back to the community. A food pantry such as the Second Harvest Food Bank or a shelter such as the St. Vincent De Paul Society that Hybridge volunteered at.
- Retirement Homes – Retirement homes usually have volunteering opportunities with a wide range of tasks from food service to even something such as teaching a class to senior citizens.
- Habitat for Humanity – The Habitat for Humanity offers the opportunity to put your physical skills to the test and assist in home repair, building maintenance, and general construction.
- Red Cross – You don’t have to be the one giving blood! The American Red Cross offers a large range of volunteering positions for anyone looking to help.
