10 ways to give back to your community this Christmas
There are various ways to give back during these testing economic times, whether voluntary or paid, winter or summer or out in the rain or snow - there are those in need who are praying for divine help to help them alleviate tough times and circumstances. Life happens and many face sudden unemployment, delays in payments and sanctions. Here are some practical and wonderful ways you can aid those in need:
Timebanking; this is where you give someone an hour of your time and in return, you can have an hour of someone else’s time.
Skill sharing; checkout platforms like Make Good Grow, that enable companies and individuals to share their skills for free with charitable organisations. What skills could you or your business offer to your community?
Neighbourhood clean ups; no one can deny how walking or running through clean environments is often taken for granted. Both the efforts of council contractors and ‘do-gooder’s who pick up trash, neighbours who wash and clean beyond their boundaries and many unknown all contribute to making our streets a more pleasant place to live.
Donate Blood; giving blood ‘saves lives’ according to the NHS. Community giving doesn’t only have to be local. But can also refer to those acquiring emergency and long term treatments far away. Donating just one pint of blood can save more than one person’s life; it can also reveal potential health problems, reduce harmful iron stores and more. Of course there are some exempt from giving blood but you can register to give blood to enquire more here: https://my.blood.co.uk/preregister
Befriending the elderly; they may be a few doors away or even further adrift; yet there’s likely senior figure that one can help keep company or help them out with daily tasks like cooking or cleaning, your presence could have a big impact
Learning CPR; Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is one of the most priceless skills that any of us will ever learn. These skills could save someone’s life one day, and we might find ourselves needing to use them in the most unexpected circumstances.
Donating Stuff; it’s not only a wonderful thing to upcycle and recycle waste but stuff too as you could be helping someone in need. Why not donate unwanted items to charity shops, or contributing unused food to a food bank.
Switching Careers; this often catches people off guard. But what use is it working within a place where you feel consistently stressed, negative or unhappy? Why not change to a role more service orientated? It will help tremendously both for you and those you’ve been called to serve.
Support a community fridge or food bank; organisations such as hubbub (https://www.hubbub.org.uk/the-community-fridge) have a community fridge and most of us are aware of a food bank nearby. These small but powerfully effective projects help many individuals and families in crisis.
Donate unwanted gifts; £5 billion is wasted in the UK on unwanted gifts and thus it can only make sense not only to remember to reuse and recycle what you can to extend the life of forest resources for as long as possible but also to give away newly received gifts that would otherwise end up in the bin.
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Bloom Money is a FinTech company that empowers communities in the UK with tools to build generational wealth and gives you the tools to save with your community in a safe, ethical way. Our app ‘Bloom Circles’ makes it easy for your friends and family, colleagues and community to build communal wealth and of course; we invite you to join �� �� ��when the app is released next year in Jan 2022. Join our Bloom Circles app waiting list here
