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Congratulations Community Action Services for being published in Thrive Global.

Published by:

Sara Davis, Thrive Global

March 5, 2018

Two years ago, Lauren was pretty happy—and busy—with her career and personal life, but felt like something was missing. When she read a local news story about a program that matched mentors with people pulling themselves out of poverty, something clicked. She started volunteering with the Circles program, and it changed her life, and the lives of people in her community.

Lauren is one of the 24.9 percent of Americans who volunteer, according to the latest data, contributing 7.9 billion hours of service every year. In Utah, which has the highest volunteer rate in the country, 43.2 percent of residents spend time volunteering. They make programs like Circles and other services for people in need, successful.

The obvious advantage of volunteering is feeling good about giving back or helping someone. But the benefits of volunteering go well beyond that and will change your life. Becoming a volunteer will impact your health, deepen or change connections and even help your career.

Health

Believe it or not, volunteering will improve your mental and physical health, and you may even live longer. Research done over the last few decades shows that there’s a strong relationship between health and volunteering. Some of the studies, though, indicate that people need to volunteer around 100 hours per year or more to get the most health benefits.

Read the full article in THRIVE.