(Help Your Local Soccer Community) 
Volunteering your time, money, or energy to help others doesn’t just improve the world but also makes you better. Studies indicate that giving back to the community boosts your happiness, health, and sense of well-being. Here are 10 benefits of lending a helping hand.
- Helping others feels good. There is some evidence to suggest that when you help others, it can promote physiological changes in the brain linked with happiness. This heightened sense of well-being might be the byproduct of being more physically active due to volunteering or because it makes us more socially active.
- It creates a sense of belonging. Helping others can help us to make new friends and connect with our community. Face-to-face activities such as volunteering at a food bank can also help reduce loneliness and isolation.
- It gives you a sense of purpose. Studies show that volunteering enhances an individual’s overall sense of purpose and identity. This is because helping others can make you feel rewarded, fulfilled, and empowered.
- Giving helps keep things in perspective. Helping others, especially those less fortunate than yourself, can help put things into perspective and make you feel more positive about your circumstances.
- It’s contagious. One study found that people are more likely to perform feats of generosity after observing another do the same. This effect can ripple throughout the community, inspiring dozens of individuals to make a difference.
- Helping others can help you live longer. Regular volunteering can improve your ability to manage stress and stave off disease and increase your sense of life satisfaction. This might be because volunteering alleviates loneliness and enhances our social lives.
- It will give you a sense of renewal. Helping others can teach you to help yourself. If you’ve been through a challenging experience or have a case of the blues, the “activism cure” is a great way to get back to feeling like yourself.
- You’ll boost your self-esteem. People who volunteer have been found to have higher self-esteem and overall well-being. The benefits of volunteering also depend on your consistency. So, the more regularly you volunteer, you’ll gain more confidence.
- You’ll create stronger friendships. When you help others, you give off positive vibes, which can rub off on peers and improve your friendships. Being a force for good in a friend’s life can help build a lasting bond.
- You become a glass-half-full type of person. Positively impacting someone else could help you change your outlook and attitude. Experts say that performing acts of kindness boosts your mood and ultimately makes you more optimistic.
Who can you serve? District – 7 or your local soccer community. 
What can you do to lend a helping hand today? Respond to John Hodgsons’ request for new ideas
