Local Heroes: Volunteering at Home

There's no end of environmental problems to be found in your community, state or country, but the trouble can be who to work with to solve them. As Chad Pregracke, founder of Living Lands and Waters knows, where others haven’t yet stepped in, it’s time to take the initiative. While diving for mussels in the Mississippi to pay his way through college, Pregracke despaired over the garbage piling up on the shoreline.  With the verve of youth, Pregracke took it upon himself to clean up the Mississippi, starting with a flat-bottom skiff and building himself up to a fleet of barges and a host of paid staffers and interns.  As Pregracke says, his organization has grown so large, “it’s almost unmanageable now with all the balls up in the air.” But that’s not stopping him from planting 100,000 trees this fall and planning to dredge Sturgeon Bay, Illinois. (For more on Living Lands and Waters, see “Earth Day Reading.”)

For help starting your own project, the non-profit Do Something provides ideas, tools, and small grants for under 25s.  “If something is making you mad, chances are it’s making your friends mad also,” says Nancy Lublin, CEO and “chief old person” for Do Something, adding,  “Find those other kids, get just 4 or 5 students, and you can really make a significant difference.” Pregracke’s book, From the Bottom Up (National Geographic , 2007, $26),  also provides many valuable ideas about starting and financing a non-profit volunteer program and ends with an appendix of 13 tips to “start your own crusade.”  For more information about starting your own program (as well as joining others) see Youth Venture (www.genv.net), which has an entrepreneurial focus, and Global Youth Action Network (www.youthlink.org), which assists local and international volunteer groups to develop collaborative projects. 

Of course, not everyone has the time or the drive for a crusade. To find local environmental organizations in need of volunteers, start with online databases (listed below), and see what opportunities your area has to offer. As with any job, however, networking is the most important thing to do. Friends and family, church and community groups, and your school’s career center can provide you with some great contacts you didn’t even know they had. Non-profit organizations are notoriously understaffed and overworked, so often volunteer opportunities go unadvertised, and the follow-up process is up to you.

In choosing your job, think about what is really important and motivating to you, and be open with your supervisor about what work you most enjoy. Although larger organizations offer name recognition, you will likely have more of an opportunity for real work if you stick to smaller, locally-focused organizations.