Aristotle once mused “What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.” Research shows that volunteering is good for both body and mind and it’s also good for your multifamily community. Volunteering will develop a sense of community, purpose and connection among your residents — Talk about a retention strategy! Let’s take a look at 3 ways you can help residents to give back to the community.
Take the Service to Them
Making service opportunities convenient for renters will result in a higher likelihood of their participation. This can be accomplished by bringing community service right to their front door — or at least their apartment community.
There are a variety of projects you can bring to your residents, including book, clothing or canned food drives. Host a blood drive and provide snacks and drinks to renters who participate. These of course are just a few ideas.
Take Them to the Service
There’s no service without sacrifice. However, it’s sometimes that element which makes service so rewarding for volunteers.
Give your renters opportunities to sacrifice their time by inviting them to attend service projects at other locations. Make t-shirts for your community and get together a group to volunteer at the local food bank. Find a project on justserve.org and advertise it to your residents.
With a large number of elderly people in Arizona, a great service opportunity is to volunteer at a nearby senior living center. Comfort those who are combating illness by forming a hospital singing group. They don’t need to have good voices, just good hearts. The patients will surely appreciate it either way! You could even suggest that the dog owners in your community sign up their pets to act as comfort/therapy animals in the hospital for an hour or two each week.
Help Them Serve Each Other
Residents will also obtain a rewarding experience by participating in opportunities to serve one another. Do you have residents who are painters, photographers, or have other unique skills? Periodically hold an informal class where these residents can give their fellow renters tips and tricks to develop a certain skill themselves. Do you have any renters who are in a band? Perhaps they could perform an outside concert once in a while, provided they’re actually good of course. Getting to know your renters is the best way to discover unique talents and skills that could benefit or interest other renters.
What have you done at your property to give back to the community? Join the conversation!
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Taylor Fish
Taylor is a staff writer for Multihousing Friends and a student at Brigham Young University.