Is reading important to you? Get involved with a local library organization or teach literacy.

Political Volunteering is fun. You get to talk to people about the views of the candidate you support and even debate some people about certain topics.

If you like kids, you can read to them at school.

I volunteer at my local library. They're always short staffed.

Special events can be a lot of fun!! Just google your city and find special events. they always need volunteers and sometimes if your lucky it will involve some perks!

maybe you could be a big brother or big sister to a young kid? or you could volunteer at a local concert or music event?

Habitat For Humanity is a great way to help. I have also seen local comunity events, like working in neighborhoods that really help. A religious organization might also suggest ideas. I think it's great that you care enough to want to volunter.

Start with your local community...it is YOUR community, you have a right to take charge! Find out what is lacking and start a groundswell to rectify it. If you see something that needs taking care of, start an organization ...you'll probably be surprised at how many people will join you. I live in a small town in Victoria, Australia, and over the past few years we have researched, funraised, applied for grants and been successful in building a new Community Centre, a Medical Centre which we lease out to medical practitioners, a second block of public toilets, a skate park, formed a community choir which travels round entertaining at nursing homes, formed a local branch of a community bank, and now there is a committee working towards establishing a retirment/nursing facility for our town. The most important thing to remember with volunteering though, is that when it is no longer fun you must give it away. There will always be someone else able to take over from you....and you'll be free to explore some other possibility! Good luck with it, volunteering is good stuff!

How about a nursing home? Look for an "ARC" organization... they are usually named after their respective states with chapters in each county. You help people with learning disabilities, it's a VERY rewarding experience once you get into it :)

I volunteer at my church. They always need help - you can do something steady like teach a religion class, or you can just volunteer for special events like dinners, fundraisers, and fairs.

Walk around your area and pick up trash. You get exercise and clean up the world at the same time. You wouldn't believe the feeling it gives you!

public library, free clinic, community center, political. Check the calendar section of your local paper under VOLUNTEERS NEEDED.

Volunteer at a daycare or school to read stories or something.

I worked at a couple of non-profit thrift shops. You just put out merchandise and sweep..no emotion involved, but still a great cause!

volunteer with the Red Cross. When I was in college, I volunteered a lot through the Red Cross and usually I worked at a soup kitchen or a food warehouse.

Sorry, but I can't resist tying this in with your earlier question about positive thinking... Life includes suffering. Lots of people suffer, lots of animals suffer. The volunteer opportunities which make a difference, in my opinion, are those that put YOU closer to the suffering, where you can help. That means they're often not feel-good undertakings. It can be painful to work with terminal patients, or abused children, or unwanted animals. Their pain spreads around and gets onto you. But something else happens too, if you can stay engaged and not try to escape the suffering-by-proxy: you get grounded in your own natural compassion and ability to connect with others, and that can be quite satisfying. Life will always hurt, and no amount of positive thinking or trying to shield ourselves from pain will be effective: you have to confront it for what it is, and learn to make peace with it. When someone stops trying to positive-think it away, stops trying to escape from the suffering, and just stands their ground with a commitment to be themselves and make a difference, there's a subtle transformation: life still hurts, but it's OK. At a deeper level, it's OK.

Hasn't Been has a marvelous answer - I'd take it to heart. In the meantime, if you want to start slower, the Habitat for Humanity is a good way to get exercise and avoid bad news.

What are your skills? If you can read well, you could do it for children at a library or at some hospitals for the children. If you can cook or serve food, a food kitchen is a great place to volunteer. If you are good with makeup and fashion, there might be a place for you in helping homeless or jobless people get makeovers so they will look better for job interviews. You could translate for some language groups, even sign language. You could work at a zoo or parks are.

North American Riding for the Handicapped http://narha.org/ Check the website for a chapter near you. This organization does therapuetic riding and hippotherapy to help kids and adults with disabilities. Horseback riding mimics walking and uses the same muscles in the same way. It is very useful for teaching kids with disabilities to walk. Horses also have a unique ability to stimulate kids to talk and to help kids with Autism learn to connect. Each student requires a horse, a leader and two sidewalkers (people who walk beside them to stabilize them and help them to do therapy exercises). So this is a very volunteer intensive organization. It takes a lot of manpower to staff a class of 6 or 8 kids. They also need volunteers to care for the horses, tack up and prepare for class, staff the office and staff fundraisers.

Check out this website for some ideas: http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/getactive/index.html

There are some other places that are open to volunteering in a support function - like for instance, in fundraising, or admin or IT support. Hope that helps some. :)

Our local no-kill animal shelter always needs people to walk the dogs.

I used to work in a hospital and we had lots of volunteers coming in to sort patient records, filing, etc. We were really thankful for them coming to help us.

The S.P.C.A is always looking for volunteers. Hope this helps!

just Google volunteering in a bunch of stuff will come up in your area