On both a social and personal level, only good things can come out of getting involved in volunteering. People with different kinds of vulnerabilities or challenges, either in your local community or further afield, get some much needed help; and not only do you as an individual get a great feeling of satisfaction from helping others, but you also get something you can use on your CV or university application.

It’s a shame, then, that more young people don’t get involved in volunteering. It’s certainly not through a lack of motivation to either help others or do something to enhance their career prospects. Rather, it’s usually because people who don’t have the direct connections to a charitable initiative don’t know where to begin asking around. Very often it’s the personal connections that get people involved with causes, and without these it can seem sometimes like you’d just have to pick a charity at random.

But would doing that even be such a good thing? The answer is definitely no. There’s very few charities out there that don’t need people, and there’s even fewer that don’t do something that the vast majority of human beings would regard as highly worthwhile.

So, not having any experience of the walks of life that a local charity is involved with shouldn’t be a barrier to getting involved with the great work they do. Or, to put it another way, people with no pets are just as welcome to help out at the RSPCA as people with a living room full of cats!

Still, even knowing that any local charity would welcome your help still doesn’t change the fact that many people still feel a bit self-conscious about pitching up somewhere and offering their assistance. They need an invitation first.

That’s fine; most polite people don’t do things unless invited to do so. Good on you. However, those invitations won’t be sent to you in a gilt-edged envelope. You’ve got to know where to look for them. Here are three places we suggest.

At your school or college

Schools and colleges usually have at least some sort of connection with local charities, whether of a direct or indirect nature. They might have established fundraising relationships with charities–in which case there will be events organized by your school you can get involved with, perhaps even in some sort of organizing capacity–or your school will be involved with schemes such as Duke of Edinburgh, which offer volunteering opportunities.

Community and volunteering centres

Many towns and cities have dedicated centres that serve as the community’s point of contact with local charities. Again, these are a great place to go if you want to find out about volunteering opportunities where you live. Just google ‘volunteering centre’ and the name of your town.

Noticeboards in shops

Although adverts on noticeboards have to an extent been replaced by the Internet, they’re still to be found in many different businesses. Supermarkets usually have them, as do newsagents. They’re prime spots for charities to put up their adverts for volunteers.

Listings websites

Although you should always be very careful about what you sign up for online, there are some websites that are exclusively for charities to advertise volunteering opportunities that they have. www.do-it.org.uk is one great example of this.