HUMAN SERVICES? ... THAT'S SO REWARDING

by Gail S. Bernstein, Ph.D.
When Diana sat down with her friends at their college reunion, she heard all about their careers. One was a lawyer, one owned a business, one was a computer systems analyst. Diana left feeling frustrated and disillusioned. She chose to be a probation officer so she could help people. However, the problems she faces are overwhelming, and the rewards are few and far between.
If you work in one of the human services, you probably want to help people. That's a good reason for choosing the work you do, but it's not very specific. It's important to know what makes you want to come to work every day, especially for people in human services. We often get mixed messages from the world at large about the worth of what we do. Most of us have been told, "That must be so rewarding," or "you must have so much patience." Those comments usually mean "I don't understand why you want to work so hard for so little money," or "It must be so awful to spend your days with people who are down and out."
People who work as helpers need to be able to identify the nonmonetary rewards they get from their work. That's important because monetary rewards will always be in short supply. However, sometimes people in human services feel guilty about wanting to get self-satisfaction from their work.
Those guilty feelings are unfortunate because there's nothing wrong with wanting to like the work you do. There are many different ways to help, and some people are not equally well-suited for all of them. It makes sense to look for work that is both satisfying personally and helpful to others.
Every career has both advantages and disadvantages. Some of what you do will be rewarding, and some will be unpleasant. Each of us is unique in terms of what we find rewarding and how much reinforcement we need to feel self-satisfaction from our work. That's why it's important to know yourself well enough to pick a job that is a good fit.
One useful exercise is to make a two-column list. On one side, list all the rewards you get from your current work. On the other side, list all the disadvantages and drawbacks. Then ask yourself whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. When you do this, remember to be honest with yourself.
Remember it's okay to have selfish motives as well as unselfish ones, and it's okay to have fun while you work. It is also okay to have unselfish motives such as making people's lives a little easier. On the other hand, it is not okay to do human services because you think you should find it rewarding, or because you believe people will think you are a good person. Whatever you do, do it because you want to, not because someone else wants you to.
Remember, people who genuinely like their work and find it rewarding usually do a better job than people who do not like what they do.

Ways to Volunteer: by Paul Twocock

Good neighbours and assisted shopping
Good Neighbours volunteers provide companionship and friendship by making home visits or speaking on the telephone which helps to prevent older people from becoming lonely. Volunteers can also help with tasks like collecting a prescription or small jobs around the home or even visiting the shops to aid their independence. Charities need people to deliver these services locally and is an ideal volunteering opportunity if you are not able to give your time at a set time every week or month.
Lunch clubs and social centres
By volunteering at a lunch club or a social centre, you will be giving company to older or housebound people. Not only are meals often provided, but there are also activities such as dominoes and dancing. Regular outings are organised - so you will have to have a passion for conversation and activity!
Professional support You might be in the world of work but that doesn’t mean you can’t contribute. Far from it - the flexibility of being a volunteer means that even people with full-time careers or other commitments can still find the time to help out. By sharing your expertise, you’ll soon discover just how satisfying and rewarding being a volunteer can be. Whether you have a specialist skill in areas like marketing, human resources and training, recruitment, Health & Safety, finance, fundraising, journalism, copyrighting, customer service, even teaching IT or computer skills �" many charities will always have a role for you. By giving some of your time, you can develop new insights by volunteering on a part-time or occasional consultancy basis in our offices or from your home. Hospital shops and cafes There are plenty of opportunities to help out in local hospitals across the country. In hospital shops and cafés you can gain retail experience - such as using cash registers and ordering stock. Some shops and cafés are open on Saturdays and Sundays, so these roles are ideal for anyone who can only volunteer for a couple of hours on a weekend, as little as once a fortnight or once a month. You can also volunteer with a friend.

Find Your Own Diamond Mine: by David Cowley

Apply around 58,000 atmospheres of pressure to pure carbon and then heat to about 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit and you will have a diamond. For millions of years microscopic plants and animals lived and died in the ancient oceans and after time these bodies turned into carbon. When tectonic plates collided with one and another, one of the tectonic plates was pushed under the other and the bodies of the microorganism, now carbon are buried under tons of rock.
With the extrema pressure and heat the molecules of the carbon are aligned forming a diamond. This process arranges the atoms in a unique Crystal structure that cause diamonds to have tighter atoms than any other substance in the world which makes them the hardest natural material known.
These diamonds were later pushed to the surface of the earths crust by volcanic action. A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in the earths crust that allows hot molten rock to escape to the earths surface and if the conditions are right, diamonds as well. Volcano's fall into three different types.
The first type is when the tectonic plates pull apart from one another. These linear features volcano's can form in the middle of continents but also occur in the oceans. It produces rift valleys that is filled when the two opposing plates move away from each other. Since carbon has not been forced into the molten rock diamonds are usually not found. An example of rift valleys are the Great Rift Valley located in the Middle East and Africa, the Mid-Atlantic Rift, and the Rio Grand Rift in North America.
The second type of volcanic action occurs when the tectonic plates stretch as they move over a hot spot or mantle plumes. The crust of the earth is melted allowing the hot magma to move to the earths surface. An example of this type of volcano's is the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaiian Islands consists of hundreds of island and atolls that extend for 1,500 miles or 2,300 KM. As the tectonic plates moved across the hot spot volcanoes erupted and created islands. The oldest to the newest island extend from the northwest to the southeast ending with Hawaii or the big island. Prime Diamond hunting areas is found where two opposing tectonic plates collide and one is forced under the other. This will cause carbon to be pushed into the hot magma and with tons of rock on top the pressure will be extreme. As the collisions take place large mountain ranges may be formed by the wrinkling of the earths crust such as the Rockey Mountains and the Himalayan Mountain range. As cracks and fissures is formed in the mountain ranges the magma will find its way to the surface and a volcano is formed. The Volcano eruption can be quite violent such as the Mount St. Helen's explosion in North America in 1980. The Pacific Ring of Fire is a 24,850 mile or 40,000 km horseshoe shaped ring of volcanoes. It extends from Java to Sumatra to the Himalayas to the Mediterranean and into the Mid Atlantic Ridge. The San Andreas Fault in California is another example of an active collision of tectonic plates.
Named after the town of Kimberley in South Africa in 1870s, diamonds are found in a type of rock called Kimberley pipes. Kimberley pipes are formed from the cooling volcano core of magma that has found its way to the earths surface. It is believed that they are formed deep within the earths mantle between 93 to 290 miles or 150 to 450 kilometers deep and contain exotic compositions that are erupted rapidly and violently to the surface.
Red garnets are usually found in Kimberley pipes that contain diamonds. Since these minerals are in greater in quantities than diamonds, geologists look for these indicator in the regions where they suspect diamonds to occur. Most Kimberley pipes were formed between 70 to 150 million years ago but several have been found in Southern Africa that are believed to be 1600 million years old. Only 1 in 200 Kimberley pipes contain gem-quality diamonds.
In a nut shell look for the areas that tectonic plates are converging. Next find areas that have had volcanic activity in the distant past, the older the better. Find the Kimberley rock formations that the volcanoes have produced. If the Kimberley pipes have evidence of red garnets and other crystals then the possibility of diamonds is highly possible. Please remember the author and give him several handfuls of rough diamonds as a reward for the information provided here.
Happy diamond hunting.