City of Raleigh gives people a chance to serve through volunteering

The city of Raleigh is giving people a chance to give back through volunteerism Sunday afternoon.

An event took place at 201 South Blount Street in Moore Square, where organizers connected with people in the community providing various volunteering opportunities.

"The city of Raleigh is very serious about learning new ways to engage our community and getting people to connect with one another," said Grady Bussey, Volunteer Raleigh.

The organization, Volunteer Raleigh, serves as a vessel to get people in touch with resources such as; crisis support, youth and education, food security, health, housing, and support for seniors.

"Once the pandemic had subsided, people really want to get out and they recognize through that crisis time that there's a whole lot of needs, there needs to be met," Bussey said.

Volunteers provide more than 118-thousand hours of service to over 50 nonprofits and public agencies and the city says this saves the community about $2.6 million every year.

"These organizations are gearing on the fact that we have quality people," said Bussey. "When we don't have the opportunities to give the public a chance to volunteer or they don't have volunteers, they go away."

To prevent that a big effort is underway to ensure everyone can access opportunities to help or get help.

"Even if somebody comes out and one person is affected by the opportunity that we've cultivated a chance for people to get together," Bussey said. "We've done our job well because we don't realize the type of season we sew until after the fact."

Volunteers in Raleigh help save millions of dollars each year by dedicating their time to helping others.