George Caywood At Union Rescue Mission where I worked I often heard long term volunteers say things like “Before I started volunteering at URM I had no idea how homeless I was spiritually and emotionally”.
On the other hand I lost volunteers because When they realized that homeless folks were just like them it made the barrier they had that made them feel like they would never be homeless was false protection .
Norman Cousins was a volunteer at the Mission. Me Cousins was the former Editor of “The Atlantic Monthly”. He was also widely know as the man who at the UCLA Medical Center famously healed himself of cancer laughter After he died his wife told me that being a volunteer at the mission became a very favorite activity and gave him great satisfaction the last years of his life..