Helpers Teacher Guide to Community Helpers

Think of people who make your community a better place - who are the people who come to mind? These will be people who have occupations that make life better for all around them. The policemen and policewomen who keep our communities safe, the doctors and nurses who help us all stay healthy, the teachers who help students learn, the postal carriers who deliver mail come rain or snow- these are people in professions that directly impact the lives of others. The people in professions or occupations that deliver a service that makes our lives easier or better are the community helpers.

A community needs many people to pitch in for it to function well. The community helpers are very often those who have a direct interaction with other members of the community and deliver a service that is critical for the well being of the community. Fire fighters are another group of people who are definitely community helpers. If there is a medical emergency at home, you have been taught to call 911. The ambulance, the police and the fire fighters are the first agencies to respond. They have the skills to assess the emergency and to provide the necessary help. Whether it is child stuck inside a locked house or a senior citizen suffering a heart attack, these first responders step in to help out the person in trouble.

It is important for all of us to know the ways in which community helpers make our lives better. It helps us appreciate their work. Moreover, we can also help them to do their jobs better if we understand the role they play. For example a librarian is a community helper who performs the important role of enabling the community to find and read good books. He or she also helps library find other resources within the library system. By understanding this, we know that it is important for each of us to respect and follow the system set forth in libraries. The library cards are a way for librarians to tracks books or videos and so it is important that we borrow things from the library with a card. It is also important that we return things at the right time as social responsible people. Failure to do either of these things makes a librarian's job harder and reduces his or her ability to do the most for other patrons.

In many ways community helpers remind us of how inter-connected our lives are when we live in a given community. A dentist who helps a teacher with a toothache by extension helps a student have a chance to learn. A cop who maintains the safety of a neighborhood allows a postal worker to do his or her job without fretting about unsavory neighborhoods. If everybody performs their role with an eagerness to help others, life in the community as a whole improves.

Many community workers have easily identifiable work attire or clothes. This makes it easy to know their role in the community and is helpful if you need to approach someone new for help. A policeman or fire fighter's uniform and a doctor's coat thus become important clues of what they can do. Sometimes, you can use these uniforms as visual clues to just go up and thank a community helper for the service they provide to society. These men and women will greatly appreciate being acknowledged by others for the important roles that they play.

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