Starting club about volunteering/helping each other?

Hey guys!

I recently had an idea for this club at my school. Now, I go to a small school in a small town (population about 900! woohoo for rural communities lol) so I'm not sure how it will go over. I'm just wondering if I could bounce my idea off of all of you wonderful people on here. Feel free to let me know what you think of it, or if you have any experience with something like this at all! Thanks!

As I previously mentioned, I go to a small school, with an appearance of relative lack of diversity. Now, obviously, there is a lot of diversity lying under the surface. After one year of looking, I've discovered that there are several LGBTQ people in my school besides myself. I previously thought that there was none. Anyways... We don't have many clubs, just some general ones, (spanish, environmental science, fca, ffa, student council, leo, etc) but we don't have any sort of like, gsa or support group or even a big volunteer group.

I had this idea to start this sort of support group/volunteer group. It'd be a safe space for anybody to talk, whether they're lgbtq, have some problems with parents that they want to talk through, was diagnosed with a mental disorder i.e. depression or something else which has high stigmatization attached to it, or any other thing that they wanted to talk to. It would be a safe place for them to just talk. No judgement passed, maybe even some advice that someone could share. I just remember for so long feeling so alone and that there was nobody else out there that was struggling with something. It's so easy in this small town to think that you are completely alone in feeling a certain way that you don't seek help for it when really, there are other people who want to help but just don't know.

It could also be used to promote certain things, like trans day of visibility, or breast cancer awareness, or anything really. Maybe someone in the group had a family member who they were really close to die from Alzheimer's or something similar. This club could be used to fund-raise for these organizations, or even just donate money to random organizations because it's helpful.

We could also do things locally, like visit with elderly people in nearby nursing homes, or help out local projects. It could be a sort of support group/volunteer group. We could also take some trips to support things like that, or go to a teamwork building center to help trust each other more, etc. The possibilities would really be endless and there isn't really anything like this in the immediate vicinity for anyone to be apart of.

I apologize for the amount. Thanks if you read this far! I just wanted to maybe receive some comments or suggestions about this. Thanks guys!:icon_bigg

P.S. I'm going to be a Sophomore in high school if anyone were to find this information pertinent in suggestions. I also realize that this could be considered under Leo club. However, I'm not actually quite sure what the Leo club does and if they even really do anything here. I don't think they do much besides a root beer float fundraiser, but I wasn't aware of it until after it was past time to sign up for it. I'd also appreciate some help in possibly separating this from the Leo club if it's decided that this would be a good club to have. Thanks again!

 

I guess that I should add that I really want this to be focused on helping each other through stuff and not feeling alone. The volunteer stuff would be important, but I fear I may end up stepping on the Leo clubs metaphorical toes with too much of it, since that is technically their turf. But it could be shared right? I guess it just doesn't appear that we have a sort of support group like this. I figured if we could start one, maybe it might help some people, and the fundraisers/charity donations or work could help people cope with their struggles or help raise awareness to what some people go through. Does that make any sense to anyone? My biggest worry is that I'll be turned down due to it being so similar to the Leo club.

 

Has anyone even started a club/group before? I'm not real sure how to even get it started. In august I'm going to be talking with the counselor about some other things, and figured that I'd just mention it to her and get her thoughts and/or her help. But I'd like to have a series of plans already made up so i seem more prepared and can prove that I can be the one to start this. Anyone have any suggestions about what to put in the plans? Thanks!

 

What sort of aims/objectives would this group have though. I haven't really been able to find another one like it courtesy of google. The closest one I get is a support which I kind of want it to be like that but it's also different. It wouldnt necessarily specialize in anything due to the smallness of the community. It would also have a heavy influence to raising support or visibility to certain things each month or on specific important days. It'd also do a lot of charity work too possibly. But like... It'd be a group decision on what would happen and when. It'd also be a safe space so really, anyone who wanted to come but didn't want people to know they came, wouldn't have to be known they went by anyone outside of the group. (People here would probably ridicule other ppl who went) So we'd have to find a time to do it. But like... that'd all be a general scope of things, wouldn't it? I don't know what I could do about individual things cause I believe the group should be allowed to decide that, i.e. a set of rules and disciplinary actions set in place against those who may break confidentiality. I think that should be something decided by the group, since everyone has different opinions as to what is lnt enough/too far. I don't know. I guess I'm just really lost in all of this rn. Any help at all would be much appreciated!