Benefits of Family Volunteering and Ideas
Benefits to Families that Volunteer Together
- Fun!
- It is satisfying
- Strengthens families
- Helps others and strengthens community
- Improves family communication
- Helps create a new generation of dedicated volunteers
- Teaches kids values like kindness, empathy, respect, friendliness and tolerance
- Teaches responsibility
- Teaches useful skills and lets kids explore possible careers
- Volunteering is a great way to meet people or make new friends in your community
- Gives you and your children a new perspective on life
- Volunteering changes lives
Volunteering Ideas for Families
Opening your heart and home
- Organize a fundraiser (run, walk, etc.) to send a child to summer camp
- Volunteer at a summer camp for children or adults with disabilities. Activities may include leading craft projects, teaching swimming, sing-a-longs, etc.
- Drive homebound residents to doctor appointments, the grocery store, or friends
- Volunteer at a zoo working with animals
- Help build a home or shelter
- Build walk bridges, BBQ pits, picnic tables or trails at local parks
- Host volunteer planning meetings with other families in your home
- Teach kids how to swim
- Become a surrogate family for adults who are developmentally disabled and include them in your family activities
- Take a home-bound elderly friend to lunch or dinner
- Bring your pet to a nursing home to spend time with the residents
- Become a foster family
- Coordinate a food drive for people in your community
- Host a child or young adult for part of the summer
Helping hands/spruce up your community:
- Partner with another family to repair or paint the home of an elderly couple or needy family
- Organize a "window washing", "spring cleaning", or "yard day" for a needy non-profit or social service agency
- Organize a community "closet cleaning" day/week and donate old clothes and other items to a homeless shelter or other organization
- Plant and tend a garden for your neighbors
Music/Entertainment/Crafts:
- Give a puppet show at a local library
- Organize a sing-a-long at the children's hospital
- Arrange a youth history hour at a nursing home to encourage older people to talk with children about their histories
- Organize a musical instrument drive and donate the instruments to a charity or community center. Offer to give music lessons
- Ask a hospice what entertainment they enjoy and work with a family to organize the event
- Teach craft projects at a local homeless shelter, adult daycare or summer camp
- Organize and direct a play at a community center
Literacy/Reading:
- Write or read letters to visually-impaired individuals
- Create a family story hour and read to children in your neighborhood
- Volunteer with a local council to help people learn how to read
Advice/Current Affairs:
- Attend a city council meeting with other families to voice your opinion on a community issue
- Write a letter to your legislator about an issue that is important to your family
Environment
- In towns where no recycling process is in place, collect papers, cans, glass, plastic, batteries and take them to a nearby receptacle or start recycling in your own community
- Take your family and other neighboring families to clean up the community. Select a nearby park, nature preserve, beach or other public area
- Provide animal care/aide for community parks or nature preserves
- Participate in a brush-cleaning hiking trip to help keep national and state park trails in good condition
- Organize a community garden to beautify
Volunteer vacation opportunities:
Contact your local church, synagogue or medical aid organization about "mission opportunities." Your family can provide out of state or global support to families and communities. Activties include medical/clothing drop-offs, providing building assistance, etc.
Age Appropriate Ideas for Families
Projects mentioned at the younger ages are also appropriate for older children and teens.
Ages: 1-4 yrs.
- Play with other children
- Visit a nursing home with other family members
- Help deliver meals prepared for the home-bound or hungry
Ages: 5-7 yrs.
- Sort bags of food at food pantry
- Work in a community garden (i.e., till soil, plant bulbs, or maintain a family garden)
- Bake sweets and deliver them to a place where they will be enjoyed
- Enjoy a fund-raising walk
- Make sandwiches for the homeless
- Harvest vegetables
- Give a puppet show to children in a shelter
Ages: 8-10 yrs.
- Help set tables and serve food at a soup kitchen
- Share family volunteer experiences at community events or in newsletters
- Collect clothing or school supplies for those in need
- If you have a pet, volunteer to take it for a visit to an adult day care center
- Paint local schools or non-profit agencies
- Walk dogs at the animal shelter
Ages: 11-12 yrs.
- Mentor young children through a family-to-family mentoring program
- Suggest and choose family volunteer activities with other family members
- Call other friends' families to become family volunteers
- Encourage family volunteering or civic opportunities in the classroom
- Join a gleaning project (e.g., pick fruits or vegetables at a local farm)
All ages!
- Visit seniors in rest homes
- Clean up beaches or parks - beautify neighborhoods
- Provide foster homes for pets
- Raise money to buy books for literacy programs
- Create cards for residents in nursing homes
- Create cards for armed forces personnel serving overseas
Start volunteering with your family today!