In the Community
A great source of volunteer opportunities is Volunteer Match. You can narrow your search to find projects appropriate for your family. Under “advanced search” click on “kids” or “teens” (depending on the ages of your children), and you’ll get a list of possibilities. Below you’ll find additional ideas.
Improving People’s Lives
Deliver meals to the homebound
Meals on Wheels needs your help delivering hot, nutritious meals at lunchtime, Monday through Friday, to the elderly and those with limited mobility. Volunteers deliver much more than a meal – they bring a smile and kind words, relieve isolation, and provide peace of mind for the elderly and their caregivers. And it only takes an hour! If you are in the Twin Cities, contact Metro Meals on Wheels at info@meals-on-wheels.com, or 612.623.3363. Otherwise, visit www.mowaa.org to find the program near you.
Adopt a grandparent
Ask the volunteer coordinator at a local nursing home about the process for matching families and residents, then choose an elderly person to visit regularly. Spend time talking, reading, writing letters, playing games, and simply strolling. This is an opportunity that families with children of any age can enjoy.
Assist an elderly person living at home
Our older neighbors could use help with laundry, yard work, and house cleaning. If you don’t know of a senior who needs help, contact an organization in your area that serves the elderly. This can be a one-time commitment or a weekly or monthly affair.
Initiate or help with senior activities
Contact a local nursing home or senior center to see what type of activity would be welcomed. Some ideas: Give a party; assist with celebrations, games or outings; plan and carry out a craft night; share a hobby; help with Bingo; perform a family talent show; escort residents on a walk; or be a lunch buddy.
Befriend a family with a sick child
You can offer invaluable support, companionship and practical assistance. If the family is in town temporarily to be near their child, your family can provide transportation for grocery shopping and recreational activities. You might also transport patients and their family and friends to and from the airport and provide information about the city or town where you live. Call the volunteer coordinator at your local children’s hospital to see how you can help.
Form a friendship with someone with intellectual disabilities
To seek out such an arrangement, call a residential treatment center for the developmentally disabled in your area or see if your community has Best Buddies (www.bestbuddies.org), an organization dedicated to forming relationships between individuals with intellectual disabilities and students, individuals, or families.
Help with the Special Olympics
Volunteer to help with the Special Olympics! You could be called on to provide transportation, assist food service workers, take part in telephone campaigns, distribute materials for sporting events, or serve as greeters, escorts or cheerleaders. Find out more at www.specialolympics.org.
Mentor a child
Include a disadvantaged child in your family’s activities several times a month. The activities needn’t cost money — bake cookies together, go fishing, play board games. These mentorships can make a big difference in the life of a child. Several organizations stand ready to match a child with a family. If you live in the Twin Cities, contact Kinship of Greater Minneapolis (www.kinship.org) or Kids ‘n Kinship (www.kidsnkinship.org). Otherwise, contact Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (www.bbbsa.org), MENTOR/The National Mentoring Partnership or your local YMCA or YWCA.
Mentor a refugee family
Loneliness is often a problem for refugees whose relatives and friends are back in their home countries. You can provide welcome friendship to folks new to America. These organizations may have resettlement programs in your area, and can help match you with a newly arrived refugee.
Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies
www.ajfca.org / 800-634-7346
Catholic Charities
www.catholiccharitiesusa.org / 703-549-1390
Church World Service
http://www.churchworldservice.org/ 800-297-1516
Lutheran Social Services in America
http://www.lutheransocialservices.org / 800-664-3848
Healing the Earth
Pick up litter
Clean up a park, shoreline, mountain, river, beach or wilderness area. Then take digital photos of what you’ve picked up. (If you can’t access a camera, this requirement can be waived.) Then together have your family write an essay about your experience and send with you’re a digital photo, your names, age(s) and address to mail@wildernessproject.org. Your essay will be published on the website, your children’s names will appear in the Registry of Apprentice Ecologists, and you will be awarded an official certificate. For tips on conducting the cleanup and writing the story, and to see the efforts of other “apprentice ecologists,” visit http://www.wildernessproject.org/volunteer_apprentice_ecologist.php
Be a Frogwatch volunteer
Collect information about the frog and toad populations in your neighborhood. Frogwatch USA (www.frogwatch.org) uses the information to learn more about the diversity of frog and toad populations and to emphasize the importance of protecting wetland habitats.
Foster a pet
Volunteer to foster a pet for someone in the military who’s been called to duty. That way, their pets won’t have to go to a shelter. The need is especially great now, with so many troops on long-term assignment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Operation Noble Foster, which coordinates cat foster for military pets, emphasizes that volunteers are always needed, because “military are deployed abroad even in peacetime, sometimes with little or no notice.” Visit www.netpets.org to volunteer.
Plant trees
For $10, your family can receive a Trees for Life Adventure Kit (including tree seedlings, instructions and a tree starter carton). Your $10 also means 10 fruit trees will be planted in a developing country. Planting your seedlings with your child can be a tremendously meaningful activity. Visit www.treesforlife.org for details.
Fighting Poverty
Cook a meal at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen
Offer to help cook and serve a meal at a local homeless shelter. (Ask the volunteer coordinator if there is an age requirement for volunteers.) Choose a meal that is healthful but easy to prepare, such as spaghetti or tacos. If you will be serving a large crowd, ask other families to join you in your effort.
Habitat for Humanity
Families with older teens can pitch in to build homes, an experience that for many is life-changing. If your children are too young (under 16) to be on a construction site but want to be involved, Habitat for Humanity suggests these ways to contribute:
- Make lunches for Habitat workers.
- Create cards for new low-income homeowners. The template can be found at http://www.habitat.org/youthprograms/ages_5_8/activities/ages_5_8_activities.aspx
- Participate in the Paper House Campaign. You’ll find directions to cut out, color and fold a paper house, which you can send (ideally with a letter) to lawmakers as a reminder to work for affordable housing. Go to http://www.habitat.org/youthprograms/ages_5_8/activities/ages_5_8_activities.aspx
- Make a welcome basket for a new Habitat homeowner family. Contact your local Habitat office for information.
- Make key hooks and other gifts for new homeowner families.
- Volunteer at a community fundraiser for Habitat.
Visit www.habitat.org learn more and to find the Habitat location nearest you.
Building Community
Welcome new neighbors
Greet people who are new to your neighborhood and make them feel welcome by baking and delivering a pan of brownies or hosting a neighborhood greeting party. Your family might also put together a packet that includes a map, a list of neighbors and their phone numbers, and a guide to local services and hotspots.
Start a neighborhood garden and share the bounty
This is a wonderful project that lets neighbors to get to know one another, provides fresh food, keeps children and teens busy, and beautifies the neighborhood. Get permission from the owner of the garden spot, then make a garden plan and recruit neighbors to help. Contact the American Community Gardening Association for practical information on starting a neighborhood flower or vegetable garden, www.communitygarden.org
Donate books
Ask the manager of a local bookstore whether your family can set up and maintain a bin for patrons to contribute new books they’ve purchased. When the bin is brimming, donate the books to a shelter, library, children’s hospital, or to one of the organizations listed below. Some organizations will take high-quality used books; others request only new books.
Books for Africa
www.booksforafrica.org
Page Ahead
www.pageahead.org
Books through Bars
www.booksthroughbars.org
Social Action
Take your kids with you when you vote
Voting is critical to democracy, and we shouldn’t let anyone become apathetic about this fundamental right. Take your children with you to vote so they see the process in action. You can also help people register to vote and transport those who need assistance getting to the polling places.
Start or sign a petition
Petitions are one way to bring attention to your cause. When designing your petition, get informed and then be specific about what you’re asking for. Include a title, identify both who will receive and who produced the petition, state the problem and how it can be resolved, collect signatures, and present your petition.