Kids Helping Others

Source: VIP Pet Services

By Sam Piha

When my son was six, he suddenly decided that he did not want to visit the city of San Francisco anymore. After a discussion, he explained that seeing the under-fed pets of the homeless made him feel sad. I asked, “What can we do to help them?” He suggested that we could fill ziplock bags with pet food and pass out to the homeless with pets, and we did! He later volunteered with a local animal shelter to help with their “adopt a pet” events. It was through these experiences that he learned the value of helping others. Today, as an adult DJ, he regularly sponsors canned food drives to benefit his local food bank. 

This blog focuses on the value of kids helping others.

HOW KIDS LEARN TO HELP OTHERS 

According to Google AI, a more detailed explanation of how young people learn to help others includes:

• “Modeling and Role-Playing: Children learn by watching the adults around them, so parents and caregivers should model caring behaviors, such as helping others, being kind, and showing empathy. 
• Empathy and Perspective-Taking: Teaching children to understand and share the feelings of others is crucial. This can be done through reading books with relatable characters, discussing situations where people may be feeling sad or frustrated, and encouraging them to imagine how others might fee.
• Encouraging Small Acts of Kindness: Start with simple acts of kindness, like sharing toys, helping with chores, or offering a compliment. As they become more comfortable, they can gradually take on more challenging tasks.
• Providing Opportunities to Give: Organize family volunteer activities, donate items to charity, or participate in community events where children can help others. 
• Discussing the Importance of Helping Others: Talk about the positive impact of helping others and how it makes people feel. Discuss the importance of kindness and compassion and encourage children to think about ways they can make a difference in their community. 
• Celebrating Acts of Kindness: Acknowledge and praise children's efforts to help others. This reinforces positive behaviors and encourages them to continue helping. 
• Encouraging Sharing and Cooperation: Teach children the value of sharing and cooperation. This can be done through games, activities, and everyday situations where they need to work together to achieve a common goal. 
• Focusing on the Joy of Giving: Help children understand that helping others can be a rewarding experience. Encourage them to focus on the positive feelings they get from helping others, rather than the potential for praise or reward. 
• Making Giving a Part of Everyday Life: Integrate acts of kindness and helping others into daily routines. This can be as simple as helping a neighbor carry grocery or offering to help a friend with their homework.” [i]

Source: www.pexels.com

BENEFITS ACCRUE WHEN YOUNG PEOPLE ACTIVELY LEND A HELPING HAND

There are many benefits that come when young people actively help others. They include: 

• “Generating Optimism: When children see that they can make a difference in the world around them, they renew their sense of hope and learn to face challenges with persistence and optimism.
• Building Empathy: Engaging in volunteer opportunities can make a powerful and lasting impression on children by helping them to understand and show concern for others’ feelings, circumstances and needs
• Discovering a Sense of Community: Local volunteer opportunities offer kids a unique chance to build a stronger connection to their neighbors and communities, instilling a sense of pride and belonging.
• Accepting Civic Responsibility: As children also build a stronger connection to community, they can also begin to understand their role within it, developing social awareness and taking on civic responsibility. 
• Expressing Gratitude: When children give to those who are in need, they learn the importance of being grateful for what they have and for their ability to help others.
• Gaining a Sense of Purpose: When kids are given the opportunity to choose how they’d like to contribute to a cause, like helping to clean up a park or collecting items for donation, they benefit from having some agency over their experience and find a strong sense of purpose in the work they do.
• Taking on New Experiences: Volunteering can help children build character by introducing them to unfamiliar experiences that challenge them to build new skills.
• Boosting Self-Esteem: Whether they contribute to a cause virtually or in person, as young volunteers help provide solutions to problems, they learn that they have the power to effect change, boosting their confidence and building their self-esteem.
• Learning to Collaborate: Many volunteer experiences offer the chance to engage in teamwork, learn from others’ varied perspectives and build friendships.” [ii]

For a full briefing paper on kids helping others, click here.

 

Demand 21st Century Community Learning Center Funds 

Be Released by the White House/OMB

GO TO: https://win.newmode.net/afterschoolalliance/releasethefunds

-----------------------

END NOTES:
[i] Google AI, How Do Young People Learn to Help Others?
[ii] National Inventor’s Hall of Fame, 10 Lessons Children Can Learn by Volunteering

How to Help Kids Cope with ICE Deportation Raids During The Summer

Source: EdSource, Ian Kapsalis/ The Express

Summer can be a difficult time for kids as schools close down. But, have we thought that how this is especially true for those with undocumented family members?  This blog contains excerpts from How to help kids cope with ongoing ICE raids, deportations | Quick Guide written by Vani Sanganeria for EdSource. To view this original publication, click here.

“Fears remain unabated for both children of immigrants and their friends, as federal immigration agents in California continue to detain, arrest and deport residents, in what community members say has become an indefinite fixture of the Trump administration.” 

Vani Sanganeria explains:



• With school out for the summer, some students may no longer have access to crucial support and services available during the academic school year, as fear and anxiety rise in their communities from ongoing immigration raids.
• The absence of school-based services often leads to worsening mental health for students during the summer.
• During the summer, unstructured routine, social isolation and increased social media use can exacerbate feelings of sadness and fear. Also, children are much more likely to internalize traumatic events like raids on social media or outside of school, often in isolation and lacking the safe environment of a classroom to talk through their feelings about the day’s news.  
• Data indicate a spike in both substance use and feelings of sadness among adolescents during the summer, which worsens in part due to unstructured routine, increased isolation and increased social media use.

“Children are already seeing masked individuals with weapons coming into the communities, tackling people and taking them away and putting them into vehicles. We have to acknowledge that some very scary things are happening in all of our communities — by lying about the magnitude of this, we may be risking our trust with our children in the future.” – Ahmanise Sanati, school social worker in Los Angeles 

Source: www.pexels.com

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PARENTS
According to Marta Melendez, a social worker with LAUSD, families can prepare for scenarios like an ICE raid, detention or deportation by preemptively building their and their child’s mental health tool kit, similar to an emergency plan. 

“Families can take steps to support their child’s mental health and prepare for what experts are calling a child welfare and human rights crisis.”

• Research shows that even basic mindfulness interventions can mitigate the short- and long-term negative effects of stress and trauma, and these techniques, when taught bilingually, are especially effective for populations such as the Latino community. 
• Prioritize something that is a positive outlet for the child, whether they like to play sports, to write about their feelings, draw about their feelings, sing about their feelings, if they want to dance about their feelings — make sure that they have a way of processing all the emotions that they are experiencing.
• Talk through your child’s feelings.

“One way to validate a child who is afraid is by letting them know that their family will be ready for a worst-case scenario.” - Marta Melendez, a social worker with LAUSD.

• To create a sense of normalcy for children, Melendez said families should do their best to maintain healthy routines and hobbies during the summer, especially those that promote social connection with their peers.
• Prepare for emergencies. 
• Create a childcare plan.
• Find remote mental health support for your child. 
• Practice healthy coping skills as a family.

Previous LIAS Blogs on this topic can be viewed here. 

MORE ABOUT...

EdSource is California’s largest journalism organization focused on education. Access to a quality education is an important right of all children. EdSource believes that an informed, involved public is necessary to strengthen California’s education institutions, improve student success and build a better workforce.

 UPCOMING WEBINARS: