Tips for Volunteering with Kids

Source: www.pexels.com

By Sam Piha

According to Bright Horizons Foundation for Children, “There are many charitable organizations that rely on volunteers to accomplish their missions. Talk to children about what issues really matter to them and what causes they would like to support. Are they concerned about the environment and pollution? Do they want to help rescue abused or abandoned animals? Do they feel sad about elderly people who have no children or grandchildren nearby to visit them? Do they want to make children in the hospital smile and not feel so scared? Is homelessness and poverty a great concern for them? Do they want to find a cure for a particular disease that someone in your family may have?

After identifying one or two particular causes, children can do research together to identify organizations that need and welcome volunteer support from children. Here are a few ideas for finding volunteer opportunities:

• Start volunteering locally. Go to a local church, temple, other religious organization, community center, school, or library to ask about local groups that support the cause(s) you’ve identified. Talk to friends, family members, co-workers, and neighbors about your area of interest. Perhaps you already know someone who is volunteering for a charity that would be a good fit for your family. Local United Ways often have volunteer listings.


• Try national volunteer organizations. Most national organizations have websites that will connect you to local chapters and outline their specific needs and activities that support their cause. There are also some volunteer websites where you can search for child-friendly volunteer opportunities. Here are just a few suggestions: Big Hearted Families, GenerationOn, Points of Light, Volunteer Match, and Idealist.

Source: www.pexels.com

• Go straight to the source. If your children want to cheer up children in the hospital, visit or call a local children’s hospital with your child and ask what you can do. You may want to suggest specific activities like hosting a holiday party, doing arts and craft projects for children in the hospital, painting the fingernails of all the girls, dressing like a clown and painting faces, or whatever your child thinks of. If your child loves animals, you could visit an animal shelter together and offer to walk the dogs once a week. Be creative! If you are sincere and are suggesting something that doesn’t make more work for the employees or other volunteers, chances are you will get a warm reception.” [i]

DIFFERENT WAYS TO HELP

Source: www.pexels.com

To ensure that helping activities are meaningful to youth, it is best that they can identify which causes are most important to them. They can do some research on what the best way is to help. For instance, one program leader thought that donating canned goods would be a good way to support a local homeless shelter. However, after their own research, the young people learned that what they really needed were more jackets and coats. In another program in Minnesota, instead of donating clothing to poor children, the youth learned what was highly requested were ice skates. In response, they sponsored a drive to collect ice skates to distribute to others.  

Below, the Bright Horizons Foundation for Children offers these additional ways to help. Please note that this website offers advice to parents, but their remarks are also relevant to youth programs. They suggest:

• “Donating Money: Even if children are too young for volunteer activities, they can help to raise money for their favorite cause. They can organize a yard sale or car wash with signs letting everyone know that the proceeds will go to your preferred charity. Many charities have walk-a-thons and other fundraising activities that welcome the participation of children. 
• Giving Toys: Many children have more toys than they can possibly play with. Before gift-giving holidays and birthdays, children can go through their toys. Parents can help them pick out ones to give away to children who don’t have any toys.
• Donating Clothes: Go through clothes together. You can talk about how even though they don’t fit them anymore, donating baby and kid clothes is still very useful to smaller children who may not have the money to go buy new clothes. 
• Food Drives and Donations: Many local food pantries, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters welcome food donations. Children can organize a canned-food drive in their classroom (with your assistance and the teacher’s approval) and donate all the collected cans together. Some volunteer organizations even welcome holiday leftovers in large quantities. Take the youth to drop off the food so they can actually see where it’s going.” [ii]

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

END NOTES:
[i] Bright Horizons, Teaching Children to Help Others
[ii] IBID.