3 Ways to Volunteer With Your Children

Are you looking for ways to make a difference in your community? Try volunteering! Here are three ways to volunteer with your children.

One of the best things you can do with your children to help their growth and development, as well as to spend quality time together, is to volunteer. Volunteering your time teaches valuable skills that your kids need to have to help them grow into compassionate people with empathy for others. It’s also a great opportunity to practice those skills for yourself and to spend time together and set a good example.

If you’re new to volunteering, we have some great ideas to get you started. Here are three ways to volunteer with your children:

1. Spend time at a retirement facility

   – Check with your local retirement and nursing homes to see when they allow visitors and if they have any existing programs for volunteers. If not, you can help them create one, but nearly all will allow you and your children to come by and spend time with people who are likely feeling lonely. You can play games, watch TV together and just sit around and talk. Just the presence of other people can make these people feel loved and comfortable, especially ones who may not get visitors very often.

2. Pick up litter

   – Litter is everywhere. Even if your town or city has ordinances and programs to fight litter, there’s still work to do. It blows in from other areas, it blows around on trash pickup days, and people throw things out their windows. You can teach your kids about the value of your community by going out and picking up litter. You can pick a park or roadside. Remember to be careful, especially with children by busy roads. You can also look into joining up with an organization that already does litter pickup.

3. Soup kitchen/ feed the homeless

   – One of human’s basic needs is to eat. We all need food and far too many people simply can’t afford to eat. You can take your children to volunteer at a food pantry, a soup kitchen, or some other program to feed the homeless. Be careful of feeding prepared foods on the street or in a public place as some cities have laws against this, but you could also create “emergency kits” or supply bags for handing out to the homeless if there is a heavily populated homeless location in your area.

These are just a few ideas to get you started, but don’t stop there. You can sit down and brainstorm some of your own ways to volunteer in your community. Get your kids involved and allow them to come up with some ideas, too.