Community Service Ideas for Children Between the Ages of 6-15

I just heard about a website that may interest you.

www.smallchangedallas.org

They organize volunteer opportunities for kids!

-K.

Our church has a program called Mission Possible Kids that is for that exact thing. You might call them or look on the website and see what they have listed. Our church website is cumc.com My daughter and I are part of Glow Kids which is a community/mission group for kids 3 to 5. So far we have planted seeds at the Plano Communinty Garden that grows fruits and vegtables and donates them to the Plano Food Shelter. We created bags for children at the hospital with puzzles, magazines, stuffed animal, cards etc., We adopted an angel at Christmas time and put on a bake sale to raise money to purchase their gifts., We fixed a meal for a homebound family and next month we are having a v-day party at a nursing home. Those are just the things we have done so far. Good Luck!

T.,

Here's some ideas from one of my upcoming book sections on "Charting The Course For HIgh School Success".

Volunteer Work Ideas

1. CITs- Counselors in training.
2. Hospitals
3. Nursing Homes or Retirement Communities
4. Animal Shelters and Veterinary Offices
5. Garden Centers, Nurseries
6. Libraries
7. Museums and Aquariums
8. Video and Television Production
9. Volunteer Centers
10. Homeless Shelters
11. Food Banks
12. Children’s Wish Foundation
13. Parks & Outdoor Areas
14. Tutoring & Mentoring
15. Special Olympics
16. Build Homes (Habitat for Humanity)
17. City Programs
18. Blood Banks
19. Political Campaigns
20. 800 Number Volunteers
21. Boys and & Girls Clubs
22. Search the web for opportunities in your area.
23. Churches
24. The Guideposts Sweater Project
25. Ronald McDonald House
26. United Way
27. Red Cross
28. Salvation Army
29. Web site creation for small charities and organizations
30. Meals on Wheels
31. Start a recycling program in your area

Blessings,
J.

I organize lots of community service projects for my group. Some of the things we've done are get together at my house to make sack lunches and deliver them to the homeless shelter, school supply drives, there's a program called SAFE that the kids can donate their gently used stuffed animals. The fire dept and police dept give the stuffed animals to children in emergency situations to keep them calm. Welcome Home A Hero at DFW is a GREAT idea. The troops love to see the kids greeting them when they arrive. I know for sure that their calendar is a little bare right now so they would definitely appreciate the help. I have lots of other ideas. If you're interested in more just let me know and I'll PM you. Good luck!

Check www.rootsandshoots.org

My daughter is 14 and a candidate for National Junior Honor Society. They have to have so many service hours provided to the school (helping teacher, tutoring, etc)and so many hours within the community.

Community hours daughter has done so far is helping Scouts with holiday craft fairs, helping schools with festivals, reading to children, participating with the opening of Children's Medical Center in Plano, participating with refreshments for the 3 day Breast Cancer walk, Teen Court in McKinney, Frisco and/or Plano.

Maybe some of those will help you with ideas.

The Family Gateway is a homeless shelter for families with children. Families stay in the shelter and the parents are required to attend school at night and look for jobs during the day; child care is provided. I haven't worked with them in years (since having 2 sets of twins) but I recall one issue that always came up is that the kids living there needed mentors - dads to play ball with, perhaps some other children to play with - to gain a sense of normalcy if you will. You might take a look at the web site and then talk to the volunteer coordinator and see if you can come up with a plan. It would probably be useful for kids to see the situations that some of the kids at the center are in. The families at Family Gateway are generally newly displaced; there but for the grace of god go many of us...

I think nursing home residents often feel left-out and forgotten. I'm sure they would love some visitors. Maybe make them a special homemade gift before you go. They could often use the pick-me-up and would love to have their day brightened.

I am not sure if this is something that would interest you. I have a 7 yo son with autism that I home school. I am planning to put him in school next year. I am desperately looking for some type of interaction with typically developing kids. They are finding out that kids on the autism spectrum learn very well with "peer teachers". It can be something as easy as going to a play ground and having a clip board and they go through the clip board to the different activities. Kids that are neurotypical love it because they are "in charge" and the autism spectrum children like the controlled interaction. I would love to have some type of organized play. Like tag or duck duck goose were the other children involved know to slow down and help guide the other children so real learning can occur. I am involved in a autism mom group whose children are all around the 7 yo age. So just a thought if you are interested.

My teens volunteered at Old City Park now Dallas Heritage Village and loved it - educational as well as fun....there is also a village in Farmer's Branch...the Zoo uses volunteers, retirement communities...if your kids sing well, the is God's Country Kids that my daughter is in who sing around the metroplex at many venues but primarily retirement communities (but you do have to sing well according to age).....there is also White Rock Lake - For the Love of the Lake with office in Casa Linda - good luck finding some opportunies for them........

Hi T.,

I have two boys. When they were 13 & 9 we volunteered with City House in Plano. It is a homeless shelter for teens. My Friends House is another homeless shelter in Plano for children and babies, and they need volunteers as well.

How about something as simple as having the kids ask for the opportunity to go into the special education classrooms in their schools to play games/read with the students? This idea is just a seed, of course ... there are TONS of ways to impact the lives of students with learning differences who are often excluded from the really good stuff that goes on in a school!

What about contacting ManeGait in McKinney? (www.manegait.org)
ManGait is a therapeutic horsemanship facility that works with children and adults with disabilitie.
ManeGait has volunteer opportunties available for anyone interested in getting involved with its program and is at least 14 years of age, but maybe there is something younger children could do, if the/a parent/s or gaurdian were to participate too?
Debbie

T. -
My daughter is in confirmation class at our church. They have to do 2 community services each year and then write about it. She just completed one a couple weeks ago. A group of the kids from the class went to the homeless shelter and worked the lunch hour feeding the ones who stay at the shelter and then the next shift which was the ones who live on the street. Was quite a wake up call as to how nice the kids have it. Anyway, I have left the other service up to my daughter to choose. She has chosen Cooks Children Hospital. Cooks has a special meaning to our family. She will spend some time reading and playing with the kids, help cleaning their play equipment, deliver stuffed animals, etc. My daughter loves to spend time with other children (of any age) so I was not surprised when she chose this. Just a thought.

can i help at cookchildrens hospital at the age of 12 going on the age of13

T.! Let me know what you come up with - maybe you could help start something here in our community too! We would love that and I would love to help!

Let me know, C.

Check out Camp Sweeney. It's a 3 week summer camp for kids w/ Type 1 diabetes. My son whose diabetic has been 3 years in a row and it changed his attitude about his disease. It's the most wonderful place but it's costly! You could sponser a kid or raise money to donate to the camp itself.