Best places to volunteer with kids

Are you looking for activities to do with your kids that will keep them busy, encourage them to be thankful for what they have, and open their eyes to how other people live? If so, why not get your kids involved in volunteer opportunities and make it a family activity? 

Kids don’t need money to volunteer. Instead, they can put their time, energy and enthusiasm to good use to support causes and people they care about. Read on for a list of ideas that highlights some of the best places to volunteer with kids. 

Why volunteer with kids?

Many of the benefits of volunteering for adults are applicable to kids too. Often, volunteering opportunities for kids also teach skills that are valuable throughout school, their future careers, and their life in general. It provides kids with opportunities to learn compassion and to see the impact that kindness, generosity and giving has on the community. Giving kids opportunities to get involved in volunteering provides them with firsthand experience in seeing the value of helping others in need. 

Volunteering with kids is also a great way for a family to spend time together. Each family member can get involved in the volunteering activity in various ways, depending on their age and ability, then share their experience with each other. These interactions can help children to learn, grow and deepen their relationships with other family members. 

Best places to volunteer with toddlers 

It is never too early to start volunteering. Toddlers can accompany their parents and carers to a range of places for volunteering. These include: 

• Fundraising walks and runs. Toddlers can be pushed along in their stroller, and even walk small sections, as a way of joining in the event.

• The local park for a community cleanup day. Young children can participate by picking up litter. The clean-up can be turned into a scavenger hunt type of game with the winner being whoever collects the most garbage. 
• Aged care homes. Little ones can bring delight to aged care residents purely with their presence. Toddlers can join the elderly in simple activities like watching television and reading picture books together. 
• Wildlife rescue centers. Toddlers can accompany parents and carers to drop-off donations and hand over useful items such as towels. They may even get a sneak peek at some of the animals being rehabilitated. 
• Meal delivery organizations such as Blessings of Hope. By joining parents and carers to deliver meals throughout the community, toddlers can bring meals and a smile to the hungry.

Best places to volunteer with elementary school kids 

Elementary school kids can start to take on volunteer activities with more responsibility and less supervision. Some of the best places for them to get involved in volunteering are: 

• Food pantry, food bank or food drive. Kids can collect non-perishable food items from friends and neighbors then donate these to an appeal.
• Car wash days. Kids can get involved in washing the cars and donating funds raised to a charity.  
• Community gardens. A great way for kids to get some fresh air, sunshine and their hands dirty! Kids can help with weeding, raking leaves and planting seeds.  
• Little Free Library. Kids can select some of their own books to donate and source books from others to set up a free little library in their neighborhood.
• Animal shelters. For animal loving kids, animal shelters are good places to volunteer. Kids can get involved in cleaning cages, playing with animals and sorting through donations.
• Hospitals. Elementary school children can make up activity packs for sick kids in hospital.
• Police and fire stations. Kids can help by sweeping floors and washing vehicles. Volunteering here will give kids an up-close look at the emergency services vehicles. 

Best places to volunteer with teenagers

One of the many reasons teenagers should get involved in volunteering is it provides them with opportunities to expand their social network and meet people from different backgrounds. It can also make their college applications more favorable. Some of the best places for teenagers to volunteer include:

• Women’s shelters and homeless shelters. Teenagers can donate toys and clothes they have grown out of, collect donations for shelters like Baby Got Back, and help on-site by sorting the donations.  
• Garage sales. Teenagers can source items to sell, be involved in setting up and promoting the sale, then donate funds raised to a charity. 
• Libraries. Here, teenagers can tutor younger students, read stories to children and babies, help the elderly with IT, volunteer to put books back on the shelves and participate in Big Brother / Big Sister mentor programs.
• Bake sales, lemonade stands and school fetes. Hobbies like cooking, jewelry making, and woodwork can be used to make items to sell at stalls with the funds raised being donated to charities. 
• Church. Teenagers can help set up and greet attendees at church services and events. 
• Community theater. Teenagers can volunteer as ushers at community theater productions, showing audience members to their seats. 
• Local neighborhood. Elderly and sick neighbors provide great opportunities for volunteering as they often need help with yard work, collecting mail and walking their dogs.

There are many opportunities to volunteer with kids regardless of their age and interests. Getting kids involved in volunteering sets the foundation for them to become compassionate and caring adults with an interest in supporting their community. 

About Rosterfy 

Rosterfy exists to connect communities to events and causes they are passionate about through volunteer and paid workforce management technology. Our proven end to end technology allows charities, events and nonprofit organizations to recruit, register, screen, train, manage and report with ease, replacing manual processes with automations to better engage and retain your volunteers and paid staff.

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