Ideas for Volunteering with Kids

[mom24boys]

Hello,

I’d like ideas for volunteer work that I can do with my children. It seems that for liability reasons, most volunteer organizations will not let you bring kiddos with you. I have very young children and probably will for the next decade or so as our family is still growing. In particular I feel a longing to help mothers and children in poverty. Looking forward to hearing any ideas!

 

[SoCalRC]

Hello,

I’d like ideas for volunteer work that I can do with my children. It seems that for liability reasons, most volunteer organizations will not let you bring kiddos with you. I have very young children and probably will for the next decade or so as our family is still growing. In particular I feel a longing to help mothers and children in poverty. Looking forward to hearing any ideas!

How old? My kids (including my disabled son) all started coming to help at a homeless shelter in the 10-12 range. Much younger can be tough, though 8-10 can be a good age to volunteer to help with disabled youth athletics. My kids were all into sports, and also had a disabled sibling, so that was a natural for them.

Younger still, there are still options, but you sometimes need to look case by case and child by child (ex. my oldest daughter has always been great with the elderly, even when she was very small, but my youngest daughter has always been a whirlwind, and her bouncing off the walls used to make her a poor fit for working with a cautious, slow moving crowd).

Good Luck!

 

[mom24boys]

Thanks for the reply. My kids are 10, 5, 2 and 6 months. I know it might be hard to get the 2 and 5 year old involved in something, so what I’d at least like to do is find something I can do with the 10 year old and bring the baby with me in a baby carrier. So far, nobody will let me bring the baby with me and leaving him with dad is not an option.

If I could figure out something to do with all four, that would be really great! We served dinner at a small family shelter where we used to live and that was great for us. We brought the kids and they interacted with the other parents and kids at the shelter. It was a perfect arrangement. I’ve looked, albeit unsuccessfully, for something like that where we live now.

Its frustrating that there are so many people in need and such limitations to helping. I know financial donations are always helpful to organizations, but we don’t have much money right now and I’d like my children to learn about rolling up their sleeves and doing the actual work that needs to be done.

 

[puzzleannie]

Thanks for the reply. My kids are 10, 5, 2 and 6 months. I know it might be hard to get the 2 and 5 year old involved in something, so what I’d at least like to do is find something I can do with the 10 year old and bring the baby with me in a baby carrier. So far, nobody will let me bring the baby with me and leaving him with dad is not an option.

If .

with kids the ages of the younger ones, when they are with you, your attention should be focused on them, as admirable as it is to want to help someone else, it would be wrong to ignore their needs to serve others. For one thing, if you are working with other children, there is a limit as to how many children, including your own, you can be responsible for at one time, and for the safety of the children, we would not allow an infant in a carrier to remain in the classroom with say, a group of 16 kindergartners. Unless one adult was able to focus on the baby, and the others to focus on the children, we would be violating child safety rules of the diocese, the county, our insurer, and common sense.

 

[mom24boys]

as admirable as it is to want to help someone else, it would be wrong to ignore their needs to serve others

Well, I agree that it would be wrong to ignore their needs, which is why I’m looking for ways to integrate them into volunteer work. Also, if I have a baby in a sling while I am teaching the older ones to help others, who is being ignored? A two year old is capable of simple tasks, like putting a roll on a plate or a box of raisins in a bag. As I stated, we were able to serve dinner in a small family shelter as a family (including little kidlets) and it was a perfect arrangement. I don’t think that having little kids precludes us from helping others. I am simply looking for the ways that I can serve AND include my children. Should I not look for ways to serve until I am done raising my family? What about teaching the older children while I still have little ones? Given that I have another decade or so of fertility, this is going to be a relatively long term situation (having older and younger kids).

 

[Ilroy]

Hello,

I’d like ideas for volunteer work that I can do with my children. It seems that for liability reasons, most volunteer organizations will not let you bring kiddos with you. I have very young children and probably will for the next decade or so as our family is still growing. In particular I feel a longing to help mothers and children in poverty. Looking forward to hearing any ideas!

The food bank in my area has occasionally a day for sorting out the donated foods into different catagories. They did allow kids to come along and had them helping out too…you might check into that type of group?

 

[vern_humphrey]

There are several things we do in our church:

We did the Corporal Works of Mercy – right down to visiting prisoners in jail.

We visit the local nursing home – many elderly people love to have kids visit them.

We take kids to the local thrift shop – the older ones can help sort and stack donations, the younger ones can amuse themselves.

We hold fish-frys and so on, and the younger kids sell tickets.

We march in parades – a small Right to Life float surrounded by young children makes a powerful impact.

 

[SoCalRC]

For what it is worth, I think that spending time with one’s children is always a good thing. And, as long as you are going to be doing something together, I don’t see anything wrong with helping other people.

Not being able to divide and conquer can make it tough, but a couple of scenarios that always worked well for us are ‘co-pilot’ and ‘kid volunteers, parent cheers’. For me, ‘co-pilot’ was a literal sense. I’ve volunteered for programs like Angel Flight, Lifeline, and Doctors without borders. Bringing one of my children along as my co-pilot gave me time with them one-on-one (you generally only have patient passengers one way), and them exposure to helping others.

But my wife made it work en-mass and on the ground too. She’s done books and meal deliveries for shut ins for a long time, and it was never a problem to throw all or at least most of the clan in the truck/van/minivan and take them along, putting the older ones to work.

Family outings involving child volunteerism can be trickier. A good example might be youth baseball for the disabled. I’ve coached teams for many years. My older kids would volunteer and help on the field (‘coach’s’ responsibility) and my wife would have the younger ones there on a blanket playing, doing a little cheering, etc. (Mom’s responsibility). Afterwards, we’d all go out for ice cream.

That one has gone generational. One of my daughters now coaches a team, and my grandson helps while his sister sits with dad in the stands and cheers.

One last comment, don’t think you have to go big. Even small commitments can help convey to children how we feel about our Christian obligations. As I mentioned, my son is severely disabled. When he was still pretty small, he and I would always go to the earliest Sunday Mass together (less crowded meant less stressful for him). You tend to always see the same people, and I happened to offer to put away the hymn book for an elderly parishioner. I asked my son if he wanted to carry the book. This evolved into a self appointed job of picking up all the loose books and straightening up the racks. That grew into more ways that he could help at the Church as the ushers and other staff and volunteers got to know him.

Again, Good Luck!

 

[jmcrae]

What about a bottle drive to raise funds for a worthy cause?

Or a flyer campaign to raise awareness of an issue of concern?

 

[mom24boys]

Thank you, everyone. Your ideas have been very helpful!

 

[paidion]

Our family works at our church’s food pantry on a weekly basis. We “preload” bags of groceries for patrons, count/sort/stock food items & toiletries, record freezer/frig temps, etc. - My kids are 18, 15, 10, & 9 yrs now, but we started doing this about 4 years ago. (This has also given us a great opportunity to talk about various things while working … priceless.)

The advantage to working in this situation is that we are working independently so we can take a break to attend to the kids’ needs without disrupting anyone/thing else - tho’ that’s less of an issue now the kids are older. I think it is important to consider how what you’re doing may impact others - especially if your work involves others as well. If the younger ones are not directly helping with whatever you’re doing, can they be otherwise
occupied so as not to be a distraction to others or a pose a threat to safety (particularly their own)?

We’ve also been involved with tree planting, snow shoveling, leaf raking and other outdoor activities. We’re currently involved with helping at a nearby Sugar Bush (learning/working the various operations of maple syrup production). We get to learn about sugaring and the Sugar Bush benefits by having enough folks available to run educational programming for school children throughout the week.

I realize these are location specific activities, but some other possibilities would be contacting a local college/university or non-profit organization such as Habitat for Humanity, or even political organizations (stuffing envelopes, etc.). Organizations like the Boy Scouts, social service agencies, and even a city’s chamber of commerce may also be resources for finding good service learning opportunities for your family.

One other project that came to mind was helping to prepare sack lunches for school-aged children who are on the school lunch programs throughout the week, but don’t have anything available on weekends. This program also is done through a local church that distributes the lunches to those in need. They welcome all volunteers - the coordinator is very good at plugging folks into where they’re best suited.

I agree that it is challenging to find opportunities to volunteer - especially with small children, but it is well worth the effort. Hope this helps. Best wishes on finding opportunities that work for your family.

shalom

 

[petitfleur]

If you live in a more rual area like we do it is hard to find family opertunitys. My daughter and her friend deciced to have a bake sale and donate thier money to a local charity. It might not be what you had in mind but it is a start until the little ones get a bit bigger. I had an idea to have my children and myself make handmade encouraging cards and send them anonymously to people we know might be struggling. Some cards had jokes, or kind words just telling them someone was thinking of you. or a prayer for them.Some times it was a kid who gets teased at school sometimes it was an elderly neighbor, or a mom struggling with breast cancer. Of course we dont know how it affected them but it was a good way to become other-centered. Also, my kids enjoyed the craftiness of the project.