Community Service can take many forms. Volunteers are needed in so many places, from libraries, to schools, to parks, to nursing homes, to charities of all kinds. When you are looking for a community service opportunity, you may come up with the best type of service, by designing and running your own community service project. Community service for you, is really the most meaningful of all.
The other great thing about designing and running your own community service project, is that you'll be fired up about it and enjoy it more. It gives you a chance to bring your true passions and talents into a setting where they have community impact and personal importance.
Let say you love designing and sewing. Some people have created projects to make warm hats for premature babies and supply them to hospitals. Some have made soft blankets to send to kids in emergency shelters. Now think of what you could do to make a difference.
Sometimes it's not about making things, it's about doing things. Some people can't stand to be indoors, so working every week at the local library is a kind of torture. But what about offering a little league in your area your help as an assistant coach? What about taking the kids to your favorite stretch of beach and making sure it's free of trash and debris? Or, contacting a community or HOA park about doing regular clean up with your friends? These are all things that need doing, and you can craft the service to things you like if you design it yourself.
Another great idea is to get your friends involved. Create a community work day and a project. This could be cleaning and repairing a playground at a nursery school or day care center, installing a garden at a senior center, or installing jumps for dirt bikes at a community park (with permission of course!). VolunteerSpot can help with simple and effective scheduling -- write up the jobs and the supplies you'll need then email out to all your friends and let them hop on board. Take photos of before and after on your work site (and photos of all the laborers) to document your project and you'll have gained both great community service and great project management experience -- all while hanging out with friends.
Community service for you is really for everyone. So get started on designing your own community service action today. For Family-Friendly Ideas about volunteering with kids, please check out our free eBook (click here).
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Pictured above is Cindy H and her third-grade daughter. Cindy is a high school teacher and mother of two from Asheville, NC. She organized a family and friends beach cleanup at their favorite vacation spot outside of Beaufort, SC.
