What To Do For Community Service Hours In High School

fifty Community Service Ideas for Teen Volunteers

Posted Nov 16, 2020, vii:20 pm by

Teenage customs service is more than something that your mom insists will look skilful on your high school resume. It tin point you to new interests, new friends, and if you're actually lucky, maybe fifty-fifty a lifelong career. And yeah, okay, it'll also look practiced on your resume.

But beyond all of that, community service instills a lifelong habit of helping others. It encourages yous to look to the needs of your community and utilise your resource to pass on good to those who need it the almost. Whether it's a service that is well-known and carries prestige or small acts like clearing trash from your favorite hiking trails. Customs service is about serving your community and keeping that tenant in mind volition help you make the correct choices in all that you do.

But where to showtime? "Volunteering" is a big word. How can you be sure you're finding opportunities that are right for you? There are always easy entry points, like the service clubs at your loftier school or religious system, but beyond that, the options tin get overwhelming.

TeenLife is here to assist! Here are 50 tips to help set you on the path to customs service superstardom. In one case you lot've read up, be sure to cheque out our full listing of teen volunteer opportunities to find something most you.

Community Service at Habitation: Be a Self-Starter

Is your schedule maxed out? Having trouble finding organizations that fit your needs? Here are x easy ways to volunteer without making any long-term commitments.

Donate dress that yous no longer vesture.Search your closet to find items in good condition that you've outgrown or don't habiliment anymore. Take them to your local Goodwill, Salvation Army, or shelter. It's also worth a call to schools and shelters in your area—most plan several clothing drives throughout the year.
Donate nutrient. Selection upward some not-perishables to donate to your local food bank.
Donate toys. Certain shelters, fire departments, and foster parent organizations, alongside organizations like Delivering Good, welcome new or slightly used toys and stuffed animals.
Pick up some trash. Head out to a local conservation area, beach, or hiking trail, and spend a few hours beautifying your surroundings. Start small in your ain neighborhood or maximize your touch by looking for events hosted by environmental nonprofits.
Pass on birthday gifts for the benefit of others. For your next birthday, inquire that people requite donations to a charity of your pick instead of gifts. When you drop off the donations, ask about volunteer opportunities.
Requite back to the troops. Send a packet or cards to deployed troops, veterans, wounded soldiers or first-responders through organizations similar Project Gratitude. Or donate used jail cell phones to assistance deployed troops communicate through Jail cell Phones for Soldiers.
Find others to bring together a shared crusade. Create or join a entrada through DoSomething.org. You can choose the cause, the corporeality of time you take bachelor and the blazon of service in which you lot want to participate (donations, contiguous, events, taking a stand, etc.).
Donate books. Collect children's books and other reading materials for shelters, libraries and schools, and then enquire if they need volunteer readers.
Let your voice be heard in politics. You know how everyone always says "write a letter to your senator?" Write a letter to your senator. Find out when your senators or representatives are holding public meetings; attend them. It's ane of the easiest means to make sure the issues you care about go to the ears of the people who can fix them. If this develops into a passion, consider attending a social justice summer plan that shows yous how to add ability to advocacy.
Help those close to home. Offer to rake leaves, shovel the driveway, or do housework for someone in need. Y'all might discover something fascinating nigh your neighbor or unearth a network of connections that was quite literally but around the corner.

Community Service Starts With Yous: Share Your Gifts, Time, and Passions with Others

Believe it or not, you're probably harboring a treasure trove of helpful skills that y'all take for granted on a daily basis. Hither are some tips to help y'all turn your hidden abilities into fulfilling service!

Help the Net be a tool for everyone. Growing up in the information age puts you at a huge reward, and it's pretty easy to spread your cognition by doing something like teaching reckoner skills at your local senior centre.
Teach your favorite subjects to those who struggle. Do yous love scientific discipline? History? Literature? Volunteer to tutor! If you excel in a particular discipline, and so share your knowledge with other students in your school who may be struggling or work with a service group to tutor underserved children.
Help spread noesis at your local museum. Do you love the wonders of natural history and the great stories of the past? You tin help proceed these institutions alive past altruistic your time and energy at your local museum. While you might not be excavating a dig site, every trivial bit helps them keep the love of science and history alive.
Help others larn English language. Even if y'all don't experience qualified to be an academic tutor, y'all can employ the language you lot already speak every bit a valuable resource. Check with local iteracy, immigrant or school groups to see if they need tutors for English language for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs.
Help future athletes discover their feet. Spend about of your free time on the field? Volunteer to autobus or referee with a youth team. Your boondocks recreation department, Boys and Girls Club or Y is probably looking for volunteers, and they should be then lucky that someone with your expertise.
Create and donate warm clothing for those in need. Wizard with a pair of knitting needles? Many knitting shops, religious organizations, and libraries take charitable knitting groups where you can put your easily to good utilise and arts and crafts blankets, scarves or afghans for people in need.
A simple word game tin become a long way. Got a big vocabulary and a little time to kill? Test your skill on freerice.com. The system will donate x grains of rice through the World Food Programme for every respond you lot get correct. Once you've made Webster proud, think of ways to collect donations for other nutrient-relief organizations near y'all.
Help a small-scale not-profit become social media stars. Believe it or not, the hours you spend on Instagram are practiced for more than merely grandparent-complaint-fuel. Many nonprofits don't accept the bandwidth to run their social media accounts, and simply by being a teenager, you're in a great position to assistance out!
Back to basics: put on a bake sale. Put the knowledge you've gleaned from 600 weekly hours of "The Great British Baking Evidence" to use. Inquiry charities in your area, and achieve out to run into if yous tin can organize an age-old bake sale for them. Nothing says "outreach" quite like a fragrant pan of lemon bars.
Share the music yous create and beloved. Practice you sing or play a musical musical instrument? Well-nigh people don't! Volunteer to requite music lessons to people in your community, or perform at local shelters or senior organizations.

Community Service Tin Start Small: Volunteer at an Event

Non ready to commit to a regular gig? Volunteer for an outcome. Nonprofits usually recruit a ton of one-off volunteers for big events like festivals or block parties. By working one of these, you'll get a feel for the manner an organization works before you've signed away your life, and you can collaborate with other people who are more involved than yous are.

Assist a walk-a-thon. Volunteer to run/walk/ride for an event, like Race for the Cure or Relay for Life.
Make a difference in a kid'due south life. Events like "Globe Foster Twenty-four hour period" ever need support, as they aim to assistance children in foster care feel loved, cared for, and special no matter what the circumstances.
Aid preserve nature. Participate in a cleanup day at a local beach, trail, waterway or park.
Share the fun with those who cannot participate. Been told you're "too old" to trick-or-treat considering yous're "in high schoolhouse" and "at this signal you're basically stealing candy from children?" Never fear. Dust off that old Jedi costume and put on your walking shoes, considering no one will judge yous if you're collecting for UNICEF this Halloween.
Be a part of those who brand Dr. Male monarch's dream a reality. Join other people in your customs for an event associated with the National Day of Service in honour of the Rev. Martin Luther Male monarch Jr. This annual solar day happens in Jan effectually the MLK vacation, just the website has ideas on how to stay involved with causes yr-round.
Join i of the many ways to celebrate Globe Twenty-four hour period. Mark your agenda! Globe Twenty-four hours is April 22, and a whole slew of nonprofits take planting or cleanup events to give the planet a well-deserved pat on the back. You lot can too check to see if in that location are any festivals in your surface area.
Practise your ceremonious rights and permit your voice be heard. Passionate most a local, national, or global result? Spurred past all those messages you wrote to your senators after reading the first office of this list? Come across if at that place are marches in your surface area that marshal with your beliefs, or—better yet—start your ain!
Assist bring awareness to the invisible community that lives amidst united states. Organize or participate in a sleep-out to connect with organizations that fight homelessness.
Put nutrient on the tabular array for those who don't have any. Thanksgiving is another rallying point for service organizations. Invite your whole family to volunteer with y'all at a local shelter near the vacation to aid in ane of their big-scale meal operations.
Bring a smiling to a kid'southward confront. Once you lot've donated toys and games, aid charities in your expanse distribute them! Local organizations oftentimes host holiday parties or gift giveaways. Check with shelters, foster organizations, libraries, and religious organizations to run across when they need volunteers or donated goods.

Community Service Can Exist an Investment: Long-term Opportunities

Organizations love it when they can find consistent help – and (fine, mom) colleges like it when you commit to an organization rather than flitting through many unlike volunteer jobs. Here'south a list of organizations nigh likely to offering long-term opportunities.

Assistance animals find forever homes. Channel the energy y'all expend sending domestic dog pictures to your group chat and start to use information technology to aid the real lives of real animals. Check the volunteer guidelines at your local animal shelter or ASPCA chapter.
Help disadvantaged kids experience heard and appreciated. Become a mentor to a younger student through organizations like Large Brothers Big Sisters. They accept students over the age of sixteen for their afterward-schoolhouse mentoring programs.
Aid stories come to life at your local library. Inquire your library to come across if they need volunteers for later on-school clubs or children's book groups. If you're lucky, you could wind up performing afternoon puppet shows in a hat and a cape or having glitter thrown at you by a pack of 3rd-graders!
Help children with disabilities shine. Piece of work with special-needs kids or adults through an organization like All-time Buddies or Special Olympics.
Deliver food for those who are homebound. Check out the opportunities at your local chapter of Meals on Wheels, which delivers nutrient to homebound residents. You'll get to see your community, forge new relationships, and mayhap even share a meal with a new friend!
Be a friendly and compassionate voice on the other end of the telephone. Volunteer at a crisis line that relies on teen volunteers as peer counselors.
Brand a friend from across the generations. Ask if you tin drop by 1 of your local elder-care facilities to chat with residents who don't accept family unit or frequent visitors.
Keep your favorite park clean. Love the outdoors? Environmental organizations need volunteers to exercise tasks like h2o testing, trail maintenance and animal management. If yous're a scientific discipline kid, this might be a perfect match for your skills.
Support parents in need during tough times by helping with childcare. Sometimes, you lot've merely got to live like you're in a teen movie. Offer to babysit! Simply rather than watch your neighbor'southward fearsome eight-year-old twins, contact a local women's shelter, foster parent grouping, or social services department to volunteer your intendance.
Help your local, small theater group keep the beloved of arts live. Tap into your love of the performing arts and volunteer to conductor at your local symphony or theater company.

Community Service Can Kickoff With a Dream and Change the Globe!

Have a unique idea and a knack for organization? Starting time your own organisation! Here's a quick guide to launching your own endeavor, and here are some of our favorite ideas from teens who've broken the mold and created their ain volunteer opportunities.

Jonathan Woods established the Under the Tree Foundation at 12, when he realized that holiday toy drives are frequently aimed at younger children and exclude teens who are too in need.
Inspired past family visits to her grandparents in India, Neha Gupta began Empower Orphans at the age of nine. The organization tends to the needs of orphaned children worldwide, with a particular focus on access to healthcare and education.
Afterward reading a story near child slavery in the Toronto Star, 12-year-old Craig Kielburger began Complimentary the Children, now known as WE Charity. The organization aims to fight kid labor on a global scale and has now reached well over ii million children.
Zach Certner and his brother started SNAP, an able-bodied plan for children with special needs, when Zach was just x years quondam. Now he's 22, and the program is still going potent.
Shannon McNamara started SHARE, a nonprofit that provides thousands of girls in Africa with books and school supplies, when she was 15.
Alexandra Scott started Alex'south Lemonade Stand up when she was diagnosed with babyhood cancer. Her goal? Use her funds to find a cure for cancer. Alex passed away in 2004 and since then, her stand and dreams went on to raise more than $1 million towards finding a cure.
Hannah Taylor, at viii years-sometime, founded the Ladybug Foundation. Now it is a clemency that actively works to promote sensation and assistance for homeless individuals.
Liana Rosenman and Kristina Saffran, teens in recovery from anorexia, started Project HEAL to raise money for teens needing handling for eating disorders.
LuLu Cerone founded LemonAID Warriors when she was 10 to assistance other kids make social activism part of their social lives.
Katie Stagliano started planting fruits and vegetables in her garden to start her hand in feeding the hungry. Her system, Katie's Krops, has helped feed thousands of people and has trained other teen gardeners to do the same.

Inspired to volunteer? Check out this link for some peachy volunteer opportunities!

Marie Schwartz

Marie Schwartz is the CEO and Founder of TeenLife Media. Marie launched TeenLife in 2007 after moving to Boston with her husband and two middle schoolhouse sons and discovering that there were no information resources for families with older children. Today, TeenLife's award-winning website lists thousands of summer and gap yr programs, schools, college admission resources and volunteer opportunities for teens around the world.