TIPS For Families

Family Community Service

Written by: Susan Brown
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension

Family Community Service projects are important to not only the community but to your family.  When life gets hectic, it is hard to think about how to work a project into the busy schedule, but the time the family spends together is well worth finding the time.  Children need to be reminded that there are others who might have a greater need.

Asking yourself where do I start to find such projects?  The local library and United Way will be an excellent source along with other civic, social and church organizations.  Challenge each member to participate in finding out what volunteer opportunities are available in your community.  Share the resources a week later and choose a family community service project. 

Ideas can vary from organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, community food pantries or food banks (food drives or stocking shelves), helping in soup kitchens, Special Olympics, etc.  

However, you can create your own family community service projects such as picking up trash in a park, making gifts for children in hospitals, visiting a nursing home (play games, talk or listen to good books), helping elderly (mow lawn, shovel snow, transport to store or worship), or working in a cemetery (mow, clean graves, place flowers on graves).

Help out at your local Humane Society by donating your time or supplies, children love animals, or organize a backpack drive for children needing supplies to get ready for school (lists are often provided by elementary schools).

Allow your family to be creative in finding and doing family community service projects.  Research indicates when children grow up in a home where service is just what people do; they continue the tradition easily as they grow up.  Allowing children to serve in ways that are fun, over time, the range of service will broaden and become more meaningful.

For more TIPS for Families, go to unlforfamilies.unl.edu. Let us know how you used this information by clicking on the TIPS Feedback Form at the bottom of this page.