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Idealist.org Kids & Teens: Family Volunteering
Volunteering with your family
If you would like to find a new, fun way to spend time with your family, consider family volunteering. Imagine you and your family planting trees with the Nature Conservatory or collecting data on dolphins with the Earthwatch Institute. Donating time with your brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters, your aunt, your foster mom, your dad, or even all 16 of your cousins offers a unique way for your family to spend time together while helping your community.
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Why volunteer with your family?
Here are some of the best reasons we've found for volunteering with your family.
A group of people can get more done than just one person alone.
Helping out with a family member can ease the apprehension of starting a new and unfamiliar project.
Family volunteering is a concrete way to share ideas about compassion and giving with your family.
Young people who volunteer with their families become adults who volunteer with their families.
Volunteering with your family means quality time spent with each other as well as a service to others.
Please read the articles listed below to find out more about family volunteering:
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Finding volunteer opportunities with your family
Before you start your search, brainstorm with your family about how you would like to help. Would you like to work indoors or outdoors? Would you like to do hands-on work? Would you like to work close to home or in another country? Which issues interest you—homelessness? The environment? Try to make sure that everyone in the family who is going to volunteer participates in the discussion and is happy with the outcome. Keep in mind that activities like office work, which generally are accomplished by one person, are not great for a family. Look for bigger tasks—helping to build a house with Habitat for Humanity, for example—where everyone can be involved.
There are several ways to go about finding a volunteer opportunity for your family:
Search the Idealist nonprofit organization directory
Over 50,000 nonprofit organizations from around the world are listed on Idealist. If you've determined the issue you'd like to work on (for example, environment, poverty, homelessness, or human rights), search the Idealist nonprofit database for organizations that work on that issue. Contact the organizations that seem to match your interests and together you can figure out how you and your family can support them.
Contact your local volunteer center
Your local volunteer center can offer advice on how to find a volunteer opportunity for your family. The links below can help you find your local center:
The International Association for Volunteer Effort
This organization was created in 1970 by a small group of women from around the world who shared a common vision of how volunteers could contribute to the solution of human and social problems and to the development of bridges of understanding among people of all nations. They have a directory of volunteer centers in 100 different countries worldwide. On many of these organizations homepages you can find an even more complete listing of centers in that specific country, making it simple to locate the bureau closest to you. Go Volunteer
Go Volunteer is an Australian organization that offers all the information you might need to find out about volunteer opportunities in Australia. If you click on "About Us" on the homepage and then "VA's Network" on the next page, you will be brought to a listing of regional volunteer resource centres throughout Australia. Volunteer Connections
The Points of Light Foundation and the National Volunteer Center Network have created a map of volunteer centers in the United States. See the Points of Light Foundation's Kids Care Club site for more ideas. VolunteerMatch
VolunteerMatch offers a database of volunteer opportunities in the United States searchable by zip code. Opportunities that are appropriate for groups or families are marked with a little brown "G" in your search results. do-it.org
do-it.org is an online resource for finding volunteer opportunities in the United Kingdom. In order to find a volunteer opportunity, enter your area of interest or your post code in the "Want to Volunteer?" section.
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Family volunteering organizations
Doing Good Together
Doing Good Together offers a variety of materials and services to make it easy for families to spend time volunteering together. The site provides practical tools to help families identify interests, find projects, and learn more about how to make their volunteer experience a positive one.
Family Cares
Family Cares was founded by Deborah Spaide (also the founder of Kids Care) in order to promote compassion and the spirit of charity in children through hands-on family projects that help others in need. The Family Cares site offers advice on involving families in volunteering and lots of project ideas. National Family Volunteer Day
The Points of Light Foundation helps coordinate an annual day dedicated to family volunteering. For more information on National Family Volunteer Day and ways to get your family involved, visit their site.
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Volunteer abroad with your family
Would you like a change from your typical family vacation? Consider taking a volunteer vacation. Imagine exploring new lands and cultures while making a difference in the world. Once you have decided to take a volunteer vacation there are many questions to address. Where would you like to go? How long would you like to stay? How much free time would you like? You should also do background research on the organizations that offer volunteer vacations.
In an article from the Wall Street Journal (October 22, 2001, p. R5), writers Michael and Laura Murphy recommend that people interested in volunteer vacations take the following steps:
Study a project's purpose and inquire into the history and success of the project.
Obtain brochures from the organization and visit their website to learn as much as you can about them.
Make sure the interests of the organization are nonprofit in nature.
Telephone the organization if you have any questions or uncertainties.
Below you'll find several organizations that offer volunteer vacations around the world. Keep in mind that you and your family will have to pay program fees and airfare.
Global Citizens Network
Global Citizens Network offers families the opportunity to interact locally and internationally with people of diverse cultures who share common global values, in order to develop creative and effective local solutions to global problems. Families are welcome to join volunteer teams in New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico, Nepal, Guatemala, Kenya, and Tanzania. The program fees range from $650 to $1950 not including airfare. Children between ages 8 and 12 years old participate for half price.
Cross Cultural Solutions
Cross Cultural Solutions sends volunteers abroad to provide humanitarian assistance in Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Peru, Russia, Tanzania, and Thailand. Visit their site to read some of the program's family volunteering success stories and then get involved in your own adventure. Program fees begin at $2,279 for two weeks and vary depending on country and duration of stay.
Amizade Volunteer Programs
If you and your family are interested in volunteering to save the rainforests, Amizade can help you. They offer programs in places like the Brazilian Amazon, the Bolivian Andes, Australia, the Navajo Nation, and the greater Yellowstone region. People under 18 must volunteer with an adult. The programs cost from $348 to $2,470 per person, depending on locations and duration.
Earthwatch Institute
The mission of the Earthwatch Institute is to promote sustainable conservation of our natural resources and cultural heritage by creating partnerships between scientists, educators and the general public. You and your family can work towards the conservation of snow leopards in Nepal or help archeologists at the Roman Fort on the River Tyne in England, for example. Program fees range from about $700 to $4,000. The minimum age to participate is 16 years old.
Global Volunteers
Global Volunteers sends teams of volunteers to work with local people on human and economic development projects identified by their community as important to long-term development. Global Volunteers offers special group volunteering programs and requires that children under 18 come with an adult. The program costs about $1,370 to $2,750 per person.
The Global Village Program, Habitat for Humanity International
Habitat's Global Village Program offers volunteers the opportunity to work alongside members of a host community in over 80 countries building affordable housing. The international programs are open to young people accompanied by an adult. Minimum age to participate in the U.S./Canada program is 16. Program fees range from $1,100 to $2,200 per person but will be discounted for each member of a family who participates.
Global Vision International
Global Vision International offers family volunteering opportunities in Borneo, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Vanuatu. GVI programs focus on conservation projects and a range of humanitarian initiatives. Program fees range from $650 to $3,000. All children under the age of 18 will receive a third off the total price on all of GVI's family volunteering projects.
CHOICE Humanitarian
The Center for Humanitarian Outreach and Intercultural Exchange(CHOICE) offers solutions to the hardships of poverty in the rural villages of the world with simple technologies, self-help initiatives and public awareness.With Choice Humanitarian you and your family could volunteer to help indigenous people of Bolivia, Mexico, Nepal, Vietnam, or Kenya. Children between the ages of 13-18 must be accompanied by an adult. The costs of the 12 day expeditions range from $1,000 to $2,000 dollars excluding airfare.
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Examples of family volunteering
These organizations are just a few of the hundreds that offer volunteer opportunities appropriate for a family. Use this list to get started with some great ideas and to get a sense of what types of things to look for. And don't forget to check out what programs your community of faith offers. Youth groups and church groups, for example, are also a great place to look.
Hands On Miami
Hands on Miami, one of the many local affiliates of the Hands On Network (formerly CityCares), was created in 1993 by people in search of a user-friendly approach to community service. Each month, Hands on Miami organizes 10 to 15 family-friendly volunteer projects through their evening and weekend volunteer program that include activities like serving meals to the homeless.
The Volunteer Center of Durham
This organization's mission is to mobilize people and resources to solve community problems in Durham, North Carolina. The Volunteer Center is a member of the Points of Light Foundation. Look here for a comprehensive list of possible family activities to inspire you. Imagine your family recording books on tape for the blind or delivering hot meals to those in need for Meals on Wheels, for example.
The Nature Conservancy
Since 1951, the Nature Conservancy has been working to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. Through them you can find fun activities for your family like planting trees for a day or removing invasive species from your local park.
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