Help and Support: 8 Ways to Engage Your Family in Community Service

giving back • my world • bettering communities • bettering communities

by Mom It Forward on September 20th, 2011 | No Comments »

Service—Teaching our children about service has always been really important to my husband and me. When we take a meal to a friend, help a neighbor move, or visit a nearby rest home, we take our children with us. We feel that the more our children learn to serve others, the less likely they will focus on their own wants and needs. We like to call it "losing yourself in service."

When our community organized a family service project to help clean up yards in our neighborhood, we jumped at the opportunity to help. For 3 1/2 hours we joined over 15 families trimming trees and bushes, cleaning out rain gutters, and power washing windows and awnings. We even swept sidewalks and dumped garbage. The time flew by as we worked side-by-side, lending help and support to those in need.

8 Ways To Get Your Kids Involved in Community Service:

The following are eight ways you can serve your local community as a family:

Serve food at a homeless shelter.
Be a secret Santa at Christmas for a less fortunate family.
Sweep walks or shovel snow for an elderly person.
Share vegetables from garden with someone in need.
Take family to a rest home and share talents with residents.
Lead a food drive to help collect items for the Red Cross.
Put together hygiene kits for a local woman's shelter.
Take a meal to a family that is going through a hard time.

Serving with my children brings me a lot of joy. I am thankful for the opportunities I have had to serve others and hope that my children will make service a priority in their lives.