Thank you to Doing Good Together for partnering on this post. Doing Good Together – a Minnesota-based national nonprofit – supports families in raising kids who care and contribute.
Life is busy, but as home educators we typically have more control over prioritizing our time. A valuable way we can spend our time is getting involved in our community.
Homeschool families prioritize volunteering for many reasons. Research tells us that it improves mental health and builds confidence in kids. It strengthens our family bonds and develops shared values and memories. Every volunteer activity has the opportunity to build life skills like reading maps, budgeting, writing, using tools, cooking, communication, and so many more.
Below we share some accessible ways to get involved from home or by going out in your community. While some specific organizational examples are from the Twin Cities, we hope readers in Greater Minnesota will find the general categories helpful inspiration in the search for local opportunities.
Step 1: Encourage your family members to choose volunteer activities that align with their interests, values, and skills.
Doing Good Together has provided a printable to help you take inventory. Have each family member fill it out and then come together to research organizations in your community that fit your interests.
Step 2: Sign up for a volunteer opportunity in the community or set up the supplies for a volunteer opportunity at home.
To find family volunteer opportunities in the Twin Cities metro area, we encourage you to subscribe to the monthly email list from Doing Good Together. Every month you get an email digest detailing 8 family-friendly volunteer opportunities. Even if you’re not directly located in the Twin Cities, there are often service opportunities you can do from home included. Subscribe here.
Hershey annually runs The Heartwarming Project’s Action Grants Program, which “supports young people who are advancing inclusion, empathy, kindness and connection in their schools and communities.” These grants can be used to purchase supplies for service projects you like to do with friends or family. Learn more and see if their grant period is open on their website.
Here are some great weekday opportunities to be aware of:
Make a Meal
While some organizations require meals to be made in a licensed kitchen, others accept meals or sandwiches made from home.
- Start a Meal Train for a friend or loved one after a birth, surgery or illness.
- Sign up through Lasagna Love to make a lasagna for another family in need of a meal
- Sign up as a group to make sandwiches via the Sandwich Project of Minnesota or check in with a local shelter to see if they have a street outreach program to which you could donate sandwiches or snack packs.
If a location does require a meal to be made in a commercial licensed kitchen and you are part of a church community or co-op that meets in a church with a kitchen, that space will likely meet the requirement.
Organizations such as Open Arms of Minnesota and Loaves & Fishes, invite families with youth 8 years and older to help prep and serve meals out of their kitchens.
Meal Delivery
For younger kids or those with a driver’s license, delivering meals is a great starter way to get involved in volunteering. For Meals on Wheels, you can decorate Size 7 brown bags at home and then get out and deliver meals for a couple hours once a week. Open Arms also welcomes kids to deliver meals with parents.
Food Shelf
It’s likely your local food shelf will welcome families to volunteer together or older youth to volunteer solo. For youth, 8 years and older, Second Harvest Heartland is a large regional food bank distributor and welcomes individual families or groups to volunteer throughout the week.
From home, you can run a food drive to invite donations of most needed items for your local food shelf. Design a flyer to let family and friends know. Offer to pick up items from friends and family’s doorsteps on a certain date and then have fun driving around to pick it up and donate it.
Animal Care
Consider what animal you are interested in or have experience with. By providing foster care, you can open your home to a pet who needs a temporary home. Organizations like Can Do Canines invite families to serve as sitters or trainers for future assistance dogs.
For many foster agencies, you need to be 12 years or older to volunteer, but younger kids can volunteer to dog walk or watch neighbors’ animals while they are away or make animal toys or treats from home.
Housing
Many organizations supporting unhoused individuals welcome the donation of no-sew fleece blankets and this can be a great project to rent out a free space at your local library and do with friends. In the Twin Cities, My Very Own Bed supports children moving from homelessness into stable housing with a free bed and all the sheets, comforter, etc. to go with it. This is a wonderful place to not only deliver blankets you’ve made, but to volunteer to deliver beds as a family or assemble bed frames with a small group.
Environment
During the spring/summer/fall, always carrying a trash bag with you on your walks or when you head to parks is of course a great idea to help combat litter.
Great River Greening, Friends of the Mississippi River, and the Tree Trust in the Twin Cities offer planting or invasive species removal volunteer events throughout the late spring, summer, and early fall. The Food Group welcomes groups of 10 – 40 to help glean fruit from Twin Cities area orchards and farms to be donated to food pantries.
See if your city has a storm drain stenciling program or join Adopt a Drain Minnesota to help keep local waterways clean.
Explore ways you can get involved with citizen science with the Minnesota DNR or volunteer for water monitoring for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Seniors
Senior serving organizations connect families wanting to help to seniors in need of yard cleaning or snow removal help. In Hennepin County, Minnesota, Senior Community Services plays this role. In the Southeast Twin Cities metro, DARTS is the go-to organization. Find one in your community!
Group Volunteering
Feed My Starving Children is a Christian non-profit organization dedicated to providing nutritious meals to children in need around the world. FMSC offers group food packing opportunities year-round.
Second Stork is dedicated to helping families in need by providing essential baby supplies, such as diapers, formula, and clothing, to ensure the health and well-being of newborns. They welcome groups to schedule packing sessions at their warehouse.
Every Meal combats hunger in local communities, particularly among children and families and welcomes volunteer groups to pack food at their warehouse.
Step 3: Read & Reflect
Just as important as volunteering is the reflection on the experience. Doing Good Together provides reflection questions and book ideas to match your volunteer experience. DGT also offers extensive and growing picture and chapter book lists to open up valuable, empathy-building conversations across a number of important issues.
