Volunteer Ideas

Ways to get connected - Make a difference become a volunteer today!


Libraries - Many libraries need help:
reshelving books
running children's programs
making books available to the community
Contact a local library for volunteer opportunities in your area.

Senior Citizens - Many senior citizen centers offer volunteer programs to provide friendship and community activities to senior citizens. If you would like working with senior citizens, call a senior citizen center in your neighborhood and see what kinds of volunteer programs they have available. Some ideas are:
do yard work at an elderly person's home -- clean up and spruce it up.
play chess or checkers with an elderly person regularly
lead activities such as free weights and exercise, stretching, or yoga at a senior center

Blood Banks - Volunteer opportunities exist in blood banks across the country. Find a local blood bank in your area of town.

Political Campaigns - If it's an election year, there are thousands of opportunities to volunteer in political campaigns around the country. You can learn more than you imagine by helping a candidate win election. Pick a candidate whose ideas you believe in (either on the local, state or national level) and volunteer to be a part of his or her campaign.

Parks & Outdoor Areas - Many city and state parks offer volunteer programs, and in these programs you can do any number of things, including:
educational programs
trail construction and maintenance
pick up/clean up trash
plant flowers, shrubs, or trees
Contact a park system near you and see what options are available if you are interested.

Food Banks - Food banks often work with homeless shelters, but they also serve poor people living in the community (especially around the holidays). By volunteer at a food bank, you could:
collect food
manage their inventory
distribute food to those in need.

The Heart Truth

Women's Health and Wellness
As a wife and mother, Mrs. Bush believes it is important that women make a commitment to a lifestyle that promotes lifelong health, not only for every woman's own benefit but also for the benefit of family and loved ones. Preventive screenings, healthy eating and routine exercise are vital steps all Americans must take to ensure good health. Mrs. Bush believes it is especially important to educate women about the risks of heart disease. She also actively supports the fight against breast cancer and the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.
Heart Disease
In 2008 Mrs. Bush marked her fifth anniversary as The Heart Truth ambassador. Mrs. Bush has traveled throughout the United States to talk with women and raise their awareness of the risks of heart disease.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States for both men and women. Although heart disease deaths have been decreasing, nearly 650,000 Americans die of the condition, and more than half of them are women.
Sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The Heart Truth campaign has helped save tens of thousands of women's lives.
More women are aware that heart disease is their number one cause of death. Today, 62 percent of women recognize that heart disease is the most common cause of death for women, up from only 34 percent in 2000.
Fewer women are dying of heart disease. Heightened awareness is leading to action. The last six years saw the first decline in decades in the number of heart disease deaths in women. The yearly decrease in deaths from heart disease since 2000 amounts to 36,703 lives saved.
The Heart Truth campaign is empowering American women to fight back against heart disease, which is often preventable. By leading a heart-healthy lifestyle-eating wisely, getting physical activity, maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, seeing a physician for routine preventive screenings, and controlling high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes - people can reduce their risk for heart disease by as much as 82 percent.

Family Volunteering Ideas

Want to come up with a great project idea for yourself, your coworkers, or your family, but don't know where to begin? Here are some creative and different volunteer projects you can do as a family or a group.

Art ideas - Organized by skills

Trash to treasure - A list of volunteer projects you can do with recycled materials around your home.

Idea calendar - A few suggestions of family volunteer ideas you and your family can do throughout the year!

Volunteer projects around your home - Don’t feel like leaving your house? Here is a list of volunteer projects that can be done without having to travel anywhere.

Animal Ideas - A list of projects your family can do that involve animals (organized by age)




General Project Ideas for:

Elementary School Classrooms - Kids can make a big difference in the world! They have a lot of love and compassion, as well as a need to understand the world and help solve its problems. Volunteering can have an extremely beneficial effect on this age group. Just look at these statistics*:
Among those individuals who engaged in a volunteer activity with a family member, 72% reported being active in volunteering activities as a child.
There were also high levels of recollection in seeing other family members volunteering. Eight out of ten recalled seeing a family member when they were young.
When asked whether one or both parents volunteered in community activities, 67% said yes.
Here are some creative volunteer projects that would be great for your elementary school age group and their family members!


Middle School Groups - Middle School age groups
You want to be involved and make a difference in the world. You know how important it is to serve others, but don’t know exactly what you can do to get started.
Here are some creative volunteer projects great for your middle school age group and family members!

High School Clubs -You are talented and enjoy many things. You want to make a difference in the world. Think about things you are passionate about, find needs in the community that match your interests, and develop a plan of action to bring about these changes in the world and in your community.
While you’re at it, invite some adults in your life to remember what is really important (sometimes they become too busy with other things)! Invite family members to work with you (and your club). You will find you can do even more when you work together.

College Students -Are you interested in volunteering? Great! As college students, you are often not restricted by the age requirements of younger volunteers and have more flexibility in terms of the hours you are able to help out. You can make a big difference in your community and world!
Many colleges and universities require you to complete service learning projects and/or a set amount of volunteer hours before graduation. Whatever your reasons are for wanting to volunteer, there are plenty of great projects you and your friends can do to help those in your communities. Additionally, volunteer projects that are tailored around your fields of study often can you provide valuable, hands-on experiences in specific trades that you cannot get in the classroom. Here are a few ideas to get you started:*
Raise awareness of a world issue (such as AIDS, homelessness, etc) at a fundraiser for your group. For example, students from the Yale School of Art created a fund-raising event in which they discussed the issue of AIDS through a series of readings and remembrances of past AIDS victims.
If you are a musician or just musically talented, put together a band and give free concerts to the community
Create promotional material for a local non-profit agency
Present your trade to community members. For example, invite children from local schools to a demonstration on web design or engineering.
Tutor or mentor students in your community
Hold a canned goods drive for Thanksgiving or Christmas at your college or universities' gym, or, if the weather permits, outside in a central location
If there is a grade school near you, provide local students with a fun and safe afterschool environment through programs such as homework help, tutoring, and reading programs

Faith-Based Initiatives -You talk about love and serving others, read about it, feel it, and know that it’s important. Your beliefs have changed your life. You want to bring about changes in your community and world and show that faith is also a principle of ACTION!
Here are some creative volunteer projects great for your faith based group and family members!

Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts -Here are some creative volunteer projects great for your scouting group and family members. Volunteering can be an activity that has one of the biggest impacts on Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts! We hope your group finds an activity that will be meaningful for them.

Corporate Groups -There are many great volunteer projects for corporate groups to get involved in. Here are just a few to get you started




Be a Hero!

The world needs more heroes! If you are proactive, optimistic, and who lift and inspire people around them to build community, you have the potential to be a hero. All you have to do is be a small agent of change who is able to identify improvements in the community and devise an action plan.


In the words of Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

10 Reasons Why Volunteering is better then Traveling

1. Eating banana pancakes and lying in a hammock is a great way to live. I won’t deny it. But through volunteer work you can be proud of what you did today, rather than revelling in doing nothing.
2. Spend a while somewhere and you find all the coolest places. By the time the Lonely Planet catches up - the party is already over.
3. You learn the language. That includes the swear words.
4. You learn that local people are not always trying to rip you off. More often than not, that REALLY is the price.
5. Because staying in one place means less plane travel. Travel is good. Planes are not good. It’s tricky but a longer time in fewer places is a step in the right direction.
6. You get to know the neighbourhood. In Vietnam I’d say: “HALLO!” 30 times before I reached the end of my street. Even my grumpiest moods were transformed.
7. You enjoy all the seasons. Hot, cold, rain. After I couldn’t get any wetter, walking to work up to my waist in water was actually one of the funniest, silliest, most joyous things I have ever done.
8. You learn not to wear stupid clothes. I’m sorry but backpackers walking around winter in Hanoi dressed in tiny shorts, singlets and flip flops look ridiculous. Where’s the beach? Not here dude.
9. If you choose the right volunteer organization, they will support you. I recommend VSO as it’s better to scrimp on their stipend wages than have to budget your own meagre savings or, worse still, shamefully ask mum and dad for more cash.
10. Because your efforts will never be forgotten by those that most needed your help. Sorry, but no one remembers a traveler passing through.
The world continues to be messed up without us. And maybe it’s selfish but at least our conscience is clear.
I can also tell you, as wonderful as traveling is - volunteering is on a different planet altogether. I never knew before how lucky I am and how happy I could be.

Happy Fourth of July

Independence Forever: Why America Celebrates the Fourth of July

The Fourth of July is a great opportunity to renew our dedication to the principles of liberty and equality enshrined in what Thomas Jefferson called "the declaratory charter of our rights."
As a practical matter, the Declaration of Independence publicly announced to the world the unanimous decision of the American colonies to declare themselves free and independent states, absolved from any allegiance to Great Britain. But its greater meaning—then as well as now—is as a statement of the conditions of legitimate political authority and the proper ends of government, and its proclamation of a new ground of political rule in the sovereignty of the people. "If the American Revolution had produced nothing but the Declaration of Independence," wrote the great historian Samuel Eliot Morrison, "it would have been worthwhile."
Although Congress had appointed a distinguished committee—including John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston—the Declaration of Independence is chiefly the work of Thomas Jefferson. By his own account, Jefferson was neither aiming at originality nor taking from any particular writings but was expressing the "harmonizing sentiments of the day," as expressed in conversation, letters, essays, or "the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc." Jefferson intended the Declaration to be "an expression of the American mind," and wrote so as to "place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent."
The structure of the Declaration of Independence is that of a common law legal document. The ringing phrases of the document's famous second paragraph are a powerful synthesis of American constitutional and republican government theories. All men have a right to liberty only in so far as they are by nature equal, which is to say none are naturally superior, and deserve to rule, or inferior, and deserve to be ruled. Because men are endowed with these rights, the rights are unalienable, which means that they cannot be given up or taken away. And because individuals equally possess these rights, governments derive their just powers from the consent of those governed. The purpose of government is to secure these fundamental rights and, although prudence tells us that governments should not be changed for trivial reasons, the people retain the right to alter or abolish government when it becomes destructive of these ends.
The remainder of the document is a bill of indictment accusing King George III of some 30 offenses, some constitutional, some legal, and some matters of policy. The combined charges against the king were intended to demonstrate a history of repeated injuries, all having the object of establishing "an absolute tyranny" over America. Although the colonists were "disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable," the time had come to end the relationship: "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government."
One charge that Jefferson had included, but Congress removed, was that the king had "waged cruel war against human nature" by introducing slavery and allowing the slave trade into the American colonies. A few delegates were unwilling to acknowledge that slavery violated the "most sacred rights of life and liberty," and the passage was dropped for the sake of unanimity. Thus was foreshadowed the central debate of the American Civil War, which Abraham Lincoln saw as a test to determine whether a nation "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" could long endure.
The Declaration of Independence and the liberties recognized in it are grounded in a higher law to which all human laws are answerable. This higher law can be understood to derive from reason—the truths of the Declaration are held to be "self-evident"—but also revelation. There are four references to God in the document: to "the laws of nature and nature's God"; to all men being "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights"; to "the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions"; and to "the protection of Divine Providence." The first term suggests a deity that is knowable by human reason, but the others—God as creator, as judge, and as providence—are more biblical, and add a theological context to the document. "And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God?" Jefferson asked in his Notes on the State of Virginia.
The true significance of the Declaration lies in its trans-historical meaning. Its appeal was not to any conventional law or political contract but to the equal rights possessed by all men and "the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and nature's God" entitled them. What is revolutionary about the Declaration of Independence is not that a particular group of Americans declared their independence under particular circumstances but that they did so by appealing to—and promising to base their particular government on—a universal standard of justice. It is in this sense that Abraham Lincoln praised "the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times."
The ringing phrases of the Declaration of Independence speak to all those who strive for liberty and seek to vindicate the principles of self-government. But it was an aged John Adams who, when he was asked to prepare a statement on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, delivered two words that still convey our great hope every Fourth of July: "Independence Forever."