Community service projects for kids can bring so much joy when you are working on a project together. When you work together on something that gives to others or benefits others, it fulfills a need in your life to do something significant that has a purpose.
Incorporating family community service projects with your kids into your schedule can bring your family numerous blessings and much happiness. But sometimes it can be hard to come up with kid-friendly community service project ideas that are appropriate for different ages.
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Why Should you do Family Service Projects with Your Kids?
As the seasons change, and new chapters of the year unfold, it is a great time to assess and intentionally plan for community service projects that help your children learn how to give to others. I recently watched a Ted Talk entitled “How to Be Happy Every Day: It Will Change the World,” by Jaqueline Way.
Jaqueline was looking for ways to teach her children to be happy and to choose happiness. She did this by incorporating daily acts of service into the family schedule. Her child was only 3 years old at the time, but together they started looking for ways to serve others in small ways that weren’t difficult, expensive, or time-consuming.
Often, we do community service projects that are one-time events and then we move on with our lives. But, what if you added a daily component of family service into your family planning? How might this small shift in focus change the world you live in? How might it change the way your children grow up viewing the world around them?
Teaching your children the value of serving others will make a huge impact on the way they value those around them. Finding kid-friendly community service projects that you can do together makes it all the more fun.
Family Projects for Community Service
Finding the perfect community service project for your family might feel a bit daunting, but this list will help you find an easy way to get your family involved in serving your community. These kid-friendly community service project ideas can be adapted to children of all ages.
- Help at the food bank or soup kitchen.
- Make sharing bags to give to the homeless or women’s shelters. Fill bags with hygiene supplies, a pair of socks, gloves, a hat, bottled water, or small snacks, and keep the bags in your car to share with people you meet.
- Clean up trash around your church or school.
- Make cookies and share them with a lonely neighbor or friend.
- Deliver a meal to a sick friend or new mom.
- Deliver a meal to a lonely elderly person and stay to eat it with them.
- Pick up trash and recycle cans and bottles.
- Walk dogs or play with cats at the local animal shelter.
- Give one hour to help a teacher. Cleaning, prepping, laminating, cutting, shopping, etc.
- Read or play a game with someone in a nursing home.
- Walk an elderly neighbor’s dog, or better yet go for a walk with both of them. Listen to their stories.
- Rake leaves or clean out a flower bed for a neighbor or friend.
- Volunteer to babysit for a single mom to give her time to run errands or just take a break.
- Run errands for an elderly neighbor or friend. Get their grocery list and pick up what they need while you are at the store.
- Give flowers. Buy a bunch at the store or grow an abundance in your garden.
Service Projects You Can do From Home
There are many community service projects you can do from home. Some of these may require delivery at the end, but the bulk of the project can be done from home. Depending on the ages of your kids, these kid-friendly community service project ideas can be adapted to meet the needs and abilities of your children.
- Write a thank you card to your local firefighters and law enforcement officers and deliver the card with a plate of goodies.
- Appreciate your pastor and family.
- Make blankets for Project Linus. There are lots of simple and easy fleece blankets you can make with children without even needing a sewing machine.
- Do a video call with grandparents or a relative who might be lonely or sick.
- Invite a lonely friend for dinner.
- Sort through your clothes and donate your outgrown clothes to a local women’s shelter.
- Share toys and school supplies with the women’s shelter.
- Thank a teacher.
- Leave a thank you card for your mail carrier.
- Gather up old blankets and towels and donate them to a local animal shelter.
- Send cards to grandparents and other people who might be lonely. Changing seasons bring feelings of loneliness.
- Plant a big garden and share your abundance with others.
- Grow flowers and share bouquets with others. Dahlias and zinnias are very easy to grow and usually produce an abundance of blooms.
Simple Community Service Ideas for Kids
Teaching your child to look for ways to help others, will help them develop a habit of service to others. Each of these community service project ideas is completely free and requires nothing but a willing spirit. Kid-friendly community service at it’s best!
- Take someone’s shopping cart back to the store when you arrive in the parking lot.
- Hold the door open for someone else.
- Let someone know you are praying for them.
- Send a thank you card/email/text to someone and thank them for being a part of your life.
- Give a compliment.
- Look others in the eye and smile.
- Let someone else go first.
- Say thank you.
- Give a hug for no reason.
- Be a secret helper. Doing something anonymously can be a lot of fun! Here’s a secret service project our family participated in.
- Think about the jobs someone else has to do in your family and do one of their jobs for them.
- Set the table without being asked.
- Play with your pet and clean up after them.
- Take out the trash.
- Clean the toilet.
- Vacuum or wash the car.
- Make someone’s bed.
RELATED: Community Service for Kids-Simple Ways to Serve Today
It is more blessed to give than to receive. Act. 20:35
Final thoughts on community service with kids…
As you incorporate intentional acts of community service, your children will see the value and experience the joy that comes from serving others. Whether you work on community service projects that are big and ongoing, or you do some at-home service projects, they will bless others! These kid-friendly community service project ideas can be done by your own family, a class at school, or multiple families working together.
The more you involve your children in intentional community service, the more they will think about others and how they can be helpful in their community.
Are you looking for a bigger family service project? Check out our family’s experience raising puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind.
You may also like these Biblical parenting links…
- Tips for Sitting in Church with Kids
- Bedtime Prayers – Creating an Evening Routine
- 52 Memory Verses for Kids to Memorize
- Family Worship Ideas with Kids
- Morning Prayers for Families
- Teaching Kids to Pray
- 9 Powerful Prayers for Your Daughter
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These are amazing ideas for service projects!!! We are always looking for new ideas. This definitely helps.
Wow! I love these! While I try to practice these things often, these are a nice reminder of other wonderful things I can do for others. Thanks for putting this together!
These are great ideas! I love getting kids involved and helping them to grow into a giving lifestyle when they are young.
Yes, it’s never to early to teach and practice kindness.
Great list! I love the volunteering at the animal shelter ideas!! I definitely want to start doing that!
I’m sure they will be very grateful! ?
You have a great list here! I like the one about walking a dog at a shelter! That would be fun for the kids!
Fun for the dog as well. ?
These are super helpful! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I can increase the empathy in my boys (especially my oldest). We will definitely be doing some of these during this season! Serving together as a family just might be exactly what we need right now! Thank you!
I’d love to hear about your experiences!
These are all great ways to get your family working together to serve others!
I love your list of service projects! It is so important to teach our children about thinking of others and showing them acts of service and kindness should be in our every day lives. Not to mention, it’s a great reminder for us parents that seem to be so busy, we don’t even give it a second thought some days. Thanks for the list!
You are welcome! ?
I love this! Serving as a family is so important.
Our family does blessing bags for the homeless. Keeping them on hand so that when we see someone in need, we have something available to give. My husband will often get out and pray with them as he gives them the bag. Love these ideas, definitely a reminder of some things I can easily be doing!!
What a beautiful gift you are giving by taking the time to reach out to those who are often ignored.
This is such a great list!! I am going to read over these with my daughter and let her choose three that we can do this month. <3
What a great idea! Our kids love to be involved!
This is a great list that I believe can be put to good use – especially at this time of year. I will be saving this post for later, with the aim of doing several things on the list 🙂
Someone will be blessed when you share but the blessings go both ways.
So many of these are already on our to-do list but now there were many more added because of this post! Thanks so much for sharing. Now we just gotta put our boots to the ground and make it happen!
Yes, turning the to-do list into blessings and memories! 🙂
this is an awesome list. I think we need to encourage others to give back more like this
Yes, if we each did something, what a difference it would make in the world!
These are such great ideas! It’s so important to instill an attitude of service at a young age by setting a positive example and enabling them to help. Love this!
So true! Our children value what they see us valuing!
I love all of these suggestions! I really need to start getting involved in more intentional service to others again. Since I’ve had my son and currently pregnant with my daughter, I have grown lax in this arena. I think it’ll be great to expose my son and daughter (when they’re a little older) to the blessings of serving others!
There are so many ways we can encourage children at any age to be kind to someone else.
Amazing ideas! My husband and I were just talking about doing more things beyond donations to give back. Thank you for creating this list!
Good for you! Volunteering never goes out of style!
Love these ideas! We are huge dog lovers, so I’m totally excited about the idea of walking shelter dogs. My kids love gifting things to our mailman too. Wonderful list 🙂
I love that your kids are already giving back to others.
my lad and I volunteer at the food bank. I really need to involve him when I deliver flowers or cookies to the old folks home.
I’m sure the older folks would love to see him as well!
I have never heard of Project Linus before! That seems like an ideal way for me to serve. Thank you so much for the amazing ideas!
Absolutely! They have local chapters in lots of locations.
The simplest thing have the biggest ripples! I am planning to make Christmas cards for the elderly this year with my kids and pass them out together!
Oh, that will be such a lovely gift to give your kids and their new friends.
What a great list of ideas. I especially like; Run errands for an elderly neighbor or friend. Get their grocery list and pick up what they need while you are at the store. I’d going anyway, if I can offer some help what a great win/win situation.
This would be such a gift to them as well.
I love these ideas! I’m planning on baking cookies for our local fire department this holiday season
I am certain they will be thrilled with your gift and visit!
What a great reminder to be intentional about our acts of service to others! Mailing cards is one of my family’s favorite things to do for others. With email and texting, it’s almost a lost art, but a very necessary act of kindness!
Mailing cards may be a lost art, but we all still love to receive mail! 🙂 What a blessing you are to others.
These are great ideas and a good reminder see that we need to teach our kids kindness. I just signed my family up to help make goodie bags at a Thanksgiving meal at our church. I’m looking forward to it!
That’s awesome! I’m sure your family will be blessed by sharing.
I love the idea of writing a card to firemen or policeoffers. Since my dad was in the military, we always sent cards to service members during the holidays.
I love that! I’m sure it was a huge blessing to the ones who received your cards!
These are some great ideas! I love the idea of making cookies and giving it out. We have a serious homelessness problem!
These are all such great ideas. I love the idea of packing little bags to give to the homeless. We may have to do that this year.
I sure that you will be blessed by doing it as well as those who receive them!
I love the idea of family service projects! This is such a great way to bond together as a family while teaching your kids the value of serving others.
Yes, doing things for others can become some of your favorite memories later.
I love these so much! Definitely saving this list for later! This is so important
I love the idea of family service of projects By doing that you are blessed with others