My son will graduate with around 600 hours of volunteering. He works every Saturday at our local hospital and also volunteers as a youth coach.
I’ve been a SAHM and have actively volunteered for my kids’ schools since they were in kindergarten. Now, I work weekly at the Humane Society and I help out at the food bank organizing donations.
One issue that has affected how I’m volunteering now is that many of the organizations near us have either become overtly political in one sense or another or they involve engaging in situations where I’ve felt unsafe. So I hang out with the cats or pack boxes at the food bank.
Our school does have a volunteer requirement, and I’m split on how I feel about it. On one hand I do think volunteering and helping out in your community and helping the less fortunate is a good thing. I work at a private school (my kids also attended this school) and live in an affluent area, where everyone is very fortunate, so I do think it’s good for the kids to realize that not everyone is that fortunate and to count your blessings. At the same time, I do think MAKING everyone volunteer is not super genuine..would some of these kids volunteer if they didn’t have to? Also, the hours they required weren’t that much. Like, the kid could volunteer at one event and that’s it. Like volunteer for one evening at the gala held by the local symphony for major donors. Or volunteer for one day at the Walk for a Cure. These aren’t bad causes at all, but it just seems too quick.
Both my kids did scouts, so they volunteered through that. In my area a lot of people are in National Charity League and Junior League, so they volunteer through those organizations and of course plenty of people volunteer through church.
Our son was a Scout from kindergarten to Eagle, hundreds of hours of volunteerism in many of the areas mentioned above. His HS also had a volunteer requirement and an ethos of ”to him whom much has been given, much is expected.” The headmaster at Choate when JFK attended emphasized, “Ask not what your school can do for you, ask what you can do for your school,” and everyone knows how JFK later re-interpreted that message. Though our son is paid for his military service, he volunteered for the commitment to his country. He has a deep understanding of his privilege; service is how he chooses to give back.
I agree. It’s a mixed bag. Doing something I suppose is better than nothing. It just doesn’t feel genuine when it’s required. And I think that so many of the opportunities miss the big point. It feels more like well off people patting themselves on the bag helping those poor people down there. You don’t get to KNOW the people you’re helping. You still see them as “them” and not “us.” You don’t recognize that every single person is just a good a person, has a unique story that is interesting and should be heard. That’s what I think serving full time for a year would help with. It’s more than just giving a little bit of your time. Time that you wouldn’t really miss.
Ironically when I got back from lunch, my co-worker’s was griping that they recently got the memo that their eldest has to complete their community service hours to get the high school graduate of distinction award. And he was scrambling trying to figure out what they could do.
Technically, I volunteered a lot when my kids were growing up (ran the local swim team for 7 years, room mom, playground duty, travel soccer manager, etc.), but I don’t see it that way. There was a need, and I could fill it. Nobody else was stepping up to the plate, so I did.
My sons started volunteering on their own at an early age, locally. We then started traveling as a family internationally to many developing countries multiple times a year. We always would carve out 1-2 days of our vacation to volunteer in a community that has no safety net. It ranged from picking out and buying 200 pairs of shoes at the souk for an orphanage in Morocco, shopping and purchasing 12 bicycles for community HIV health workers in a very rural Tanzanian community, to bringing a baseball bat and teaching baseball and hygiene to a village in Malawi. These are just a few of the many meaningful volunteer experiences for the communities we found. I am in healthcare, so we usually contacted the local health leaders of village to find what was most important that we could help with. We would always purchase locally to add to local economy and were careful in what we did. My sons took these experiences and expanded on them once they left the nest and went to college.During summers they would go with professors on summer volunteer expeditions such as : building wells in Kenya, to setting up health communication infrastructure in Ecuador. After college, one son decided to do Teach for America on a Native American Reservation for 3 years and the other did the Peace Corps in Africa for 2. I too, have much pride in that they took the volunteer ball given to them and ran with it on their own.
Reading these responses reminds me that actually my family has been involved in a lot of other volunteering that I have completely forgotten about. Perhaps I can call it “gig volunteering,” but really, I think we just called it “helping.”
We did an annual road clean up, worked to keep local trails cleared, lots of parent volunteering at school events over the years, etc… In high school, both kids volunteered at the lower schools in the district. Son did frat community events and daughter volunteered at college with all kinds of things. So now I feel better about not being a very altruistic family.
But this also makes me realize that we are really fortunate to have the time and resources to be able to give time in these ways. As in, it didn’t occur to me that all the other stuff we have been involved in over the years is “volunteering.”
My daughter’s school does have built in required volunteering in addition to tons of volunteering opportunities. She has also been volunteering since she was very young, though we had to do it with her given her age. She is now an intricate member in that community and remains so on breaks from school. She has also volunteered in other countries during home stays, etc (though I consider those light experiences). We believe that it is critical to building appreciation, empathy, and character, in addition to a host of other skills that the opportunities work offers. Volunteering in many ways gives back more to the person doing the work than they give. There are many ways to give and it is important for humanity that children be encouraged to make a difference at a young as to build life long habits of citizenship.
I’m OK with required volunteering- even if that means it isn’t genuine.
Recent conversation with a neighbor whose kid has been avoiding his volunteer requirement at his HS for as long as possible- but is now scrambling so he can graduate. "Joey ended up at the local food pantry since they were the only organization he could find that was convenient to his HS and would give him unlimited hours. His job was to take the “picker” form prepared by a social worker, and then pack the box for that particular client. He would come home very upset… people love to donate packaged Mac and Cheese, for example. but most of the boxes he was responsible for were for elderly people on low salt diets. So it took a lot of time and work to assemble those boxes. And then he had a regular list of clients- entire families- where the social worker noted “no working oven, foods must be appropriate for serving at room temperature or from a hot plate”.
I’m guessing Joey is getting his “money’s worth” from his volunteer gig. Even if it’s just one more teenager recognizing the challenges that some people/families face getting adequate nutrition (can’t eat convenience foods for health reasons; family living in a hotel room or shelter, etc.) that seems enough for me.
For those with younger students, I’d highly recommend getting lots of volunteer service in freshman & sophomore year of HS, since junior and senior years are crammed with AP classes. My D26 volunteered a ton at a local YMCA camp and another local nonprofit her freshman/soph years, was able to earn the PVSA Gold award. Once Jr year and all her APs hit, the number of hours she could realistically volunteer between school, sports and other ECs went way, way down. So while she still does some volunteering as a junior, I’m glad she received the PVSA early in her HS career. Another tip- for teens ages 11-15, the required hours for the PVSA award are substantially less than once you turn 16 and over (100+ hours for younger teens, vs 250+ hours for 16+) so if earning a PVSA is something your kid might be interested in, definitely try to do it early on.
Agree BUT-- in some cases, the more interesting volunteer opportunities are either reserved for, or specifically for, 16+.
Our local hospital- 16+ for virtually anything involving human contact (there are a couple of office type jobs in the fundraising department a 15 year old can get). The town recreation department- ditto. I don’t know if it’s a liability insurance thing, or a HIPPA “ultra cautious” matter, or whatever-- but for some opportunities it’s worth waiting for!
In Florida it is required, and there are rules about what counts,
The requirement was just recently changed to include work instead of volunteering as an option
Bright Future scholarships which can pay 75% or 100% tuition require volunteering as well
Both my kids schools (one public, one private) have required hours…pretty broadly defined (non-profit or for government, including opportunities IN school) though. I think both are only 10hrs a year.. They are tracked closely though. NHS was stricter about what “counted” for their hours.
I also think, around here, it is actually not so easy to find opportunities to work with clients directly (or even see those who are being served) until fairly old - e.g. you can’t work during open hours at the local food pantry until 16 (before that you can do behind scenes work). most tutoring is done by older kids, too.
Anyway, 1 kid volunteered like 400+ hours for the local nonprofit public access tv station (which I don’t think is what you are implying) It did definitely provide a service - livestreaming lots of events that wouldn’t happen with out the kids volunteering - some viewed by 1000s of people, but not quite what you are talking about. Other volunteers in the summer some (like 3-9 hrs a week) at a food pantry. It is actually pretty hard to get hours like that around here.
In great part this is often because it could be more work for hospital/clinic and dealing with patients is HARD and most teens aren’t ready for it so need lots of watching and training which probably isn’t any ROI in the end.
However, I think another reason is that just isn’t patient-centered to have volunteering teens helping in anything remotely important. Also, where I live, dignity and equity is very much considered when providing services. There is no “good enough” attitudes.
So it is usually 16+ for anything at a hospital, and the teen hospital roles are all like "giving directions’ or working with fundraising.
My kids did a ton of volunteer work, starting in elementary school. In fact, both sons won big community service awards here (5 kids are selected each year from many nominations) in my area for their work. They were featured on TV for their ongoing projects too.
My kids did a lot through their activities (girl scouts, sports teams, high school clubs). Even their classes in elementary (catholic) schools had class projects like gathering food for Christmas baskets but they didn’t have to do much more than tote the food I bought to school. They did get to witness the basket building, and I think some of the older kids were part of taking the baskets to a church in the area where they would be distributed. There were volunteer opportunities for the gala and church carnival but mostly for the older kids. My father was in charge of the Knights of Columbus so they sold Tootsie rolls with the Knights and did other easy jobs with them.
But where they learned the most was ‘helping’ (forced labor) their uncle with his job, which was managing a lacrosse league. It was a 401(c)3. They had to clean up the fields after a practice or game day. OMG the trash that these kids/adults would leave on the field! My kids will NEVER leave trash anywhere because they couldn’t believe how awful it looked and how much damage it did to a public park. And it wasn’t just wrappers and plastic bottles - uniforms, folding camp chairs, shoes, sweaters and sweatshirts, water bottles. This stuff was very expensive and the kids/parents never asked if there was a lost and found (there was). This week was the end of the season and thus ‘truck clean out day.’ I got 4 Hydroflask bottles, worth $25 to $40, and I have my eyes on a new chair. Nothing has changed in the last 25 years; different kids and parents leaving stuff on the fields, but they are still littering.
My kids continued volunteering in college through their sororities, clubs, sports teams. In college they were often fundraisers made into contests. The Greeks sponsored a canned food drive at DD#2’s school, and because they were mostly engineers, they turned it into a construction competition (I think they built bridges?). Lots of (fun) opportunities.
They both still will pick up trash wherever they see it.
It did definitely provide a service - livestreaming lots of events that wouldn’t happen with out the kids volunteering - some viewed by 1000s of people, but not quite what you are talking about. Other volunteers in the summer some (like 3-9 hrs a week) at a food pantry. It is actually pretty hard to get hours like that around here.