Service and Leadership Project Ideas:
Resourceful Websites for Service Projects:
www.justserve.org
www.volunteermatch.org
Local Place to Serve:
- Zion Benton Public Library
- BPMS School Library
- Feed My Starving Children
- YMCA
General project ideas to complete individually or with a small group:
- Organize a recognition program for the volunteers who lead community organizations.
- Work in a concession stand to raise money for a good cause.
- Make a gift for the secretary of a non-profit organization you are associated with.
- Take photos during an event and donate them to the event organizers.
- Volunteer to be a museum guide.
- Plan an Ethnic Awareness day.
- Design a campaign to promote tolerance and understanding of differences.
- Volunteer at a health fair.
- Volunteer as a counselor at local summer camp.
- Volunteer to do office work at a local non-profit agency.
- Set up a web page for a non-profit agency.
- Volunteer to lead a club of youth.
- Share a talent through teaching a class.
- Make birthday cards for the elderly.
- Run or walk in a charity race with friends.
- Stage a carnival to promote community spirit.
- Practice random acts of kindness (ex. Rachael’s Challenge).
- Stage a marathon to raise money for a cause.
- Volunteer to help at charity auctions.
- Volunteer your talents at a charity auction.
- Conduct a community service project during the Big Help Day in October.
- Recognize veterans in your community.
- Participate in National Youth Service Day in April.
Holiday Project
- Trim a mitten Christmas tree to donate mittens to local schools and homeless shelters.
- Organize a coat drive in which old coats are donated for use by needy people.
- Decorate a Christmas tree at a nursing home, hospital, school or homeless shelter.
- Ring the bell for Salvation Army during the holidays.
- Deliver a May Day basket.
- Conduct an Easter Egg Hunt for needy children.
- On St. Patrick's Day, don't only wear something green, care for something green! Organize a day to plant flowers.
- Make Spring baskets for seniors' residential facility, neighbors or homeless shelters.
- Make a Halloween Safety Kit for youth.
- On Johnny Appleseed Day in March, deliver apples to homeless shelters.
- July is Anti-Boredom Month. Help your friends fight boredom by doing active community service activities.
- Create a holiday safety video.
- Pick up a trail during National Trail Day in June.
Family and Your Neighborhood Project
- Design an educational game for young children to play.
- Explore history by interviewing a nursing home resident about how they grew up and creating a children’s book about their life.
- Organize a neighborhood group to plant, tend and harvest a vegetable garden.
- Make get well cards for people in hospitals and convalescent homes.
- Knit or crochet baby blankets.
- Conduct a clothing repair or sewing workshop for needy people.
- Assemble a new parent's kit for the arrival of a newborn.
- Collect old books/ magazines and donate them to day care centers.
- Collect unused make-up, perfume and other cosmetics for a center for abused women.
- Make a cancer or aids quilt or mural to remember people of who have died from these diseases and remind others of their life.
- Write a kids' book author and ask them to donate signed copies, auction the books off and donate the money to local library.
- Donate old eyeglasses to an organization or place that recycles them for the needy.
- Collect old stuffed animals and dolls, clean them up, repair them and donate them.
- Collect old clothes and donate them for a dress-up area at a daycare.
- Create a play that teaches young children how to stay safe at home.
- Design a flier of after-school safety tips and deliver it to daycare centers and grade schools.
- Conduct a bicycle rodeo to help children learn bicycle safety.
- Create an poison awareness campaign.
- Ask your fire department how you can help others learn about fire safety.
- Start a campaign against teen suicide.
- Volunteer at a police station.
- Conduct bike safety checks for your neighborhood.
- Sponsor a TV blackout event that kids spend time with their family rather than watch TV.
- Plant a garden or tree where the whole neighborhood can enjoy it.
- Set up a recycling system for your home and participate in your neighborhood curbside recycling pick-up.
- Organize a car pooling campaign in your neighborhood to cut down on air pollution.
Crime, Drugs and Alcohol Prevention/ Awareness Project
- Sponsor a drug free post prom event.
- Organize a drug free pledge campaign.
- Start a neighborhood watch program.
- Work with local government to start a victim's aid support service.
- Create a TV or radio public service announcement against drugs and alcohol.
- Paint over graffiti.
- Organize a self defense workshop.
- Create a billboard for goo graffiti, allow people to paint sections.
- Produce an anti-crime, anti-drug, anti-violence play.
- Create and distribute a list of hotlines for kids who might need help
- Paint a mural over graffiti.
- Start an anti-smoking campaign that encourages students not to smoke.
- Contact your juvenile court system. Find out if they have a "Kids in Court" program to match older kids who have been in court as abuse victims with younger kids who are facing a court experience.
School Projects
- Volunteer to be a teacher's aide after school.
- Collect coupons and small gift certificates for students who show progress in school work.
- Hold a used book sale and donate the money to the library or a teacher for books in the classroom.
- Organize a "get acquainted" lunch for students at your school.
- Tutor students who are struggling in school during Homework Club.
- Design a bulletin board in the school. Feature community minded people on a school bulletin board.
- Make new kid survival kits for new students at the school.
- Have your class hold an old videotape drive and donate them to your library.
- Make drawings and decorations for senior citizens.
- Collect school supplies to give to kids who need them.
- Tape you and your classmates reading a story and give it to a children's hospital.
- Put on an information fair on how little kids can be safe at home.
- Conduct a canned goods drive during a school event and donate the items to a local food bank.
- Arrange for student music performances during lunch.
- Start a New Buddy Club for new students.
- Create a play that teaches young children how to stay safe at home while their parents are away.
- Provide child care during a PTA meeting.
- Recognize teachers during National Education Week.
- Set up a volunteer referral service between your school or organization and other community organizations.
- Write or make a picture book to read to a younger youth in an Elementary School.
- Make simple reading and math flash cards for a preschool or day care center.
- Organize a reading hour for children at your local school or library.
- Make thank-you cards for all the teachers in the building for Teacher Appreciation Day.
- Make birthday cards/ gifts for all teachers and give to them on their birthdays.
- Form a band with your friends and give a free concert at the school.
- If you play an instrument, help a student learn to play.
- Serve as an usher at a sporting event.
- Write and product a play about a current issue.
- Serve as a coach for a youth sports team.
- Start a collection drive for old sports equipment and donate it to needy families.
Community Projects
- Help cook and/or serve a meal at homeless shelter.
- During National Nutrition month in March, organize a nutrition awareness campaign.
- Organize a food scavenger hunt to collect food for the needy.
- Alter and repair clothes for the needy, elderly and homeless.
- Clean up trash along a river or in a park.
- Gather clothing from your neighbor and donate it to a local shelter.
- Make "I Care" kits with combs, toothbrushes, shampoo, etc. for homeless people.
- Bake bread on National Bread Day in November and deliver to the hungry, homeless or just your neighbors.
- Help with repairs at a local homeless shelter.
- Donate art supplies to kids in a homeless shelter.
- Make a care package with mittens, socks, T-shirts, etc. for a child at a homeless shelter.
- Clip coupons and give them at your local food pantry or homeless shelter.
- Sponsor a food drive at your school or parent's workplace or business.
- Prepare a home-cooked meal for the residents of a nearby homeless shelter
- Bake a batch of cookies and deliver them to a soup kitchen or homeless shelter.
- Assist with sorting and organizing items donated to a homeless shelter.
- Food drive - set up collection bins in stores, banks, movie theaters, and schools.
- Assist in a shelter day-care room, taking care of children while parents look for jobs.
- Help raise money for Reading Is Fundamental Open Book Program - Have a Read-a-Thon or Book Auction.
- Make first aid kits for homeless shelters.
- Contact a homeless shelter in your community and see if they already have a reading center and need help to keep the project going.
- Set up a Saturday Reading Hour where you visit a homeless shelter once a month, bringing books to share and leave behind.
- Collect items to deliver to homeless shelters (blankets, sheets, towels, toys, books, disposable diapers.)
- Become a Big Buddy for one or more of the children at the homeless shelter.
- Make bird feeders for public places.
- Collect Old phone books in your neighborhood for recycling.
- Adopt an acre of a park or a mile of roadside to keep clean. More Information.
- Send a care package to deployed troops, veterans, or wounded soldiers. Write a thank-you letter and include some food (no homemade or canned food allowed). If you’re under 18, make sure to sign your letter with your first name only. Take a look at Operation Gratitude or Give2TheTroops to learn what to donate and who to send it to.
- Got a big vocabulary and a little time to kill? Test your skill on freerice.com. They’ll donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Program for every answer you get right.
- Volunteer to give music lessons to people in your community.
- Organize a Dance at a dance marathon. If you’re up for a 24-hour dance party, it’s a great way to raise funds.
Projects for Special Needs/ Hospitalized Individuals/ Nursing Home
- Volunteer to help at a Special Olympics event.
- Set up a buddy system for kids with special needs at your school.
- Raise money for Braille or large print books for blind or visually impaired people.
- Volunteer at an agency that works with children with disabilities.
- Read books or the newspaper on tape for blind or visually impaired people.
- Make gifts with friends for kids in the hospital.
- Bring toys to children in the cancer ware of a hospital.
- Work with physically challenged kinds on an art project.
- Clean a neighbor's yard who can not do it themselves.
- Get your class to put together a library at a children's hospital.
- Give valentines and other cards in individuals who are in the local hospital.
- Visit a rehabilitation center. Learn about patients with special needs. Volunteer to help.
- Take a pet to a nursing home.
- Do art projects with people in nursing homes (Finger painting.)
- Organize a sing-a-long.
- Offer to read to people in a nursing home.
- Write letters to people in a nursing home, if you can't go and visit.
Projects for the Elderly
- Adopt a "grandfriend"
- Rake leaves, shovel snow, clean gutter or wash windows for a senior citizen.
- During bad weather, visit seniors to make sure they have everything they need.
- Form a Mall Patrol with your friends to help seniors with their shopping.
- Form a kids car wash squad to clean and wash seniors' cars.
- Write your "grandfriend" a letter, or write letters for an elderly person.
- Hold an afternoon dance for your local nursing home.
- With the help of family and friends, hold a summertime play or songfest at a nursing home.
- Teach the elderly your dances and ask them to teach you theirs.
- Deliver meals to homebound individuals.
- Offer to pick up groceries with/for a senior citizen.
- Help senior citizens in your neighborhood obtain and install locks or smoke alarms.
- Teach a senior friend how to use a computer or the Internet.
- Get a group together to sing or present a play at a nursing home.
- Do something creative on the holidays for the Senior Citizens (cook a meal, bake cookies, dress up in costumes, etc.)
- Teach an elderly neighbor a new card game.
- Call up elderly people who live on their own to see if they need anything.
- Get with friends and form a Clean Up Club to help elderly with their house cleaning.
Nature, Animals and Environmental Projects
- Participate in the Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program, 703-790-4000.
- Start a butterfly garden at home, at a community center, senior home or school.
- Sponsor an environmental slogan contest in school.
- Build a bluebird trail.
- Get together with friends and make conservation posters for the community center.
- Encourage your parents to buy products made from recycled materials.
- Adopt an acre of rainforest.
- Plant a commemorative tree to honor someone.
- Create a children's nature garden, labeling plants and trees and scheduling guided tours.
- Replace trees that have died.
- Adopt highways/ parks and clean up clutter.
- Volunteer to separate recyclables.
- Start a recycling center at school.
- Host a recycling fair.
- Hold an invention contest with entries made out of recycled goods.
- Form a volunteer lawn mowing service with your friends.
- Promote and create a program for the 3 R's in your school: Reduce, recycle, reuse.
- Clean up a beach or riverbed.
- Start an Environmental Club.
- Hold a recycling contest.
- Volunteer at an animal shelter. Help clean up, play with the animals, or do whatever's needed to make the shelter a nicer "temporary" home for the animals.
- Become a foster parent. Some shelters have temporary foster care programs. You take care of a pet until they can find a permanent home for it.
- Find out about raising a dog for persons with disabilities.
- Raise money for pet causes by organizing a pet photo session.
- Organize a pet show for a local nursing home.
- Set up donation centers for animal products to be donated to needy.
- Learn about pet therapy and do pet therapy with your animal at nursing homes and day care centers.
- Form a "we love animals" club and volunteer to care for animals at a children's zoo.
- Plan a special awareness event during Be Kind to Animals Week in May.
- Organize a community dog wash.
- Volunteer to clean out animal shelters at homeless shelter.
- Collect and sort newspapers to donate to a local animal shelter.
- Collect food and supplies needed for a local zoo, animal shelter or food bank.
- Adopt a Zoo Animal.
- Talk to a Wildlife Conservationist or Game and Parks official. Check out their volunteer opportunities.
- Care for a neighbor's pet.
- Find out about volunteer opportunities at a local wildlife sanctuary or survival center.