Volunteering

[Anonymous]

My older son does not like to volunteer until he has to earn SSL hours to meet minimum requirement. My younger 1st grader loves to do volunteering to help out others in need, and she feels great about it. She cannot do volunteering by herself, so I have to attend with her. Anywhere in montgomery county that I can take her to volunteering as a first grader? My another question, should I try harder to drag my older son along to volunteering event to build empathy and better self or for the better world? He just stays home to watch screentime, and he says he will do it once he gets to middle school because it is a requirement.

[Anonymous]

Get her involved in Girl Scouts, lots of volunteering opportunities if you have the right troop leaders.

[Anonymous]

Here’s the Montgomery County volunteer database, which can be filtered by age:
https://montgomerycountymd.galaxydigital.com/need/index?q=&age=6&agency_id=&min_available_slots=&dateOn=&domain_id=&distance=&zip=&need_impact_area=&need_init_id=&qualification_id=&meta%5B%5D=&meta%5B%5D=&meta%5B%5D=&meta%5B%5D=&allowTeams=&ug_id=&s=1#

[Anonymous]

We are a family who values volunteering. Our younger kids do things at home like helping prepare meals for homeless people. They also play special olympics sports as "unified partners", which isn't volunteering, but is a way to see teenagers and adults volunteering, and is also super fun. We've also done some one off things, like packing supplies at the diaper bank. I have friends who volunteer for organizations that shop and deliver food for people who are homebound. They can bring their young children along to "help" shop.

I think when you are volunteering in person with young children you have to be aware that there is a risk of your young children taking time and focus away from the work being done. It's not true in every situation, but it's something to watch out for.

Safety concerns are also something to watch out for. For example, I'll often hear people talk about park clean ups as an option for young kids, but needlesticks can be a real concern, so you need to be careful.

[Anonymous]

Look at churches near you have that community outtreach programs. Ours is in Laurel so might be too far but you dont have to attend church to help at our food pantry.

Stop letting your son watch screens so much. Limit the amount of hours in a day or days in a week. He might be more inclined to be helpful if he doesnt get to do that so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get her involved in Girl Scouts, lots of volunteering opportunities if you have the right troop leaders.

Agree! Most clean the streams/park/beaches activities will allow kids with parent volunteers.