All of you making other suggestions to deter OP realize she may already do those things right? Maybe she wants more, and wants to have her kids see and do more?

OP Vale united Methodist church in Oakton has a group that goes to Guatemala. I’ve been twice. My kid is 10 now and might go with me in 2024. She would be just 12. The group started with building stoves in their houses, assisting professionals bricklayers etc. It has expanded into building a playground at a local school and working to provide supplies in schools. It was life changing for me and I think it’s a great way for kids and adults to do good and be outside their own comfort zone. We do still do local things to help in our own neighborhood. We serve others via the food bank once a month, and make sandwiches once a month too for Elizabeth House in Laurel. It’s not like you can only do one or the other. Building connections and relationships with other people is a good thing. Ignore the naysayers.

Anonymous wrote:Help an elderly neighbor or family member with their yard work, house work, snow shoveling, etc.

Make meals for a homeless shelter or food bank.

Pick up trash in your neighborhood/around the city.

Contact a local shelter to see what sorts of goods they are in need of most, then go shopping with your kids to purchase needed items.

Have your kids go through their toys and clothes, choose which ones they no longer play with/use, and then either sell them and donate the $$ to a charity, or donate the objects to a local organization such as a women's shelter.

Make care packages for homeless people- gloves, granola bars, bottled water, etc. Carry them with you and hand them out when you have the opportunity.

Sponsor a child through Angel Tree, Toys for Tots, etc. We do this every year around the holidays and my kids love, love, love picking out the gifts for our 'recipient.'

You don't need to leave the country, or the city, or even your own neighborhood to serve others. Nor do you need a formal "program" like a mission trip. Regularly doing the types of things listed above will go much further in instilling service and generosity in your children than a one-time mission trip.

I know a couple of families who almost always have care packages with them. One 14 year old has started knitting scarves and mitts all year. She is responsible for organizing the family's recycling. That money goes toward the food and water they hand out.

DC Diaper Bank is another place that makes it easy for young kids to volunteer.

https://greaterdcdiaperbank.org/

Anonymous wrote:https://tinybeans.com/dc/places-where-you-can-volunteer-with-your-kids-dc/

We Are Family is one organization listed there and I know the guy who runs it. His kids are frequently there helping and I know they always welcome help.

+1

Help an elderly neighbor or family member with their yard work, house work, snow shoveling, etc.

Make meals for a homeless shelter or food bank.

Pick up trash in your neighborhood/around the city.

Contact a local shelter to see what sorts of goods they are in need of most, then go shopping with your kids to purchase needed items.

Have your kids go through their toys and clothes, choose which ones they no longer play with/use, and then either sell them and donate the $$ to a charity, or donate the objects to a local organization such as a women's shelter.

Make care packages for homeless people- gloves, granola bars, bottled water, etc. Carry them with you and hand them out when you have the opportunity.

Sponsor a child through Angel Tree, Toys for Tots, etc. We do this every year around the holidays and my kids love, love, love picking out the gifts for our 'recipient.'

You don't need to leave the country, or the city, or even your own neighborhood to serve others. Nor do you need a formal "program" like a mission trip. Regularly doing the types of things listed above will go much further in instilling service and generosity in your children than a one-time mission trip.

Have the kids help write out the checks for whatever organization you support and actually physically volunteer at the SPCA.

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thank you for those who provided links to opportunities. For those who continue to discourage our desire to volunteer and serve with our children, please keep your comments to yourself. They do not provide the information I requested and are not helpful at all.

OP your kids are too young to do this abroad.

Not to mention most of those are scams.

You would better serve your kids by finding something close to home in their community.

By the way surely you noticed you posted on social media hence you get responses you won't like. I hope your kids are smarter than you are.

OP, the issue is that mostly of those foreign mission programs do more harm than good. Children are affirmatively put into bad situations to create a destination for rich Americans to go so charity work. And local workers are displaced from jobs. The truth is that your children are not very helpful yet in most scenarios.

People have already given some good suggestions. I’ve done several of them with my kids (dc diaper bank, making food for SOME or martha’s table, etc.). We’ve also done stream cleanups and park cleanup through MoCo parks and rec — DC probably has something similar. Are any of your children involved in scouts? There is typically a lot of service opportunities there. Some of them work to support NGOs abroad that have a specific community-supported goal. I’ve seen things on Girl Scouts where girls make and collect sanitary packages to send to girls where Sanitary products are scarce, for instance.

I don’t know about DC but in McPS kids are required to do service hours starting in 6th grade, so the middle schools all have lists of opportunities appropriate for the 11 and up crowd. You could maybe check the North bethesda MS and Pyle websites to see if there are opportunities near you.

When they are older, they can volunteer for babysitting for kids at shelters or PTA meetings at low income schools or other such places—that is a bit help but kids must be 13 to do that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the comments that elementary age is too young. We live in Upper NWDC so not much in our local area beyond volunteering with the elderly or local shelter, however those volunteer opportunities have age restrictions for liability reasons that do not allow our children to volunteer with us. For those recommending that we volunteer as a daily locally, please share recommendations for charities and service opportunities that allow elementary age children to volunteer.

Thank you.

We volunteer to make meals for Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless

https://mcch.net/donate-a-meal/

If making a whole meal for a whole shelter seems overwhelming, you can contact them, they have opportunities to make meals for smaller groups as well.

Our elementary kids don't go serve, but they are a big help at the house! They know where the food is going.

OP here, great idea! DS loves to cook so this seems like a great opportunity.

This should be in Travel forum. Has no place in religion forum and is offensive.

Anonymous wrote:Our church has a relationship with Heart and Hand in West Virginia. Send them a note on their volunteer page to see how your family can help.

https://hhomwv.org/become-a-volunteer/

OP here. Wonderful! Thank you so much.

Anonymous wrote:Look for opportunities to put together meals at home, kits for foster kids, toiletry kits for refugees/unhoused people. Things you can do at home.

OP here. Great idea, thank you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Flint Mission Project
https://flintmissionproject.org/

Jackson, Mississippi
https://www.ppm.org/mission-trips/jackson-mississippi

Maryland Food Bank
https://mdfoodbank.org/ways-to-give/volunteer/

Deep Roots, ending homelessness
https://deeprootsinc.org/group-service-opportunities/

Appalachia Service
https://asphome.org/

OP here. Thank you so much.

I’m from Mississippi. I’ve lived and worked in Jackson. I worked for a non-profit hospice facility in Jackson. I did a lot of home hospice visits as well. I’m a chaplain. Jackson, Mississippi is one of the most dangerous cities in the US right now. I loved the work I did in the community, but I would never take children into the city. To put that in perspective, I’ve never been concerned about my safety in DC. And I’ve been in some rough areas. Jackson is a whole different world.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think OP is having trouble finding opportunities for her and her husband. The issue is that she wants her kids to participate and in the States they don’t allow that for liability reasons. I think people having trouble picturing an environment where kids could be useful without adult supervision (since the adults would be doing other things) for a long period of time. OP do you have a vision of what this looks like for you?

OP here. Yes, my vision looks more like how I served with my parents in the 80s as a child from a lower middle class family volunteering in public housing and free or low cost programs for peers in subsidized housing. This included tutoring, soup kitchen, after school and summer volunteer helping with creative play, theater productions, sports and recreation, grooming/hygiene, house cleaning and organizing. We were active year round and had many opportunities to give back. We regularly served our neighbors with time and talents (yes, even us single digit age children).

I do not see those opportunities as readily here that allows elementary age children to serve without running into the liability issue. So I wondered if DCUM had some ideas. Given many of the comments here, I now wonder if my parents just created those opportunities on their own rather than going through an established program or non profit. Or if risk considerations have changed so much in the past 40 years.

It pains me to read that my inquiry comes across as narcissist. I was looking for recommendations from those who know this area and the opportunities and some of you have provided those for which I am grateful.