Doing for community service means to perform unpaid work. This can be performed by a person or group of people that benefits others. Sometimes, community service will take place near the area where a person lives. It regards to help any group of people in need such as children, senior citizens, English language learners and more.
Read also: Protocols You Need to Follow When Conducting Community Service
If you perform community service, you will not get paid, although sometimes food and small gifts will be given to you. If you want to start community service, but don’t know how to choose the proper project, no worries, we’ll show you a list of great ideas for community service. Let’s see our post below!
A List of Great Ideas for Community Service Projects
There are a variety of projects you can do for community service, depending on your skills and interests. Some common community service that you can choose include:
- Working with school children
- Working with senior citizens
- Helping low-income people
- Improving the environment
If you want to know what kinds of projects you can do for community service, let’s see a list of great ideas for community service below!
1. General Ideas
There are so many general ideas you can choose to perform community service, here they are:
- Donating or increasing money for your local Red Cross
- Organizing community blood drive
- Sending cards to soldiers serving overseas
- Asking for charitable donations instead of gifts for your next birthday
- Reading letters or books to a person who is impaired visually
- Holding a bake sale for your favorite charity
- Organizing a wheelchair basketball team
- Participating in a charity race
- Organizing a parade or event for Memorial Day
- Helping at a charity auction
- Participating in National Youth Service Day in April
- Helping register people to vote
- Organizing a car wash and donate the profits to charity
- Helping to deliver gifts and meals to patients at a local hospital
- Etc.
2. Helping Children and School
Here are the following projects regardless to help children and schools:
- Teaching children during or after school
- Donating used children’s books to a school library
- Donating stuffed animals to children in hospitals
- Gathering baby clothes and supplies to donate to new parents
- Knitting or crochet baby blankets to be donated to hospitals or homeless shelters
- Gathering used sports equipment to donate to families and after-school programs
- Being a volunteer at a summer camp for children who have lost a parent
- Coaching a youth sports team
- Becoming a volunteer teen crisis counsellor
- Managing a summer reading program to encourage kids to read
- Working with the local health department to organize an immunization day or clinic to immunize children against childhood diseases
- Etc.
3. Helping Senior Citizens
Here are the following projects included into helping senior citizens:
- Reading to residents at a nursing home
- Teaching computer skill to the elderly
- Giving meals and groceries to elderly neighbors
- Helping elderly neighbors clean their homes and manage their belongings
- Driving seniors to doctor appointments
- Making birthday cards for the elderly
- Managing a family day for residents of a retirement home and relatives to play games together
- Picking up medicine for an elderly neighbor
- Etc.
4. Contributing to Help Environment and Animals
In addition to working with schoolchildren and helping senior citizens, you can also make a contribution by helping animals and the environment. Here are the projects regardless to help environment and animals:
- Caring of cats and dogs at an animal shelter
- Cleaning up a local park
- Providing a bulletproof vest for a police dog
- Planting a tree for Arbor Day
- Rescuing abandoned dogs and cats
- Helping to make a new walking trail at a nature center or park
- Adopting an acre of rainforest
- Fostering animals which shelters do not have space for
- Participating in the cleanup of a local river, lake or pond
- Organizing a carpool to reduce car emissions
- Testing the water quality of a lake or river near you
- Planting native flowers or plants along highways
- Etc.
4. Helping the Hungry and/or Homeless
You can do the following projects to help the hungry and/or homeless:
- Building a house for humanity
- Donating your old clothes
- Donating non-perishable food to a food bank
- Donating blankets to a homeless shelter
- Offering to babysit or nanny for a family in need
- Helping to repair or paint a local homeless shelter
- Collecting grocery coupons to give a local food bank
- Etc.
5. Promoting Safety and Reducing Crime
Here are the kinds of projects you can do to reduce crime and promote safety:
- Becoming a certified lifeguard and volunteer at a local pool or beach
- Painting over graffiti in your neighborhood
- Organizing a self-defense workshop and a drug-free campaign
- Starting or joining a neighborhood watch program
- Sponsoring a drug-free post-prom event
- Teaching a home-alone safety class for children
- Creating a TV or radio public service announcement against drug and alcohol use
- Etc.
6. Promoting Community Enhancement
You can also do the following projects to promote community enhancement, here they are:
- Painting park benches
- Donating used books to your local library
- Repainting community fences
- Becoming a tour guide at your local museum
- Organizing a campaign to increase money to buy new playground equipment for a park
- Helping to organize a community parade
- Producing a neighborhood newspaper
- Helping fix or increase funds to repair a run-down playground
- Etc.
Read also: Quotes About Community Service and Helping Others
Where Can You Find Community Service Projects?
There are a number of places you can choose to perform community service, including:
-
School or groups you belong to
It can be clubs, community centers, places of worship or any other organizations you’re a member of. You can check the website, newsletter or bulletin board to find the chance for doing community service.
-
Places where you would like to volunteer
If you have a particular place in which you would like to do community service like a hospital or animal shelter, you can contact them and ask if they take volunteers
-
Your community itself
You will be able to search for chances at your town hall or similar building. You can also check your town’s newsletter or website. There are so many websites that list current volunteer chances.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
