Austin, Texas, is more than just our state capital, it also has live music at every corner, an incredible food scene and an enormous giving heart. With daily busy schedules, work, school, and extracurriculars, it can be easy for families to get caught up in the normal day-to-day routine, but making time to volunteer as a family can enrich your life in so many ways. Family volunteering is a wonderful way to spend quality time together, teach kids empathy, and make a difference in your local community.

Getting Started and Finding the Right Opportunity

Finding the right opportunity should be fun but it is important to take some key factors into account:

• Allow children to be included in choosing the cause, this builds a sense of independence and can help develop critical thinking skills.
• Choose age-appropriate projects, it is important that everyone feels like they can contribute.
• Choose causes that provide opportunities to learn, rather than just completing tasks.
• Remember that volunteering is an important commitment, pick an organization that works best with your family’s schedule.

Local non-profits to check out

• Generation Serve: Connects children and families with age-appropriate service projects within their community. https://www.generationserve.org
• Pop-Up Birthday: Help children in the central Texas foster care system celebrate their birthday. Families may volunteer to assemble birthday boxes, prepare decorations or even become a birthday buddy which provides personalized gifts. https://popupbirthday.org/
• Central Texas Foodbank: Help sort food, pack food boxes, sort produce. Please be aware that certain tasks do have age requirements, check before agreeing to assignments. https://www.centraltexasfoodbank.org/
• Keep Austin Beautiful: Opportunities for litter pick up, clean Austin water ways, plant trees. https://keepaustinbeautiful.org/
• Austin Animal Services: Volunteers can spend time enriching the animals by taking on walks, playful activities or help assist with the cleanliness of the kennels. There are also administration tasks available such as, reviewing adoption application, organizing supplies and greeting visitors. https://www.austintexas.gov/animal-services
• Pease Park Conservatory: Volunteers can help pick up litter around the park, help plants stay healthy by providing mulch and watering trees. Other opportunities are helping keep native vegetation cleared of invasive plants and weeds and also helping plant new native species and seeds. https://peasepark.org/

Increases Family Bonding Time

• Improves communication and creates an environment that encourages families to share ideas, solve problems and make decisions together. Allows families to have deeper dialogues about issues important to them.
• Teaches the importance of teamwork, meeting goals and thinking outside the box.
• Creates long lasting memories. New shared experiences often have a long-lasting impact and help families feel closer.
• Establishes Family Traditions by creating a routine and special time dedicated to an event regularly.
• Plan a fun family meeting to hold follow up discussions to discuss the experiences.

Builds Empathy and Compassion

• Volunteering may help children development a sense of awareness towards other people’s feelings. This exposure may help them continue to develop the ability to notice social cues and understand how actions can also express emotions.
• Fosters the growth of feeling responsibility towards others. Volunteering allows children to visually see their impact on the community.
• Allows children to see different perspectives. When exposing children to others with different circumstances or backgrounds, they begin to know not everyone is the same or have access to same resources or opportunities.
• Creates the opportunity to create lifelong habits of giving back to others.

Makes a difference in your community

• Creates as sense of ownership for your community and allows children to have a sense of pride for where they come from.
• Establishes new relationships with impactful members of your community and reduces feelings of isolation.
• Inspires others around you to begin their own volunteer journey.

Children learn by example, and teaching them to be responsible, develop compassion, and recognize the needs within our community helps shape them into thoughtful, caring individuals. Instilling these values early empowers them to make a difference, give back, and understand the importance of helping others around them. There are countless ways to get involved within our community, and it always helps to be of service to others.