10 Meaningful Service Projects You Can Do as an Adult
As your children grow into adults and move out of the house, you may find that you have more time on your hands. Or you may have just retired from your job, but you still want to fill your days with a productive project. Being a volunteer for a community service project can help fill your days doing something good for others.
Do you like to cook, read, build, or craft? Are you a fan of animals or the outdoors? Think about what you enjoy doing. There are several opportunities to serve doing something you are passionate about or that you have experience with to make volunteering a great experience.
Here are 10 ideas for service projects that you may be excited to try out. Your community will thank you for your efforts.
1. Volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS)
Big Brothers was started in 1904 by a New York City court clerk with 39 volunteers to help boys stay out of trouble (and out of his court!). Ladies of Charity also started around the same time to help girls that were making poor choices. In 1977, these groups came together to become Big Brother and Big Sisters International.
Volunteers are matched with a child ages 5 through young adult. A Big and Little meet up 2 to 3 times each month for a few hours doing activities such as playing at a park, riding bikes, doing homework, watching a sporting event, etc. A Big is there as a trusted adult to support and encourage their Little.
A Match Support Specialist works with both the Big and Little to make sure that it’s a good partnership between the two individuals. The Match Support Specialist is also available to help with activity ideas and to give feedback once the Big and Little begin meeting.
2. Foster Animals from a Shelter
Animal shelters are often at or over capacity for the amount of animals they can serve. One way to help a shelter is to become a foster parent for an animal, taking on the care of that animal in your home. Typically, this is a short-term assignment, between a few nights up to a few months.
Some shelters provide all the food, beds, and toys that you need to provide a loving home to your foster pet.
3. Work at a Food Bank
Most communities have a food bank, or one close by. These are a great resource for community members that need food for themselves or their families. Some food banks have kits put together with a variety of items, while others are set up like grocery stores where the customer can come in and shop for what they know their family will eat.
As a volunteer, you could organize the food, put together food kits, work a donation drive, or speak with the community member that comes in for help.
4. Deliver Meals
Meals on Wheels may be the most well-known meal delivery organization, but your community may have something similar through the senior center or a church. You would only need a reliable vehicle to perform this service project. This could be a flexible volunteer position where you set your schedule to deliver meals on a certain day of the week. This would be an opportunity to get to know all the people that meals are delivered to.
Or if cooking is something you enjoy doing, you could ask to serve in the kitchen instead, preparing the meals that are sent out.
5. Build with Habitat for Humanity
If you are skilled with using a hammer or saw, building with Habitat for Humanity may be the service project for you. Habit for Humanity International was founded in 1976 and has helped more than 59 million people within the United States and 70 countries around the world. Their vision is for everyone to have a decent place to live.
Volunteers work on building new homes alongside the new tenants, getting to know them and hear their story. Another task could be providing meals for the volunteers.
6. Help Students Write their Resumes
High school and college students are preparing to head out to the workforce and many need help learning new skills or writing a resume. Some students may need assistance looking for jobs or preparing for job interviews.
Someone that has had a long career may be just the right person to help these students gain confidence in their abilities and strengthen their resumes helping them to get their first job.
7. Deliver Books from the Library
Adults who are homebound due to a variety of reasons still may want access to reading materials. Check with your local library to see if they offer a delivery service. If not, maybe you could set one up. Library patrons can reserve books online or over the phone and a volunteer delivers what is held for them.
This would be a great way to get to know your neighbors. If you enjoy books, you can recommend books as you make deliveries.
8. Put Together Blessings Bags
Blessing bags typically have snacks and small toiletries in them such as granola bars, meat sticks, tissues, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc. These can be given to homeless shelters, sent to military members, or donated to schools.
There are many ways to volunteer for this service projects. You could organize a drive to collect supplies, contact local businesses for donations, create a group that puts together the bags, or deliver the bags.
9. Read to Elementary Students
Call your local elementary school to see if they are looking for reading buddies. Having an extra adult on hand for children that have difficulty reading is a huge benefit to both the teachers and students. This allows the student to read one on one and get extra help with a volunteer.
A class may be interested in having a guest reader come to their class a few times a month. Be sure to prepare all your character voices!
10. Make Crafts at a Nursing Home or Assisted Living Center
If crafting is one of your passions, then a nursing home or assisted living center would love to have you join them to lead an arts and crafts session with their residents. This could include preparing materials for crafts that are already planned, leading the crafting project, or helping residents with their own crafting projects such as knitting or crocheting.
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