The Benefits of Volunteering as a Family
With ever-changing travel restrictions, many people still don’t feel comfortable with the idea of travelling abroad this year. If you would usually spend your summer on vacation, and you’re going to be at home this year and doing family projects instead, why not volunteer as a family too? With the ongoing pandemic, and social justice causes coming to the forefront of people’s minds, there’s never been a time to get involved with a cause you care about, whether you want to try a beach clean-up or work in a soup kitchen. Volunteering as a family highlights the amazing things that can happen when families work together.
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Volunteering Teaches Children About Family Values
It’s always an important thing to do to talk to your children about what values your family holds. A good way to reinforce these values is to demonstrate your values in action. Volunteering lets you show your kids that are dedicated to promoting, supporting or furthering a particular issue. It also shows them that you are willing to put the time in to support these causes, not just talk about it. Choose a cause together, and make sure it lines up with your values, in the way they support the community and handle their money (information from a charity auditor company might help answer your financial questions).
Volunteering Helps You Spend Quality Time Together While Having Fun
Parents are always looking for things to do as a family. This can be tough if your children are very different ages, but volunteering can bring everyone together with a common goal, including parents, children of all ages, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, and more. When everyone starts working together, you will probably find that time passes quickly, and you’ll have more fun than you thought.
Volunteering Helps Children Learn Empathy
Learning emotional intelligence is a crucial part of a child’s development, and encouraging them to engage with civil causes can speed this up. When you volunteer with communities, you will interact with those who share values, like passion about a particular issue, and those who might be different to who they usually interact with, such as people from communities outside your own. Understanding where people are coming from and hearing about their lived experiences can help children to learn empathy for now and for later life.
Volunteering Teaches Children That Learning Happens Outside Of School Too
Put your children on the path of lifelong learners. If your children always associate learning with school, they might see their learning as coming to end as soon as they graduate. Instead, show them that the world is full of opportunities to learn. Through volunteering, they will interact with new people from all walks of life, learn new skills need for the task they have volunteered to do, and learn how to a difference with their time, efforts, and talents.
Volunteering Helps Children Develop Important Skills
Children can learn some very valuable skills through volunteering. There are some tough skills needed for many volunteer roles, such as carpentry, translation, and other services. There are soft skills to be learned to, such as social and communication skills.
