Great Project Ideas For All Your National Days Of Service!
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Help for the Hungry/Homeless |
- Help cook and /or serve a meal at a homeless shelter
- Gather clothing from your neighbors and donate it to a local shelter
- Make “I Care” kits with combs, toothbrushes, shampoo, etc. for homeless people
- Help with repairs at a local homeless shelter
- Make a care package with mittens, socks, T-shirts, etc. for a child at a homeless shelter
- Collect grocery coupons to give to a local food bank
- If your community doesn’t have a food bank, work with local officials to start one
- Pack and hand out food at a food bank
- Organize a neighborhood group to plant, tend and harvest a vegetable garden. Donate the produce to a food bank.
- Adopt a “grandfriend”
- Visit a nursing home
- Rake leaves, shovel snow, clean gutters or wash windows for senior citizens
- Pick up medicine for an elderly person
- Go for a walk with a senior citizen in your community
- Hold an afternoon dance at a local nursing home
- Deliver meals to homebound individuals
- Offer to pick up groceries with/for a senior citizen
- Help senior citizen in your neighborhood obtain and install locks or smoke alarms
- Teach a senior how to use a computer/surf the web
- Get a group together to sing or present a play at a nursing home
- Paint a mural over graffiti
- Organize and invite police officers to present a drug awareness or bike safety assembly
- Form volunteer teams for a campus safety escort service
- Tutor a student that needs help learning English or some other subject
- Organize a canned goods drive in conjunction with a school dance and donate the goods to a food bank
- Help neighbors paint and repair their homes
- Clean up a vacant lot
- Organize a campaign to raise money to purchase and install a new playground equipment in an area park
- Campaign for additional street lamps in poorly lighted areas
- Paint a mural or clean up a local park
- Plant flowers in public areas that could use some color
- Volunteer to help at a Special Olympics event
- Set up a buddy system for kids with special needs at your school
- Raise money for Braille or large print books for the visually impaired
- Volunteer at an agency that works with emotionally disturbed children
- Read books or the newspaper on tape for visually impaired people
- Bring toys to children in the cancer ward of a hospital
Politics and Government
(AmeriCorps members – watch out for these excluded activities!)
- Contact your local League of Women Voters or voter registration office. Ask what you can do to help people register to vote
- Identify a local issue you are concerned about and contact someone in local government with your ideas on what to do about it
- Organize a public issues forum for you neighborhood
- Volunteer at a polling booth the day of an election
- Offer to pass out election materials
- Plant a garden or tree where the whole neighborhood can enjoy it
- Set up a recycling system for your home and participate in your neighborhood curbside recycling
- Organize a car pooling campaign in your neighborhood to reduce air pollution
- Adopt an acre of a rainforest
- Clean up trash along a river or in a park
- Create a habitat for wildlife
- Create a campaign to encourage biking and walking
- Test the health of the water in your local lakes, rivers or streams
