Nurture Children

Project Ideas

Nurture Children

 Prepare an arts and crafts project to do with children from local preschool, Head Start program, or afterschool organization.

 Organize scrimmages or sports clinics in a low income neighborhood. Model and teach good sportsmanship and teamwork as you play.

 Take children on a hiking trip or a nature scavenger hunt. Reflect and let them simply experience the joys of nature.

 Offer structured play time outdoors. Tap into creativity and make believe, and enjoy the pure pleasure of simple play.

Reflection questions

 Who as encouraged you while growing up?

 What did you learn about the youth we worked with? What did you learn from them?

 What did you learn about yourself from this experience?

 How did you make a difference today?

 What concerns or issues surfaced from your time with the children that you think need to be addressed?

 What other service opportunities could our group take on to help nurture children?

Resources

 Building assets into the lives of children, www.search-institute.org

 Big Brothers Big Sisters, www.bbbs.org

 Kids Games, www.gameskidsplay.net

Value Older Adults

 Ask a group of senior citizens if your youth and members of their group can be penpals. If the elders have computers, they and the youth could pledge to email each other once a week. (This choice may require your youth to teach the seniors how to use email). o Topics of conversation could be light hearted:

. What are your favorite holiday traditions?

. What is a book that you enjoyed?

. What is one way you enjoy spending spare time?

 Start a group project involving nursing home residents, such as scrapbooking or documenting the history of your neighborhood.

 Visit a local nursing home for a monthly cards or bingo night.

 Make gifts for homebound older adults.

 Work on arts and crafts projects together.

 Reflection questions

 What do you most appreciate about older adults?

 What is something that you might learn from an older adult?

 What is something that an older adult might learn from you?

 Why are intergenerational relationships so important?

 What do you want to be remembered for when you are older?

 Resources

 Grandparents Day Activity Kit, www.legacyproject.org/grandparentsdaykit/introduction.html

 Intergenerational relationships, http://intergenerational.cas.psu.edu

 Veterans History Project, www.loc.gov/vets/vets-home.html

 StoryCorps, www.storycorps.net

Care for The Environment

 Build and maintain a community garden; then donate the proceeds to a rescue mission.

 Place recycling bins around your school. Profits can go to an environment nonprofit effort.

 Sponsor an acre of rainforest.  Beautify the school grounds with a garden of native plants

 Design, decorate, and sell T-Shirts with environmental themes, which proceeds go to a local environmental agency.

 Plan a trash art contest, in which persons create sculptures by using only recycled materials.

 Analyze your schools use of energy, and present ways in which people can save energy at home and at school.

 What is costly about living an environmentally friendly lifestyle?

 What are some ways you can care for the environment in your daily life?

 How can you encourage others to “reduce, re-use, recycle”?

Resources

 Tools for solving environmental problems, www.earthforce.org

 EduGreen, www.edugreen.teri.res.in

 Global Response Network, www. Globalresponse.org

 Kids F.A.C.E., www.kidsface.org

 Save the earth Now, www.learningtogive.org/savetheearth

Embracing People With Challenges

 Find books on CD for people with visual impairments.

 Collect old eye glasses for the Lions Club, which will refurbish the glasses and give them to people in need.

 Help Special Olympics host an athletic event for people with disabilities.

 Donate toys to an agency that works with emotionally disturbed children.

 Collect and donate children’s books to terminally ill children in a hospital.

 Be a special buddy for a child or child with mental or physical disabilities.

Reflection questions  What can I learn from working with persons with disabilities?

 In what ways do you through words, actions, and body language, respond to persons with physical or mental disabilities?

 How will you think and behave differently as a result of this experience?

 How might you encourage others to be more inclusive of persons with disabilities?

Resources

 Special Olympics, www.specialolympics.org

 Best Buddies, www.bestbuddies.com

 Disability Social History Project, www.disabilityhistory.org

Care for the Sick

 Knit hats for people with cancer or for premature babies. Attach a card that expresses empathy and concern.

 Decorate cards or create a collage of hope for hospital patients.

 Host a pancake breakfast in conjunction with a blood drive for the American Red Cross.

 Promote preventive health. Find out what type of diet prevents cancer, heart attacks, and so forth. Offer healthy cooking classes and educate others.

 Eating disorders are a disease. Learn about the various disorders and help educate others.

 How does our culture usually treat people with chronic or terminal illness?

 What might keep you from reaching out to someone who is very sick?

 What’s the best way to talk to someone who is very sick?

 In what ways might you help care for someone who is sick?

Resources

 Stitches from the Heart, www.stitchesfromtheart.org

 American Cancer Society, www.cancer.org  Ronald McDonald House, www.rmhc.com

Feed the Hungry

 Host a 30 Hour Famine, www.30hourfamine.org. Participants go without food for 30 hours and raise money to fight hunger by asking sponsors to pledge by the hour. The project raises awareness and builds community.

 Prepare or deliver Meals on Wheels, www.mowaa.org, to homebound persons or families.

 Cook and serve a meal at a homeless shelter. Visit with the people as they eat. Listen to their stories, and get to know their life experiences. Take time to recognize the value in every person there.

 Collect and sort food at Second Harvest Food Bank.

 Raise money to feed impoverished children in a developing nation.

 Create a vegetable garden. Plant, weed, water, tend, and harvest produce for a local shelter or food bank.

 In what way does our culture stereotype people who are hungry?

 What do you imagine what it feels like to be hungry or not know where your next meal will come from?

Resources

 Feeding Minds Fighting Hunger, www.feedingminds.org

 National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness, www.studentsagainsthunger.org

 Second Harvest Food bank, www.secondharvest.org

 Free Rice, www.freerice.com

Care for the Homeless

 Volunteer with habitat for Humanity, www.habitat.org

 Assemble we care bags with shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc.  Collect toys and books for children and teens at shelters.

 Participate in fundraisers that raise money for an organization that helps homeless people.

 Start a reading room for kids at a homeless center.

 Donate clothes and shoes to a facility that assists homeless persons.

 Help maintain shelter play areas for children. Do repairs and decorate.

 What do you imagine the average day might entail for a homeless person?

 How might your life be different if you didn’t have a home?

 How have you seen people judge and condemn homeless persons?

Resources

 National Coalition for the Homeless, www.nationalhomeless.org

 HUD Help the Homeless, www.hud.gov/kids/hthsplsh.html

 National Student Campaign against Hunger and Homelessness, www.studentsagainsthunger.org

Build Safer Communities

 Work with your local beautification committee to paint over graffiti in a relatively safe are of town.

 Create and distribute a tip sheet to peers and neighbors about community safety.

 Write and perform a skit for children about safety at home and in the community.

 Host a kid’s bicycle day with bike lessons, demonstrations, and tips on bicycle safety.

 Campaign for better lighting along poorly lit streets.

 Create a list of safe after school opportunities, and let the neighborhood know about safe places for children to be when not at home or in school.

 What makes you feel safe or unsafe in your community?

 What would make your community feel safer?  What people and agencies might you work with to strengthen your community?

Resources

 The National Crime Prevention Council, www.ncpc.org

 The Community Safety Series, www.be-safe.org

 National Organizations for Youth Safety, www.noys.org

Promote Civic Responsibility

 Publicize elections and voting

 Start a petition to right an injustice or support a letter writing campaign for a cause you’re passionate about

 Learn more about human rights violations worldwide and what your group can do to fight these injustices

 Become an advocate! Find a cause, learn about it, and educate others.

 Why is civic responsibility important?

 What inspires you to take a stand on a particular issue?

 What happens if people don’t speak up or act for what they believe is right?

 How can you encourage your community’s leaders to make decisions for the well being of everyone in the community?