Family Community Service
Children thrive when they have important roles and responsibilities in their home, school, and community. The holiday season is a perfect opportunity for children to create or support a program that serves the needs of various cultural communities around the world. Kids can develop empathy and respect for diverse cultural communities while supporting their schools and communities with their families. Many schools sponsor clothing drives, gift collections, food collections, and emergency support programs for those affected from natural disasters. As part of their learning, students can learn about another country and culture as they participate in a cultural experience of community service.
Partnerships with Schools
The Generational Parenting bloggers have partnered with the Santa Clara County Office of Education to provide culturally sensitive workshops to parents and families on parent communication topics, how to support your child’s school success, how to play while learning, what to do when your child is having trouble in school, and how to plan for college and careers. Through this partnership, students can provide community service to their schools. They can contact their school teacher about offering a workshop on a parenting topic that their parents would like to learn more about. The student can gain community service credits by organizing the workshop. They can work with interpreters, copy handouts, advertise the workshop, help parents register, and host the workshop. Afterwards, the student can meet with the teacher and parents. Students can discuss opportunities to support future workshops with parent/student leadership support.
Community Service Planning Worksheet
During this season of giving, brainstorm various community service activities that you can share with your family by completing the worksheet.
Happy community service!
Mary Ann
Community Service Worksheet for My Family
Review the various community services that you can share with your family. Check those that you would like to research and support through community service.
| Type of Service | Check those you would like to research for support services. |
| Collecting money for disaster relief | |
| Gathering clothes and food for those in need | |
| Planting trees and cleaning a park, a school, or the beach | |
| Adopting a school in need of computers | |
| Serving meals at a homeless shelter | |
| Visiting and performing for seniors | |
| Making gifts for seniors, veterans, and those in need | |
| Tutoring younger children or helping at the school | |
| Helping a mother or babysitting for young children | |
| Assisting at a daycare or nursery school | |
| Working in an afterschool daycare program | |
| Helping at a hospital or community service agency | |
| Doing secretarial and computer work at agencies | |
| Organizing and providing interpretation and translation services at a parent education workshop | |
| Other: |
Describe how you will provide these services. How will you learn more about a community service or need? What can each family member do to support this community service activity?
Have you ever volunteered for a social service agency, a church, at your school? What did you learn by volunteering? What leadership skills did you develop?
What did you learn when working with other cultures?
How can we help you develop a community service project for your family and community?
Copyright © 2018 by GenParenting
Mary Ann Burke, Ed.D., Digital Education Expert, is a substitute distance learning teacher for Oak Grove School District in San Jose, California and the author of STUDENT-ENGAGED ASSESSMENT: Strategies to Empower All Learners (Rowman & Littlefield: 2020). Dr. Burke creates digital language arts and substitute teaching K – 12 activities for teachers and parents. She is the Cofounder of the Genparenting.com blog. Burke is the former Director II of Categorical & Special Projects for the Santa Clara County Office of Education that supports 31 school districts serving 272,321 students in Santa Clara County. She is also a previous Director – State & Federal Compliance for Oakland Unified School District, the former Director – Grantwriter for the Compton Unified School District, and was the initial VISTA Director for the Community Partnership Coalition in southern California. Much of her work focuses on creating innovative digital trainings and partnership programs for teachers and families to support students’ learning. These programs were featured as a best practice at a National Title I Conference, California’s Title I Conferences, AERA Conferences, an ASCD Conference, the NASSP Conference, and statewide educator conferences.
Please allow me to mention Sunday Friends. Our program provides safe, wholesome, meaningful, and personal volunteer opportunities for whole families within a community setting on Sundays – in fact, that’s why it was created 22 years ago. Come work with very low-income families on giving and learning activities that involve writing, reading, crafts, STEM activities, computer education, learning games, healthy cooking, and more. http://www.sundayfriends.org.
I have had the honor of volunteering as a parent educator for Sunday Friends. The parents and families are so eager to learn how to support the healthy development and academic successes of their children.