HOT TRENDS
Marlene Wilson

Family volunteering is one of the hottest trends in volunteerism. Adults want to spend more time with their kids, but most volunteer roles take them away from their families. Yet by volunteering together, family members reconnect in a positive way and strengthen family ties. And this isn’t just true of “traditional” families. Single parents can benefit greatly, especially in the summer when some have a brief period of child custody.

Other benefits of involving family units in volunteering are:

  • Promoting future generations of volunteers. Surveys show that kids who volunteer are far more likely to volunteer as adults.
  • Reaping the rewards of a family’s collective creativity.
  • Gaining a variety of perspectives on solving a problem.
  • Having fun while being together.

In a 2003 study from Purdue University titled Family Volunteering: An Exploratory Study on the Impact on Families, family members reported on why they volunteer.

  • Children reported “religious reasons, fun, quality time with family, and giving back to their community” as the main reasons they volunteered.
  • Adults identified “being a good role model, transmitting values, having fun, spending quality time together, and religious reasons” as the main reasons they volunteered as a family. Parents said that the volunteering experiences changed their relationship with their kids and increased family bonds. Families found themselves working more as a team, and parents noticed improvements in their children’s attitudes toward one another.

Challenges of Family Volunteering

Placing families can be challenging to churches because families come as a group with a range of ages and abilities. Family units may be as small as a single parent and child, or as large as an entire clan—including grandparents, their children, and their grandchildren. The wider the range of ages and abilities, the more complicated it becomes to find the right ministry in which to place them. Some examples of good family volunteer projects are:

  • Clean-up projects at church, playgrounds, trails, and parks.
  • Staffing the church nursery together.
  • Visiting those in need, and helping them with chores and errands.
  • Reading to shut-ins.
  • Developing a family-to-family relationship with those in a homeless shelter.
  • Collecting and distributing groceries for a food pantry.
  • Ushering and greeting newcomers at church.
  • Sharing a camping trip or sports outing with a single parent’s family.
  • Doing creative crafts for VBS, or having the family adopt a particular “center” during VBS or camp.

The possibilities are limited only by your imagination!

Marlene Wilson has written and trained on volunteer issues for 35 years. More than a quarter of a million people have attended her workshops. Among her published works is Group's Volunteer Leadership Series.

Copyright © 2004, Group Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.