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Home >
Programs >
Jumpstart
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| Opening Your Heart
and Home |
- Organize a fundraiser
(run, walk, etc.) to send a child to summer
camp.
- Volunteer at a summer camp for
children or adults with disabilities. Activities
may include leading craft projects, teach swimming,
sing-a-longs, etc.
- Drive homebound residents to
doctor appointments, the grocery store, or friends.
- Volunteer at a zoo working with
the animals.
- Help build a home or shelter.
- Build walk bridges, BBQ pits,
picnic tables or trails at local parks.
- Host volunteer planning meetings
with other families in your home.
- Teach kids how to swim.
- Become a surrogate family for
adults who are developmentally disabled and
include them in your family activities.
- Take a homebound elderly friend
to lunch or dinner.
- Bring your pet to a nursing home
to spend time with the people.
- Become a foster family.
- Coordinate a food drive for people
in your community.
- Host a child/young adult for
part of the summer.
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| Helping Hands/Sprucing Up
Your Community |
- Partner with another family to
repair or paint the home of an elderly couple
or a needy family.
- Organize a "window washing,"
"spring cleaning," or "yard"
day for a needy non-profit or social service
agency.
- Organize a community "closet
cleaning" day/week and donate old clothes
and other items to a homeless shelter or other
organization.
- Plant and tend a garden for
your neighbors.
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| Music/Entertainment/Crafts |
- Give a puppet show at a local
library.
- Organize a sing-along at the
children's hospital.
- Arrange a youth history hour
at a nursing home to encourage older people
to talk with children about their histories.
- Organize a musical instrument
drive and donate the instruments to a charity
or community center. Offer to give music lessons.v
- Ask a hospice what entertainment
they enjoy and work with a family to organize
the event.
- Teach craft projects at a local
homeless shelter, adult daycare or summer camp.
- Organize and direct a play at
a community center.
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| Literacy/Reading |
- Write or read letters to visually-impaired
individuals
- Create a family story hour and
read to children in your neighborhood.
- Volunteer with a local council
to help people learn how to read.
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| Advice/Current affairs |
- Attend a city council meeting
with other families to voice your opinion on
a community issue.
- Write a letter to your legislator
about an issue that is important to your family.
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| The Environment |
- In towns where no recycling process
is in place, collect papers, cans, glass, plastic,
batteries and take them to a nearby receptacle
or start recycling in your own community.
- Take your family and other neighboring
families to clean up the community. Select a
nearby park, nature preserve, beach or other
public area.
- Provide animal care/aide for
community parks or nature preserves.
- Participate in a brush-cleaning
hiking trip to help keep national and state
park trails in good condition.
- Organize a community garden to
beautify.
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| Volunteer Vacation Opportunities |
- Contact your local church, synagogue
or medical aid organization about "mission
opportunities." Your family can provide
out-of-state or global support to families and
communities. Activities include medical/clothing
drop-offs, providing building assistance, etc.
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For more ideas go to www.familycares.org
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