Could You Use a $500 or $1,000 Grant for a Family Volunteer Day Project?
Family Volunteer Day celebrates the power of families who volunteer together, supporting their neighborhoods, communities and the world.
Points of Light created the day of service 25 years ago to showcase the benefits of volunteering as a family, including sharing quality time and imparting values.
Points of Light’s youth service division, generationOn, is offering $500 and $1,000 grants to support efforts to unite families in service for Family Volunteer Day, Nov. 21.
If you’re affiliated with a school or nonprofit, you can apply for a grant. The deadline is Aug. 14.
Join us in bringing families and communities closer together through service. For more information, or to apply, visit the generationOn website.
Want Meaningful Family Time? Volunteer Together
Kevin Bangilan seems to uncover a new passion every time he joins in on a new volunteer project with his family. After a
plant sale, the 9-year-old from Raleigh, N.C., announced he wanted to become an entrepreneur. After volunteering with his family at the local food bank, he announced he wanted to become the U.S. president.
“He talks now about how he wants to help people,” said his mother, Serina Bangilan.
Kevin Bangilan and his mother, Serina, participate in a blueberry-picking volunteer project for a local food bank.
and inspire Points of Light sponsor, Disney, to make investments that inspire families to give back to communities where they live, work and play.
Since 1991, Points of Light has promoted the Saturday before Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday season with family giving and service. The day showcases the benefits of volunteering together as a family and provides opportunities for families to serve their communities in ways that spark their passions. The day also signals the start of
, families discovered many ways to take part in the day. The site has family-friendly project ideas and resources, and families can also search for family-friendly projects available in their zip codes.
Volunteers celebrate Family Volunteer Day at The Travel Town Museum in Los Angeles.
Families that came back to the Family Volunteer Day site to share their stories of service have a chance to receive a generationOn prize package, which includes a family night out on the town with dinner and a movie.
Ten families will be selected to be featured in a fall edition of
magazine.
“We recognize that the holidays are family time but, ironically, they are the busiest time of the year – with work and social obligations for mom and dad, and the end of first semester crushes for kids,” said Dan Horgan, executive director of generationOn. “Family time often gets lost in the shuffle. Holiday volunteering is a great way for families to spend time together and to really connect.”
In support of Family Volunteer Day, Disney Friends for Change provided funding for family-friendly projects across the country, including a special event at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, Calif., where Disney VoluntEARS packed 5,000 snack packs for kids at local food banks. Other projects included painting a mural at a community nonprofit, packing and delivering meals to the chronically ill and visiting patients in hospice care.
Francesca Capaldi, a generationOn celebrity youth ambassador, and her family help pack food on Family Volunteer Day at Downtown Disney in California.
There’s reason to believe the feel-good effect of meaningful family volunteer projects may help strengthen family bonds.
Building on a rich history of creating memorable experiences that bring families together,
hosted dozens of nonprofits from across America at the Disneyland Resort for “Discover Together,” a two-day symposium in January 2014, focused on how adults can make a difference in children’s lives by spending meaningful time with them.
The initiative, which employs
– a training for nonprofits to help them better engage family volunteers – is based on research exploring the significance of meaningful family time. A recent study by the
demonstrates the powerful influence positive parent-child interactions have on a child’s ability to learn, grow and thrive. The study shows that family volunteering helps to create these important bonds and teaches children valuable real-life lessons about empathy and caring.
Points of Light and Disney recognized 10 extraordinary families with
during the week leading up to Family Volunteer Day. The Daily Point of Light Award recognizes the power of individuals and families to spark change and improve the world through volunteer service.
For the Bangilans – who won a Daily Point of Light Award last year for their service – the rewards are apparent in the work of serving their community. Whether it’s packing blueberries for the
or selling plants for 4-H, the family of four – including father, Rod, and younger son, Crisanto, 3 – tries to do it together.
“I just really believe in the little things we do for one another in this world,” said mother Serina Bangilan. “We really believe that it will come back to us.”
Let’s Disconnect to Connect this Holiday Season and Teach Kids the Value of Caring
This post is by parenting expert Dr. Michele Borba and Daniel Horgan, executive director of generationOn, Points of Light’s youth and family division.
The Miscoe family of Texas help at a food pantry.
While parents are consumed with their iPads and phones, their children are modeling their actions by being engrossed in games or listening to their music on their own handheld devices.
When asked about their parents’ chatting, clicking and texting during a recent “Dateline” report, kids complained about feeling like they didn’t matter as much. Families may be physically together these days, but they are often disconnected from each other and the community around them.
The holiday season is a perfect time to disconnect from the distractions around us and connect with our families through service to others. That’s why I am partnering with generationOn, the youth and family division of Points of Light, and Disney Friends For Change to invite thousands of families around the country to serve on National Family Volunteer Day on November 22.
There are many ways to take part – from creating baskets of cheer for the elderly to providing Thanksgiving meals to those in need to making cards for children in the hospital.
Volunteer and then share your service story for a chance to win one of several exciting generationOn prize packages and be featured in FamilyFun magazine. You can learn more, explore project ideas, and search for local volunteer opportunities at www.generationOn.org/fvd.
Most parents instinctively want their children to develop a strong moral character and to care about others. Volunteering is a powerful way to teach kids valuable real life lessons about empathy and caring.
Caring is the trait that helps sensitize our children to different points of view and it increases their awareness of other’s ideas and opinions. It also enhances empathy, which is the foundation of moral behavior. Kids who care will grow into adults who have the skills they need to live successfully in our diverse, multicultural, 21st century world.
Here are five tips to raising caring kids…
1.Be the change you want to see.
You know what makes kind and considerate kids? Kind and considerate parents! The simplest and most powerful way kids learn behaviors like kindness and consideration is by seeing them in action.
In fact, parents are one of the biggest influences on whether their kids volunteer. Parents can lead by example, talk about important social issues and urge their children to donate their time and money to causes important to them.
2. Prioritize regular, meaningful time with your kids.
Plan regular, emotionally intimate time with your children. Some parents do this through nightly bedtime reading or building one-on-one time with their children into their weekly schedules rather than leaving it to chance.
When together, take turns asking each other questions that bring out your thoughts, feelings and experiences such as what was the best or worst part of your day and what did you accomplish today that you feel good about.
3. Make caring for others a priority.
Consider the daily messages you send your children about the importance of caring. For example, you might say, “The most important thing is that you’re kind and that you’re happy.”
When your kids run into conflicts with other kids, encourage them to work out problems by considering the others’ feelings. Ask your kids’ teachers and coaches about how they are demonstrating empathy for others in addition to their academic skills, grades or performance.
4. Nurture an attitude of gratitude.
Consider making expressing gratitude a daily ritual at dinnertime, bedtime, in the car or on the subway. Encourage children to express appreciation for family members, teachers, friends or others who contribute to their lives.
Have your kids keep a gratitude journal where they log the things that they appreciate each day. Give your kids opportunities each day or week to practice caring at home, at school or in extracurricular activities.
5. Get your kids to give back.
Children learn habits at an early age, and the best way to teach them behavioral life skills is to get them involved in a hands-on way by doing caring deeds. Help your child chose a charity or cause that he/she is interested in and then get them involved.
Explore the cause further by reading a children’s book about the issue, meeting with an organization to learn more about their work in addressing the issue, or brainstorming a family volunteer project to do together.
Be sure that you are intentional in your quest to raising a caring child, and check out www.generationOn.org/fvd for more resources and ideas to connect this holiday season!
This post is by Ilene and Michael Berson, education professors at the University of South Florida and parents of Marc, a member of the generationOn National Youth Advisory Council, and Elisa, a Robertson Scholar at Duke University.
Volunteering together as a family teaches
kids about cultural differences. Above, the
Miscoes of Texas help at a food pantry.
Volunteerism and community engagement are critical components of our family life. Service experiences promote learning through active participation, provide structured time for all members of our family to reflect, create opportunities to use skills and knowledge in real-life situations, extend learning beyond the classroom and foster a sense of caring for others.
As a family, we discuss what we have learned from each experience about ourselves, the issue addressed and the people involved, including transformations that we each observe. Our children’s reflections on their experiences have been powerful, as volunteering has enhanced their awareness of culture, diversity and individual differences.
In our service work, we focus on comprehensive community-building efforts that seek to impact significant social issues by emphasizing the economic, social and physical transformation of an area. In order to build a healthy community, an active citizen base is needed. We believe that through such involvement, our children become empowered and engaged. They learn to build upon the skills, assets, networks, relationships and mediating structures of the community.
This approach teaches our children to value the wisdom of the community and creates shared responsibility and ownership to improve the health and well-being of community members. These hands-on experiences also actively mobilize our children as agents of social change, shifting power to them and recognizing that they have a voice that can be used to call attention to otherwise marginalized or underrepresented issues. They have come to realize that their knowledge as young people is valuable and can affect change.
In raising our children we have focused on building or strengthening existing social networks and support systems for their emergence as agents of community mobilization and action. As parents, we model for our children how to assume an active role in collaborative community-based partnerships that work toward the creation of safety and well-being for all children and their families.
This is based on our belief that inclusive interaction through service initiatives promotes in our children a heightened awareness of available social, emotional and financial resources; a commitment to overcome the barriers of rigid solutions in responding to complex issues; and a determination to participate in the interaction of systems of care that will better inform the development and implementation of policy, planning and service delivery.
Ultimately, this exchange exposes our children to diverse efforts to protect, defend and promote the rights and welfare of others, and challenges them to take action on behalf of those in need.
The Bersons took part in Family Volunteer Day, Nov. 23. Disney Friends For Change, a Disney initiative dedicated to inspiring kids and families to make a positive change in the world, was the presenting sponsor. Embassy Suites was a supporting sponsor. Find out how your family can make a difference this holiday season by visiting generationOn.org.
Festive, Active and Yummy – Keep Volunteering Fun for Your Family
This post is by Ann Saylor, a mother of three who blogs regularly for MommySecrets and TheAssetEdge. She and her family participated in Family Volunteer Day, Nov. 23.
The Saylor children, from left, Brendan, Daniel and Anna Kate,
pack toys to be distributed to kids in need.
My husband Dan and I are training our children to serve others thoughtfully by making it a priority to serve together. With our children being ages 11, 8 and 7, it’s challenging to find a place to serve together in our rural area, so we have worked to design service projects that we can do as a family. And the projects have happened in many shapes and sizes over the years!
We’ve done small projects, like helping with invitations, food and setup for a neighborhood party. We’ve done fun projects like a play-a-thon, for which we partnered with Hasbro to raise money for temporary housing for families displaced by Haiti’s earthquake.
We’ve done holiday projects, like our trick-or-treat charity bike parade. We decorated our bikes in Halloween style, and went “trick-or-treating” to collect healthy snacks to share with school children in need.
We’ve done big projects, like hosting a Rockin’ Readers Literacy initiative at our elementary school. We’ve done long-term projects, like helping at a mobile food pantry to collect, sort and distribute an entire semi-truck of food to needy families in our community.
We’ve done yummy projects, like partnering with Cupcake Kids to raise $300 for imprisoned children in Africa. We’ve done active projects, like the Pleasant View Kids Triathlon, where the children challenged their friends to complete a triathlon over the course of the summer.
It doesn’t have to take a lot of extra time. Find out what your kids love, and create volunteer projects that match with their interests, skills and passions. Eleven-year-old Daniel especially enjoys projects where he can organize. Eight-year-old Brendan loves raising money to give to favorite causes. Seven-year old Anna Kate loves projects related to arts and crafts. I enjoy finding out more about my children as we volunteer together.
And don’t be afraid to have fun while you volunteer – have a charity skate night, bake together at the Ronald McDonald House, host your own play-a-thon, build something for another family or do a fun run together. Volunteering can create great opportunities for making memories, building relationships and learning to love others.
Ann Saylor’s family, of Tennesee, again came together to volunteer on Nov. 23 for this year’s Family Volunteer Day. Disney Friends For Change, a Disney initiative dedicated to inspiring kids and families to make a positive change in the world, was the presenting sponsor of Family Volunteer Day 2013. Embassy Suites was a supporting sponsor. Find out how your family can make a difference this holiday season by visiting generationOn.org.
Changing the World `One Apple at a Time’
This post is by Calla Gilson, 17, who inspires other young people to get involved in service as a National Youth Advisory Council member for generationOn, the youth enterprise of Points of Light.
Calla Gilson, right, and her siblings show some of the
apples they picked for local children in need.
I love fall in Ohio. It’s the time of year when we celebrate the plentiful harvest and come together around campfires for fellowship. As the colors change, the fruit trees bend under the weight of their bountiful crop. This season, farmers have filled even their winter storage spaces to capacity. But there is so much fruit still left on the trees. Unless the deer eat the apples, the fruit will simply rot!
Stopping to compare this golden picture to the frustrating statistic that one in five children in the U.S. is hungry, this waste of food seems so wrong. While the rest of us are sitting down to holiday dinners, these children are left with a colder, hungrier winter ahead.
For my family, gleaning (collecting leftover crops) combines the best of the fall festivities – celebrating the bounty alongside the people who matter to you most – to help those who need it most. In an attempt to salvage all those extra apples, many orchards organize end- of-season gleaning sessions. Volunteers are invited to pick all the leftover fruit so it may be donated to area food banks.
On a recent trip to a local orchard, my family of five spent two hours at a local orchard was able to pick 600 pounds of apples easily. These apples will be used throughout the winter to help a local school provide meals for students who live in households that don’t have enough food. Every Friday, backpacks filled with nutritious foods are sent home with the students, for free. When the most basic needs of these students are met, they can focus on what really matters – their studies.
Who knew that helping others could be so much fun? My monkey of a younger brother loved climbing up into the apple trees to toss down the fruit to me, waiting on the ground. My sister and I kept a running competition to determine who could pick the most apples, and my father challenged us all to find the largest apple in the orchard. (I did!) It was a great opportunity for my family to catch up after a long and hectic week. The smell of the apple trees, the chilled autumn air and the nearness of my family made for the perfect afternoon.
The best way a family can show their gratitude for their many blessings is by giving back to the community. My family made memories that day at the orchard that I will be able to look back on for years to come. By fostering a love of service, my parents have instilled within my siblings and me a greater sense of purpose. We realize that we have the potential to change the world – one apple at a time.
Calla Gilson joined families across the country this year to support Family Volunteer Day on Nov. 23. Disney Friends For Change, a Disney initiative dedicated to inspiring kids and families to make a positive change in the world, was the presenting sponsor of Family Volunteer Day 2013. Embassy Suites was a supporting sponsor. Find out how your family can join Calla in making a difference this holiday season by visiting generationOn.org.
Five Easy Ways to Teach Your Kids Values
This post is by Kathy Saulitis, senior vice president of programs for generationOn, an enterprise of Points of Light that helps young people change the world through volunteer service.
The Miscoe family of Texas volunteers together often
at a local food pantry.
The holiday season is filled with opportunities for children to be caring and compassionate. And for parents, it starts with showing your kids how it’s done! Let your children see you helping elderly neighbors rake their leaves, being kind to those around you in crowded stores or collecting canned goods for the hungry.
Right before Thanksgiving, we celebrate Family Volunteer Day. On Nov. 23 this year, it is a day that showcases families making a difference in their communities and kicks off the season of giving. Here are five easy ways to teach your kids values – and do some good for others – on Family Volunteer Day and throughout the year.
1. Talk to your children about issues affecting your neighborhood, your community and the world. When my oldest son was in elementary school and was involved in a holiday food drive, he didn’t immediately see why people needed help at all. His initial reaction was, “They just need to go get a job!” In simple language, I explained about income versus expenses and how the very people we were helping to feed may be working several jobs but still are short for food. As a young problem-solver, he thought for a while and then suggested ideas for how our country might deal with hunger in new ways. He got it!
2. Use the dinner hour to talk about reaching out to others. Do you have a neighbor that may be sick or lonely? Are there struggling families in your community? Do you know someone in the service who is deployed? Talk to your children about how they feel about these situations and get their input on ways your family can help.
3. Appeal to your children’s interests. Does your family love the outdoors? Do your kids like to get their hands dirty? Try volunteering for a park or beach clean-up or help plant a community garden. The more you draw on your children’s interests, the more motivated they become.
4. Find a hands-on, family-friendly volunteer project. You can find family-friendly project ideas and resources at www.generationOn.org or check out your local HandsOn Network affiliate.
5. Start a family tradition of volunteer service during the holidays. The holidays are times of excitement, tradition and family togetherness. When our children were younger, we would make Holiday Hope Chests to donate to area homeless shelters. It was fun to watch the kids choose with care their special gifts for children they imagined opening the boxes on Christmas morning.
When the holidays end and the new year begins, remember every day is an opportunity to teach your kids to care and share, be compassionate and have an attitude of gratitude for even the smallest things in life.
This year Family Volunteer Day takes place on Nov. 23. Disney Friends For Change, a Disney initiative dedicated to inspiring kids and families to make a positive change in the world, is the presenting sponsor of Family Volunteer Day 2013. Embassy Suites is a supporting sponsor.
