Teen volunteer with cat
It’s finally happened. The kids are no longer excited about summer camp. They may be complaining that camp is for little kids or that none of their friends are going. We parents may agree, but still want our kids to have a summer with some structure.
Thankfully there are alternatives. One in particular can be incredibly beneficial to adolescents. That is the summer of service.
Instead of sending your older teen to summer camp, a service project can give their summer structure and engage the mind in an experience that might be different from how they learn during the regular school year.
In addition, your son or daughter starts to develop marketable skills. Even volunteer roles that seem simple, such as selling concessions or emptying trash cans at a local festival, or sorting donated goods at a food bank require elements of working on a team, following directions, and using math skills in the real world. Volunteer work can be added to a resume and discussed as examples of experience during job interviews.
Depending on the service project, your child may have the added benefit of moving in new circles and meeting people from different walks of life. You just never know when an experience will lead your son or daughter to a career choice they had never thought of, a network connection that someday might result in a great internship or job, or even simply a chance to shine on his or her own.
So, how can you get started?
Decide. This seems simple, but sometimes talking to teens feels complicated, right? What if instead of arguing about whether or not he or she heads to camp, you asked: What would you like to do instead? Engage in a conversation where you each lay several options on the table.
Next comes the exciting part: selecting a project. You can choose an organization that already offers work to volunteers, such as a residential home for the elderly, homeless shelter, or service organization (see side bar for a few suggestions).
Check out what’s going on in the community. Research the onlne calendar at neafamily.com for festivals or concerts that will need volunteers. Remember that even though an event may be scheduled for just one day, sometimes volunteers are needed weeks in advance.
Finally, one more possibility is to create your own service project. Does your son or daughter have a cause he or she feels passionate about? Remember the BP oil spill in April 2010? There were volunteers in my community that took on the task of sharing information about how we could all help. Volunteers passed out fliers with details for where to send financial donations and encouraged people to donate their hair to make special tubing that soaks up oil.
Document the service.
Once a project is selected and time starts to be donated, it’s important to start writing about the experience (or keeping an audio or video log). When it’s time to refer to these service experiences in an interview or on a college entrance essay, the details will have already been captured. Encourage your teen to record what they do, how they do it, and what they are learning. This will help them recall the service experience in greater detail in the future.
This summer why not encourage your too-old-for-summer-camp tween or teen to offer service as an alternative? Both your child and the community benefits!
Sara Marchessault is the author of Beyond Pen and Paper: 33 Experiments in Journaling. When she isn’t playing with her own kids, Sara is a writer, professor, and coach.