As parents, you want to guide and support your children toward a healthy future. How can you set good examples for your children? How can you do more together as a family? Community service and volunteering are ways to do both.

Following are some ideas on how you can be involved as a family in your community. With good adult supervision, even your small children can work as volunteers.

With Seniors:

• Volunteer at a nursing home. Read to residents with poor eyesight. Help with "event nights" and if you have musical or other talents, be part of the entertainment.
• Adopt a "grandparent" (or two) on your block. Do the shopping or take him to the store or to doctor's appointments. Walk the dog—alone or as a companion. Offer to do yard work or housecleaning on a free weekend. Bake a batch of cookies, or cook an entire meal and eat it together some evenings.
• Give a primary caregiver to a homebound senior some free time by taking their place for an evening. Play a favorite family game together. Encourage the senior to talk about herself and share your interests with her. People who do not get out much (or at all) appreciate fresh new faces and experiences.

With the Homeless:

• Many children living in homeless shelters have parents who cannot provide "extras." Ask permission to take them to a movie, for ice cream, or to a local high school game.
• Adopt a family or individual and provide them with basic hygiene needs—soap, toothpaste, deodorant. If your children receive an allowance, encourage them to give to this effort. Donate children's books your family has outgrown to children in the family.
• Organize a clothing and/or food drive—ask for donations from friends and relatives—and help with sorting and distributing the items.
• Serve at the local soup kitchen, food bank, or food pantry.

With Children:

• Help coach sporting activities at a youth center or get your own team going. Kids can be part of the team and help with keeping score, managing equipment, or cleaning up.
• Become a mentoring family for a child without older siblings. Invite him to dinner as often as you can. Your children can help him with homework and other projects.
• Invite a non-English speaking child to spend time with your family. Improve each other's language skills by learning from each other. Volunteer at an ethnic center to work with an entire family.

Other Places in Your Community:

• Your own children may have outgrown the sand box, but the playground could use a facelift. Plant trees and flowers. Paint the equipment, trash bins, and benches. Your kids' friends and parents may want to help, too.
• Take your kids' talent for artwork beyond your refrigerator. They could make posters for the children's reading room at the library or design flyers for your place of worship's bazaar.
• Volunteer at the animal shelter.

There are many other volunteer possibilities for families in any community. You don't have to be part of a really big project to serve. Whatever you choose to do will benefit your family and the community. Just get involved and have fun!

• American Red Cross: Community Services
  Provides programs and services to help people within the community based on their community's needs.
• Boys & Girls Clubs of America
  Programs and services that promote and enhance the development of boys and girls while providing a safe place for them to learn and grow.
• Help Your Community
  A community anti-drug coalition movement committed to improving the community, reducing youth drug use, and ensuring better lives for children.
• HUD Programs Volunteering Links
  A list of Federal and other private volunteering programs accessible online.
• Youth Service America
  A resource center and network of over 300 organizations committed to developing service opportunities for youth on local, national and global levels.