Looking for some new ways to get involved in your local community? There are countless ways anyone can make a difference.
Community service is one of the most impactful ways you can leave your mark on the world. Even the smallest efforts can have the biggest effects on the local communities we know and love. Whether you create your own volunteer opportunities or find a nearby volunteer program, there is always plenty to do around you to help out and do your part.
What is Community Service?
Community service is the act of volunteering to work within your community for the greater good. Community service is when you get involved in your local community in some way to do good and help others.
Though there is a lot of great charity work to be done abroad and nationally, community service specifically refers to the help we can give our own communities. This leads this type of service to help better our own neighborhoods and take care of our neighbors.
How Community Service Benefits Everyone
Community service might benefit you directly, it might benefit someone you know directly, or it might not benefit you or anyone you know directly, but it's still benefiting others in some way. Growing a community that cares about others, even when we have no personal connection to them or their struggles, is the kind of community we want to create.
This type of community creates a more sufficient, self-sustaining community. Our local neighborhoods need our help. Members of our community need our help. If we strive to create communities that support one another then more people in the community will succeed which will lead the community as a whole to succeed more too.
50 Community Service Ideas
Don't know where to start? There are so many ways to give back to the world around you. The possibilities are endless! All you need is a solid idea and a detailed plan to get started with a community service idea you feel passionate about.
- Collect school supplies and donate them to your local schools
- Collect household supplies and donate them to households in need
- Collect and create items to make kits to give to the homeless at homeless shelters
- Collect nonperishable food items and donate to your local food bank
- Broadcast a free campaign to promote the local farmer's market to support local farmers and gardeners
- Hold a neighborhood market or fair and donate the profits to charity all while supporting local small businesses
- Collect gently-used clothing to donate
- Create a nonprofit adventure club to get local children outdoors
- Start a local book club for children at your library
- Volunteer as a crossing guard at your local elementary school
- Create an afterschool program at your local school
- Host a party, dance, or dinner event and donate the proceeds to charity
- Hold a local blood drive
- Host an adoption event at your local animal shelter
- Volunteer work hours at your local animal shelter
- Make stuffed animals and donate them to children
- Volunteer as a tutor
- Volunteer as a homework helper at your local school
- Volunteer as a coach or assistant coach for a children's sports team
- Teach a free seminar about your particular expertise
- Volunteer to help out at your local polling station during voting
- Hold a bake sale
- Start a community garden
- Clean up areas in your local community
- Raise funds to build a neighborhood playground for kids
- Raise funds to build a local dog park
- Start a neighborhood "take one, leave one" library
- Volunteer as a helper at your local library or community center
- Teach a free computer class to older adults
- Volunteer at your local senior center or nursing home
- Hold a competition, race, obstacle course, or marathon and donate the proceeds
- Plant non-invasive, bee-friendly plants and wildflowers
- Volunteer to read to children at the local school, library, or hospital
- Hold a car wash and donate the profits
- Hold a charity auction where people can donate items to sell for charity
- Volunteer at or create a soup kitchen
- Deliver meals to the elderly and other households in need
- Mow, shovel, or rake your neighbor's lawn for free
- Plant trees in your neighborhood
- Set up efficient recycling systems near you
- Help with low-income housing construction
- Ask for loved ones to donate to your charity of choice instead of giving you birthday presents
- Adopt a highway and maintain its cleanup
- Babysit children with working parents for free
- Help fundraise money and work on updating older houses in your neighborhood
- Volunteer as a chaperone at school dances or field trips
- Teach children how to sing or to play an instrument for free
- Raise money to buy useful electronics for homeschoolers
- Start a community service scholarship for students in need
- Raise money to help buy service animals for disabled children and adults
10 Virtual Volunteer Opportunities
Many circumstances can make it difficult to get together in person for community service work. There are also virtual opportunities to serve that are just as important and helpful as in-person charity work. Online volunteers can do just as much good and have just as much impact as sighted volunteers on location.
- Get certified to work with the Crisis Text Line as a Crisis Counselor
- Help set up internet connections at aid centers near you like shelters
- Become an online volunteer for Translators Without Borders
- Gather email addresses for petitions to make needed changes in your neighborhood, like a new stop sign
- Create a Facebook support group
- Set up video call visits with children in hospitals
- Set up a virtual field trip for the elementary school
- Start a pen pal program
- Write letters to members of the military overseas
- Host an online fundraiser to raise money for a cause you're passionate about
In Conclusion,
Be the good in the world by creating the good in the world. Whether you provide a service in-person or online, you can make a difference in the lives of people around you by getting involved in the causes you hold dear. You can also find local programs that already exist to help out with like the Check City Warm Hearts Coat Drive.