Citizen Rights

Volunteering

Student Social Action
Student Community Service
Adult Volunteer Opportunities

More Citizenship Resources: Becoming a Citizen - Citizen Rights - Citizen Responsibilities

Many Americans of all ages choose to contribute their time and talents in support of causes in which they believe. Volunteer projects include being a chaperone on a school field trip, active membership on the parent-teacher association, participating in town meetings, and working to improve the living conditions of the poor. The idea that ordinary people, can do extraordinary things when they work together as a group in service to others, is a powerful one. Below is a list of volunteer projects and organizations for both students and adults.

Student Social Action Projects

The Earth Day Project
To celebrate Earth Day students decorate paper grocery bags with pro-environmental messages, and give them to stores to use to hold customers' groceries.
Clean Water for Nicaragua
Students from around the world raise money to dig wells and the install rope pumps in Nicaragua, thus helping to reduce illness caused by polluted water in selected villages.
Save the Beaches
In this project, students pick up litter at local beaches, which they then analyze and categorize. Students use email to share the data with participating schools. The project then encourages students to draw conclusions from the data and discuss ways they can reduce pollution.
Nonprofit Prophets
This is an interactive project that challenges groups of students to investigate a problem that they see in the world, and then create a World Wide Web Resource page on the Internet that teaches the world about the problem. Typically, students collaborate with local non-profit agencies that need a web site.
Rainforest Action Network
Find out what you can do to help save the rainforest.

Student Community Service Projects

National Service-Learning Cooperative Clearinghouse
This site provides LOADS of information on service learning. It is organized into several searchable databases, as well as information resource areas where you can request publications (newsletters, articles, etc.). It provides links to many other service sites on the web, as well as special sections for Learn and Serve America grantees, with a list of Learn and Serve state contacts and Learn and Serve programs.
Do Something
Do Something is a national non-profit organization that inspires young people to believe that change is possible, and trains, funds and mobilizes them to be leaders who measurably strengthen their communities. They offer $500 grants to youth under 30 to implement service projects in their communities. Stop by this site for a grant application and to find out more about the many other programs they sponsor.
Kids Care Club
The mission of this club is to develop the spirit of compassion and volunteerism in children. To that end, we provide children, families, schools and religious groups with meaningful opportunities to help others in their local and global communities.
Youth Service America
Enter your zip code to find volunteer opportunities in your community.
Kids Can Make a Difference
Kids Can Make A Difference® (KIDS), an educational program for middle and high school students, focuses on the root causes of hunger and poverty, the people most affected, solutions, and how students can help. The major goal is to stimulate the students to take some definite follow-up actions as they begin to realize that one person can make a difference. The best click, however, is the What Kids Can Do page.
Kids Care Project
This project asks students to identify a community problem and develop an action plan, including persuasive letters to influential people, to help combat this problem. Suggested topics include neighborhood clean-ups, recycling, tree planting, etc.
AmeriCorps
The young people in AmeriCorps work in one of 430 programs designed to meet specific community needs in four areas: education, public safety, human services, and the environment. Volunteers tutor elementary school students, start neighborhood crime watches, provide companionship to the elderly, and restore coastlines, among other things.
Corporation for National and Community Service
The Corporation for National Service is the private-public partnership which oversees such agencies as Learn and Serve America, AmeriCorps, National Civilian Conservation Corps and SeniorCorps. You can find out about new funding initiatives, as well as locate general resources on service-learning here.
Help the Homeless
This site teaches kids who the homeless are and what they can do to help them.
Make a Difference Day
In thousands of communities across the nation, an estimated 2 million people took time to help others on the ninth annual Make A Difference Day, Saturday, Oct. 23, 1999. Learn what you and your students can do on the next October 28, 2000 - the next Make A Difference Day.

Adult Volunteer Opportunities

Peace Corps
Peace Corps is an independent overseas volunteer program of the United States government. Men and women in the Peace Corps work with people in developing countries to help them improve their living conditions. The chief goals of the corps are (1) to help the poor obtain everyday needs, (2) to promote world peace, and (3) to increase understanding between Americans and the people of other nations. Be sure to check out the Peace Corps Kids World web site.
Red Cross
Red Cross is an organization that works to relieve human suffering and has more than 10 million volunteers, including blood donors and students. The programs and services of the American Red Cross are funded by voluntary contributions.
Habitat for Humanity
Volunteers apply hands-on solutions to the need for affordable housing. Together with low-income individuals needing a place of their own, individuals donate their time to build "simple, decent homes."