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Why Community Service Is Beneficial for Kids

Tuesday, May 7, 2013 1:51 AM Posted by Kids and Teens
By Liz Carson

As parents, it's easy to get bogged down with errands, work and the various afterschool activities that your children enjoy. However, it's important to not overlook the importance that community service will have on you and your child's life. For children, specifically, there are many benefits to having them involved in some sort of community service effort.

Reasons to Get Involved

Volunteering can be one of the most satisfying, fun and productive ways to unite your family and teach your kids about values. It's a way to help children understand how their actions impact others around them. When children volunteer, they are providing important services at a low or no cost to those who need it. This shows them that when the community flourishes, so to do the individuals of that community.

What Kids Learn

Volunteering can easily become a part of kid's lives if introduced early on. Instead of being a chore, it will be something they expect and look forward to doing. It can be a huge learning experience for them as well.

- Responsibility: Community service is one of the best ways to instill responsibility in children. They learn the importance of making a commitment and sticking to it.

- Morals and values: Values like honesty, humbleness, gratefulness, and being non-judgmental are some of the many things that children can learn by doing community service. It helps kids think beyond themselves and gain a wider perspective on life.

- Job Skills: There are various areas of community service that deal with different careers. These can include hospitals, schools, politics and many more. By getting the opportunity to volunteer in any of those areas, kids will get a better idea of what they might be interested in once they get older. It also helps build skills like teamwork, leadership, time management, etc. that will help kids be more prepared for the future.

- Productivity: Instead of having kids sit on the couch playing video games, give them the opportunity to fill idle time wisely by volunteering. It can be a wonderful alternative to traditional after school activities.

- Acceptance: Kids have a tendency to judge other based on what they know or have been taught. By introducing them to community service, they will have the opportunity to interact with people of different backgrounds, abilities, ages and income levels. This will help them see that diverse individuals can come together over shared common values.

Community service also promotes family bonding. Since family time can often be cut short due to busy work schedules or extracurricular activities, community service is a great way to have fun and feel closer with your family. Not to mention it feels good to help others. When children see that their efforts are making someone else happy, they will feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. The feeling of fulfillment can be endless when helping out a worthy cause.

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