Great Ideas for Projects That Give Teens A Chance To Make A Difference
Is your teenager motivated to help others and make a difference? Barbara A. Lewis, author of "The Kid's Guide to Service Projects" offers her best ideas for teens who want to help the environment, their neighborhood, animals and put a stop to bullying.
Barbara A. Lewis, author of The Kid’s Guide to Service Projects: Over 500 Service Ideas for Young People Who Want to Make a Difference shares her best ten tips for parents who want to help their children get involved in a service project.
Commitment: What can parents do to help their children be motivated to make a difference?
Barbara A. Lewis: Allow children to observe their parents contributing to help others.
• Help children to brainstorm problems in their neighborhood. Is there an elderly person who is lonely? A young mother who needs help watching her children? Your own yard that could use some sprucing up? A neighbor who is leaving town and has a pet that needs care while they’re gone?
Commitment: What can a parent do if their child feels like, 'what difference can I make?' because they don't feel competent, capable or powerful enough to
help others?
Barbara:
• Start small with problems in their neighborhood, school, or environment.
• Take a walk with your child, looking for problems. Is there a place in your own yard that needs a tree? Make sure the child sees the problem, and that the adult doesn’t give them the problem. Children will be most empowered when they brainstorm the problem themselves and the adult only acts as the facilitator to help them achieve their goal.
Commitment: Why do you personally think some young people are motivated to make a difference and set out to do so, and others, while being concerned about different problems, don't make any attempt to help out?
Barbara:
• Children who want to make a difference have had experiences to help them feel for the problems of others.
• Take your child to a children’s hospital, to an animal shelter, to a seniors’ home, or a school for homeless children. And allow them to see and feel. Ask them candid questions to help them notice problems.
• Respond sensitively to your own children, and they will usually copy that behavior.
• When you watch the news together, ask what they think about stories that are aired. Do they feel it is fair, dangerous, good, disappointing? Give them opportunity to express themselves, and then don’t correct their expressions. You can add your own opinions, but don’t devalue their opinions.
Commitment: What skills can a young person develop through getting involved in a service project?
Barbara:
• They develop leadership, self-confidence, self-discipline, responsibility, problem-solving skills, caring for others, and respect. They can develop better relationships with others, including adults in the community, better communication skills, and become better citizens.
• When they reach outward to help solve problems in their community, the whole process rolls back to them, and they learn to better control their own lives.
Commitment: Can you share with us the ten steps to a successful service project?
Barbara:
• Research the problem that you have found.
• Form a team.
• Find a sponsor or someone to help you.
• Make a goal and plan of the steps you need to make to achieve your goals.
• Consider the recipient. Make sure there is a need and desire for help.
• Decide where you will perform your service.
• Get any permission that you might need to proceed.
• Advertise your project to create greater awareness of the need.
• Fundraise if you need to.
• Evaluate your project when you complete it. What have you learned? What would you do differently? What did you contribute?
From: The Kid’s Guide to Service Projects, p. 7-10
Commitment: What are some great ways to help for young people who love animals?
Barbara:
• Adopt a zoo animal
• Adopt an animal from an endangered species (online).
• Tend your neighbor’s pet.
• Volunteer at an animal shelter.
• Gather aluminum cans and pop tabs to raise money for homeless animals at a shelter.
• Make a poster about kind treatment of animals and hang it in your favorite grocery store or library.
Commitment: What are five service projects for those who want to help the environment?
Barbara:
• Hold an environmental fair at your school.
• When you shop for school supplies, buy folders and notebooks made from recycled paper. Make a flyer to distribute in your school encouraging other students to do the same.
• Plant trees or a garden on your school grounds (with permission, of course, and with the help of other students).
• Bury items (shoes, fruit, paper, tissue, plastic) to see how long it takes them to decompose. Investigate what causes them to decompose. Prepare to be patient.
• Replace a tree that has died in your neighborhood. Seek help from your state forester or a local tree nursery.
Commitment: What are the biggest and most common mistakes young people make when it comes to organizing and working on a service project?
Barbara:
• The biggest mistake is when adults take over. This literally robs the youth of the growth and leadership that they could develop.
• Another big mistake is not doing proper research to find out different viewpoints of the issue.
• Make sure that there are no laws or city ordinances against what you want to do. Get all the permissions necessary before starting.
• Don’t ever overlook your opposition, or those people who might oppose what you plan to do. Work with them. Seek their advice, and be willing to compromise a little to get the job done. You might even win the support of your opposition.
• Don’t take on more than you can do. Start small and grow into a larger project. Don’t start large and give up.
Commitment: One of the service projects you recommend is promoting tolerance and appreciating differences. What are some other service projects that can promote friendship and maybe stop bullying?
Barbara:
• Work with your principal to give out a monthly award for the friendliest person in your school.
• Plan ethnic group awareness days at school.
• Create a school forum where students can gather to explore and discuss similarities and differences in order to learn respect for all people. You will need adult support with this.
• Survey the students to find out how many have been bullied, how they felt, and what they think should be done to reduce or stop it.
• Create a multi-cultural club that can address the problems of lack of tolerance and bullying, in order to seek for solutions in your school or neighborhood.
Commitment: Can you share with us ten ideas for service projects that you personally find exciting?
Barbara:
• Contact a school for homeless children and ask what you might do to help.
• Do a secret service project for a member of your own family.
• Let your opinion be heard. Debate an issue on Youth Noise: http://www.youthhoise.com
• Encourage the adults in your life to vote at elections. You can also get involved in Kids Voting USA at www.kidsvotingusa.org.
• Tutor a younger student in reading or math.
• Create a safety poster with after school safety tips, and hang it in your school.
• Collect used books or computers to donate to a hospital, senior care facility, shelter, or pre-school.
• Make reading or math flash cards and donate them to a pre-school, shelter, or childcare center.
• Set up a buddy system at your school for students who have special needs. Make a schedule of times for students to befriend or help special-needs students.
• Write to local TV and radio stations. Ask them to focus more attention on kids who are doing good service and less attention on kids involved in crimes.
Commitment: What are some of the service projects that you have personally led students in? Can you share with us some of your favorite experiences?
Barbara:
• One year my students brainstormed problems in their neighborhood and decided they wanted to fight or reduce crime in their neighborhood.
Over three years they did the following:
1. Surveyed the student body to see what crimes they thought were the worst crimes.
2. Gave speeches against crime at school assemblies and community groups.
3. Measured off a drug-free school zone and put up signs (with help of police).
4. Painted over graffiti (with help of police).
5. Wrote a proclamation signed by mayor for a “Take a Bite Out of Crime” month.
6. Wrote public service announcements against crime for TV.
7. Put a crime-clue box in the principal’s office, which resulted in the solving of several crimes.
8. Got a billboard that announced one of their slogans, “You always lose if you choose to abuse.”
9. Wrote letters to police to get rid of a drug house in their neighborhood, and it happened.
10. Got a hotline for abused children to call.
11. Pushed through three anti-crime bills in the state legislature with stiffer penalties for possession of weapons near schools, graffiti, and drive-by shootings.
Commitment: What are your best tips for creating a flyer and telling others about your cause or service project?
Barbara:
• Give it a title.
• Describe the problem or issue, your solution, and how it might help.
• Describe your particular project and the dates, times, and places where you plan to perform your service.
• Include the dates when your project will start and end.
• Tell readers where it will take place or what your advertising.
• Give a contact for more information (website, school, etc.)
• Include a picture, cartoon, color, or something visual to make it interesting.
• Use recycled paper!
From The Kid’s Guide to Service Projects, p. 134-135
Commitment: What are some ways to raise money for a project?
Barbara:
• Perform service for a fee, such as car washes, guided tours, rake, mow, shovel, race, read books, etc.
• Sell something that you make or get donated.
• Ask for donations.
• Hold an event, such as a fair, carnival, contest, play, or auction.
• Apply for a grant. There are many available to schools.
From The Kid’s Guide to Service Projects, p. 146-147
Commitment: What is something a Mom can do with a few kids in a neighborhood over the summer if she lacks time and money?
Barbara:
• Go on a walk with the children, looking for neighborhood problems:
1. A vacant, abandoned lot that needs attention
2. Litter clean up
3. Graffiti
4. Lonely people who could use some friendship
5. Pruning of trees that obstruct vision from streets
6. Neighborhood baby-sitting club
7. A new comer in the neighborhood who needs some befriending.
To Purchase The Kid’s Guide to Service Projects: Over 500 Service Ideas for Young People Who Want to Make a Difference click here.
About the Author: Barbara A. Lewis is a recipient of national awards for teaching and the award-winning author of many books for young people, including The Kid's Guide to Social Action, The Teen Guide to Global Action, What Do You Stand For? and Kids with Courage.
