5 benefits of volunteering as a family
Updated: Jun 12, 2021
Social and networking skills. Volunteering is a social activity — so it can build up your list of important contacts. For example, the people you volunteer with are great candidates for recommendation letters. After all, these are the people who have seen you interact with others and handle new challenges.
Value to schools and employers. Having volunteer experience can set you apart from other applicants for jobs and colleges. Your volunteer experience tells them that you are ambitious, care about your community and are willing to put in the work that brings change.
A chance to pay it forward. Kindness is contagious. Simply seeing someone help another person gives us a good feeling. And that inspires us to do something altruistic ourselves.
Volunteering can draw family members closer together, forging new bonds through shared experiences outside normal day-to-day routines. Parents, children and other relatives who volunteer together also learn more about each other while experiencing new activities.
Giving back to society helps children develop values like compassion, perseverance and selflessness. As they watch their parents serve others, children learn to think beyond themselves and their own needs. Research has shown that children who volunteer exhibit higher levels of self-esteem, motivation, interest in learning and moral responsibility.
