Social Justice

Inspire Your Kids to Give Back with a Summer Service Project

Send these easy summer service project ideas to your ministry families to invite gratitude and compassion into their homes and hearts.

Service is a expression of our lives that teaches us valuable lessons! To name a few, we learn to appreciate what we have. And we learn the complexity of the world. Furthermore, we learn to practice empathy. However, summer can be a challenging time to continue this kind of expression and learning.

Summer brings about travel, rest, amazing memories and family time. It can also be a season when service trips are taken. But what if there are kids who aren’t going on that trip? Or what if your church isn’t taking such a trip?

How are you inviting kids to serve in a summer service project? We’d love to hear in the comments section!

Summer Service Project Ideas

Ideas for Younger Kids

Clear out your child’s bookshelves. Donate books they’ve outgrown but are in good condition. Give books to the church library or nursery, the public library, a homeless shelter, thrift store or a family in need.
Make a silly video to send to an elderly or ill relative. You may be surprised to know what a major impact this can have. I’ve gotten calls and messages in response to doing this saying how much it helped raise a person’s spirits during a trying time. Plus, it’s easy and quick!

Ideas for Older Kids

Volunteer at a local animal shelter. Spend a few hours working to serve animals. There are lots of different tasks older kids can do including feeding animals, walking dogs and cleaning cages.
Donate time to babysit. Young couples often don’t get date nights because getting a sitter costs money they don’t have. So, encourage your child to volunteer to babysit for someone you may know in this situation.
Help a younger sibling clean their room. A younger sibling will appreciate the assistance. And it creates opportunity for the older one to be a leader.

Scripture About Service

Consider posting a favorite Bible verse as you explore a summer service project helps your kids see it regularly. The bathroom mirror is a great spot, in the car or at the dining table.

1 Peter 4.10: Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

Romans 12.1: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice…

Romans 12.10: Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Romans 12.13: Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Mark 12.30: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

We hope these ideas are helpful in encouraging your kids to take part in a summer service project this summer. Enjoy serving with them. The more they see their caregivers offering themselves as a living sacrifice, the more they will participate.

And don’t forget! We want to know how you’ll be working with your kids to inspire generosity and compassion in your kids lives this summer. So, share in the comments section!

5 Fantastic Family-Friendly Charities to Support Right Now

Alissa Ellett Leave a Comment

Family-friendly charities focus on issues that children will likely want to invest in. So, we’ve put together a list of five to choose from to make your holiday giving easy.

You amazing church leaders and parents likely have family-friendly charities you love to support. Share with us in the comments how giving has encouraged generosity in the kids you nurture.

Raising Funds to Donate

There are a few ways to gather holiday giving funds with your child to donate to charity.

First, simply tell your child a set amount you will allow them to give. Then, go online and have them go through the screens necessary to donate to the charity they choose.

Second, if your child has a piggy bank, or something similar, invite them to take funds from there. Then, send that money (or a check of equal value) to one of the family-friendly charities you choose. Or drop the money in person, if the organization is local.

Third, create easy ways for them to raise funds to donate. For example, invite them to be in charge of saving aluminum cans in your home. Then, take them to the recycling center to redeem the cans for coins.

To best teach children about holiday giving, connect them to concrete actions as often as possible. Keep this in mind, especially if your child is young. On the other hand, youth are better equipped to think abstractly. Encouraging teenagers to give can be a bit less involved for this reason.

5 Family-Friendly Charities to Support

No Kid Hungry

No Kid Hungry knows that we have plenty of food in the United States. And we have meal programs that work. The problem is that not enough kids are able to access them.

That’s a problem they know how to solve. And your kids can be a part of the solution.

DONATE to No Kid Hungry.

KaBOOM!

KaBOOM! knows that kids are missing out on the childhood they deserve. Play is disappearing at home, at school, and in communities, particularly for the 14 million children living in poverty.

So, the organization pairs funding partners with under-resourced communities who come together to build safe playgrounds, in just one day, resulting in kids feeling valued.

DONATE to KaBOOM!

Alex’s Lemonade Stand

Alex’s Lemonade Stand strives to change the lives of children with cancer through funding impactful research, raising awareness, supporting families, and empowering everyone to help cure childhood cancer.

Alexandra “Alex” Scott held a front yard lemonade sale to raise money for childhood cancer. She herself was diagnosed with cancer just before she turned one and passed away at the age of eight. So, her family carries on her legacy through this organization.

DONATE to Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Defenders of Wildlife

Defenders of Wildlife is a major national conservation organization focused solely on wildlife and habitat conservation and the safeguarding of biodiversity.

It is one of the family-friendly charities that focuses on the inherent value of wildlife and the natural world, and this defines their important niche in the environmental and conservation community.

DONATE to Defenders of Wildlife.

Hope International

Hope International focuses on something more abstract: entrepreneurship in developing countries. Therefore, it may be a good choice for youth in your family. This charity assists individuals turn their talents, education, or skills into sustainable businesses.

For example, your child may be able to help a woman buy a stove to set up her bakery. Or, they may buy a share of a greenhouse to help a farmer grow vegetables to sell.

DONATE to Hope International.

Giving is a Gift

All of us here at ICM hope you and your family find joy in holiday giving this season. Making this time to encourage generosity at home is a gift to your kids, for sure. So, we hope our list of five family-friendly charities helps. And don’t forget to tell us in the comments how you’re encouraging generosity in your kids!

March For Our Lives: Not One More.

Adam Walker Cleaveland 2 Comments

On March 24, the kids and families of March For Our Lives will take to the streets to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and that they end gun violence in our schools and communities. Thousands, if not millions, of people, will join together in over 800+ marches happening around the world. We wanted to do something to help support their cause, and so we created signs that you can print out and use in the march (or for other events in the future).

Not one more. We cannot allow one more child to be shot at school. We cannot allow one more teacher to make a choice to jump in front of a firing assault rifle to save the lives of students. We cannot allow one more family to wait for a call or text that never comes. Our schools are unsafe. Our children and teachers are dying. We must make it our top priority to save these lives.

Not one more. The above quote was taken from the Mission Statement of those who are behind the March For Our Lives. Here at Illustrated Children’s Ministry, we obviously support children and youth. We stand behind the student-led protest movement that began as a response by students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida to the devastating shooting that took place at their school on February 14, 2018.

Our NOT ONE MORE signs include a list of the dates and locations of every school shooting from Columbine (4/20/99) through the most recent shooting in Great Mills, Maryland (3/20/18). 19 years. 216 school shootings. NOT. ONE. MORE.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO DOWNLOAD FREE POSTERS? Click here to download your free set of “NOT ONE MORE” posters.

You can print out the signs in the following sizes: 8.5×11, 18×24 and 24×36 and we have included both Adobe Illustrator files as well as PDFs. Also included is the above shareable image for using on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

I’m reminded that if anything in our country is going to change when it comes to guns, it’s going to happen because of the younger generations: the high school students, the middle schoolers, our elementary school kids. They are the ones who are losing their friends and classmates to these acts committed with weapons made for war.

However, it’s clear that nothing will change in our country until we get rid of these assault rifles and weapons made for the sole purpose of killing people.

We do hope that this may be a turning point for our country, and we are so inspired by the young people around the country who are leading this March For Our Lives movement. They are the ones who are leading the conversation about gun violence, and we grateful for that.

We hope these posters might be useful or helpful for you. Download them here.

Not. One. More.