I am a sophomore and I can’t find anywhere to volunteer locally.
I tried to volunteer at 3 Hospital (1 had bacteria outbreaks and all won’t let me volunteer till I’m 18), 2 food pantries (all of them have slots filled by adults), The closet red cross is 40 minutes away and I have no way of getting there. I already participate in boy scouts. The animal shelter and YMCA say I must 16 and don’t have opportunities often. And every thread I read recommends the library. But I called them, show up an asks at least twice a week and they say they are full and not in need of volunteers, this is the case with almost EVERYWHERE.
The only option I have is to Drive 40 minutes into the city (which no on will take me to) or offer free tutoring to already privilege children. I wont have a problem next year because i ca drive my self but until then I’m stuck.
Does anyone have any idea of what I could do regularly, I have to train 5 days of the week but I want to find somewhere to volunteer I’m stuck.
A school: Try asking the school librarian and help sort and shelve books, or be a crossing guard in the morning or afternoon, or teachers are always looking for people to make copies.
Sports: Be an assistant coach for a little kids team.
Museum, historical society, or other educational institution.
The Salvation Army allows people younger than 16 to be bell ringers during the holiday season. There may be toy or clothing drives during the holidays that could use volunteers. You could also ask local churches if the have any opportunities for volunteering. Is there a Habitat for Humanities branch in you area?
You don’t need an organization to volunteer. But have you tried your local schools or after school programs? Our kids are required to volunteer in 8th grade so it can’t be impossible to find anything before age 16. My kid arranged to volunteer at our elementary school reading with kindergarteners. A lot of kids do volunteer projects with their churches. Aside from the setting you weren’t able to join, I know high school students volunteer at to help out with middle school activities, with political campaigns, or in outdoor activities including neighborhood cleanups and such things as trail work in local parks or landscaping for various organizations, and yes, habitat for humanity.
Also, you should relax a bit about this. A lot of kids think that a huge amount of volunteer hours is required for college admissions. It’s not.
Does your boy scout troupe offer any opportunities? Maybe that’s enough?
As far as offering tutoring to “already privileged” students, not sure what you mean by that, do they all have tutors? Or why that isn’t a good option for you? My kid did a little tutoring. The problem with that was not that the kids were privileged, we have plenty of not privileged kids at our school, but that she arranged her schedule to do the tutoring and very often the kids did not show up, so it wasn’t very satisfying for her and she didn’t have any significant hours from that. Presumably that’s why they were in need of tutoring in the first place.
Have you checked out your or any local churches or religious organizations? Most of the time churches are in need of help in various ways and happy with any teen or person willing to help them in ministries and charitable works
Try places you wouldn’t normally think of for how you want to volunteer. For example, I wanted to volunteer working with animals (because at that time I was considering vet school) but none of my local vets needed volunteers. However, going to my local pet store led me to be able to volunteer with the animal adoption services there. Sometimes a workaround way works best.
Create your own opportunities - if you have a homeschool co-op, can you volunteer to teach the younger kids something? Set up a mini golf clinic? The idea here is that you show initiative, problem solving and determination, so you actually need to do those things
