Virtual/At Home ideas:
- Creating cards for hospital patients
- Writing letters to seniors in care centers
- Write letters to first responders: https://www.operationgratitude.com/express-your-thanks-virtual/write-letters-virtual/
- Make blankets for the homeless
- Fidget blankets for memory care patients
- Virtual read-aloud recording. Global Citizen 365 is seeking volunteers willing to film themselves reading a book
- Building and sending care packages: Operation Gratitude is offering a number of virtual ways to spread joy to frontline workers and military members.
- Become a virtual buddy to a senior citizen: Programs like the Selfhelp’s Virtual Senior Center program are seeking volunteers eager to share meaningful moments and smiles with seniors.
- Sew masks for vulnerable populations
- Tutor virtually either with teachers/kids you already know or work with organizations like https://teensgive.org/virtual/ to find virtual tutoring opportunities
- Play games with seniors over platforms like https://www.seniorliving.org/organization/volunteer/
- Become a virtual penpal https://www.weareteachers.com/virtual-pen-pals/
- Decorate food boxes for food deliveries with the Utah Food Bank.
- Make and donate dolls or bears to Dolls of Hope.
- Become a Smithsonian Digital Volunteer and help make historical documents and biodiversity data more accessible.
- United Nations: Online Volunteering: team up to address sustainable development challenges anywhere in the world, from any device.
- Become a Cyber-Seniors volunteer and help senior citizens learn about technology.
Socially Distant in-person ideas:
- Collect food or warm clothing items for the food bank, homeless shelter, refugee organizations
- Volunteer at a local food bank
- Individual neighborhood clean up, snow shoveling, lawn mowing, spring planting
- Donate blood: To learn where to donate blood, enter your zip code into the search tool set up by the American Red Cross
- Get involved with Habitat for Humanities: https://www.habitat.org/volunteer/near-you/youth-programs
- Can you drive? Volunteer to take meals to home bound residents: https://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/find-meals
- Work directly with those who have been most impacted by COVID 19 near you both in person and virtually: https://www.covid19mutualaidslc.com/volunteer
Other ideas to consider:
- Take a look at the Red Cross opportunities for youth: http://redcrossyouth.org/scholarships/be-a-volunteer/
- Start a Best Buddies chapter at your school: https://www.bestbuddies.org/bbu/start-a-chapter/
- Passionate about the environment? Work with the Sierra Club to be a champion for the environment: https://www.sierraclub.org/youth
- Check out https://www.dosomething.org/us/campaigns to find tons of volunteer ideas
- Start a petition for change about something you are passionate about https://www.change.org/start-a-petition
- Transcribe documents for the smithsonian https://transcription.si.edu/
- Make blankets or other comfort items for kids in need https://www.binkypatrol.org/
- Do you speak another language? Become a translator volunteer https://translatorswithoutborders.org/volunteer/
- Proofread e books https://www.pgdp.net/c/
- Help scan books and proofread scanned files to make books more accessible to those with reading barriers https://www.bookshare.org/cms/get-involved/volunteer/opportunities-us
- Use your tech skills to help make a better internet: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/
- Learning to code? Use your tech skills here https://www.donatecode.com/
- Become a social media ambassador to a cause you believe in. Check out this site: https://girlsinc.org/take-action/social-media-ambassador/
- Use Nextdoor to find ways to help in your own neighborhood
- Check ot project giving to see what guided service projects you can do in your own home https://www.projectgivingkids.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA0-6ABhDMARIsAFVdQv_jF0mpSNtAFO-NsYsOuxnjSnwfk2J3WSO2zD17IAXNGrKfRJDVK18aApImEALw_wcB
Local Service Opportunities During COVID