Serving Others: An Introduction

When you read biographies of great leaders, many of them talk about how they were shaped by experiences of serving others with their families. No matter the age of your child, volunteering as a family is a great way to spend quality time together while also shaping your child’s character.

Did You Know?

• Young people who say their parents “spend lots of time helping others” are almost twice as likely to engage in service themselves.
• Search Institute researchers have found that when kids serve others, their Developmental Assets are built. They also found that when you build kids’ Developmental Assets, they’re more likely to serve others.¹

• An Independent Sector study found that 67 percent of adults who remembered that their family volunteered when they were young said they now volunteer as adults. In contrast, only 42 percent of adults who did not remember volunteering with their family when they were young volunteer now.²

Serving others doesn’t have to take a lot of time. There are hundreds of ways to volunteer together as a family, ranging from quick projects at home to taking family volunteer vacations, making it easy to find one that fits your family’s needs.