Volunteering as a family

By YesPakistan.com Staff Writer

If you want to get your family involved in helping Pakistan through volunteer work, it's high time you considered volunteering not just as an individual, but as a family.

While this is not always easy to arrange, its benefits outweigh the amount of effort you'll initially have to put in to start off this initiative.

Volunteering as a family, whether that's parents and children or as a husband and wife team not only helps families spend time together, something which is eagerly sought after in the time-pressured era we live it. It also helps the family bond for a common cause which deepens familial ties.

In terms of couples, it's important to remember that most marriage counselors agree that a successful marriage is one in which the focus is someone or something outside of it. This is perhaps why couples whose mutual focus is God, for instance, often have happy marriage.

The same idea can be applied to working together for a cause. For families, volunteering together for a charitable organization or project not only builds skills as a group, but it also helps parents and children bond.

Volunteering also teaches kids the value of giving of their time and effort without the expectation of monetary reward. This is reinforced not only by their individual experience volunteering, but also by the fact that their parents are "modeling" this behavior when the whole family volunteers together. As child development experts have pointed out, the best way to teach a child is by example.

In addition, everyone involved in the volunteering experience builds a set of new skills while creating family memories that will serve as a positive experience for all.

In specific, when it comes to volunteering for Pakistan as a family, Pak-American children will have an opportunity to learn more about their roots. This of course requires more than a shared volunteering experience. Encouraging reading and writing about Pakistan, sharing relatives' stories, family trees, etc. are all part of the process of helping young Pak-Americans get in touch with their roots. However, volunteering adds a new dimension to this. As kids volunteer with their parents, they will not only see that Pakistan matters, but also that a connection with Pakistan means doing something concrete for our Pakistani brothers and sisters back home.

Here are some ways to start volunteering as a family:

1. Call a family meeting

Get everyone together for a meeting to discuss the idea of volunteering as a family. All details of this project don't have to be discussed in this one meeting. Instead, maybe you can all talk about what projects are worthy of your family's time and effort. Make this a brainstorming session and make sure that all ideas are written down on paper.

At the end of this meeting, narrow down your selections of where to volunteer to a few, selecting those ideas which appeal to the most family members. Then, delegate the responsibility of contacting different organizations or groups to every family member if possible.

2. Set a schedule

At the following meeting, finalize which organization or group the family will volunteer with and then discuss scheduling or how often and exactly what day and time the family will volunteer together.

Start off slow. A weekly commitment is too much for most families, considering everyone has all kinds of responsibilities relating to jobs, the house, homework, other extra-curricular activities, etc.

Instead, why not try volunteering one weekend day of the month?
Make this "mandatory" for all family members to attend and decide the date of your first volunteering as a family experience right there and then. Make sure everyone has noted this down in their agendas or calendars, and post up a family calendar on the fridge if you don't already have one as a reminder of this date for everybody.

Delegate one person to call and confirm with the organization that your family will be coming that day to volunteer and tell them exactly how many people, what their ages are and some of their skills.

3. Hype everyone up

Not everyone may be gung ho about volunteering. That's expected, especially if it wasn't some family members first pick. Nonetheless, parents and the older siblings should try to hype everyone up in the days before the volunteering experience. Sweeten the deal by offering a privilege or treat (i.e. ice cream for everyone afterwards).

4. Discuss the experience

After your first experience volunteering as a family, hold a meeting to discuss everyone's feelings about the experience. Did they feel their time was well used? Did they really feel they were contributing to Pakistan? If they didn't enjoy what they were delegated to do, can they suggest some other creative way to use their skills?

Share these ideas with the organization heads.

5. Don't be afraid to switch

If the experience is not working well, don't be afraid to try to find another organization where everyone's time and efforts can be better used. But be sure to thank the organization you had volunteered with for offering your family the opportunity to volunteer.

6. Encourage kids to write about their experience

Write about your family's volunteer experience to relatives in Pakistan. This will not only be some interesting family news to share, but it may also encourage relatives to get involved in the same.

Family members who are in school can also write about the experience for a class journal or some other writing project.

Date/Time Last Modified: 6/18/2002 8:08:09 AM

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