Volunteer

Youth Programs

Age Appropriate Activities for Youth

Channeling the excitement and energy of youth under age 14 is a creative, challenging and rewarding process. Below are some examples of how youth have been involved with affiliates in the past. These activities have been used with (but are not limited to) church youth groups, Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, Boys and Girls Clubs, and elementary and middle school classes. Click here for a full list of activities.

Off-site Activities

Decorate the studs with blessings or messages to the partner family
Fold newsletters or stuff envelopes for mailings.
Let youth design a Web page for the affiliate. Work with the youth to design your newsletter or challenge an art class to design the newsletter.
Paint doors and baseboards.
Build birdhouses, flower boxes, key chains or simple picture frames. All these things can be made with scraps from the work site.
Speak to schools or groups about the mission of HFH and bring along a partner family to talk about their experience. Bring along a college or high school student to help facilitate the presentation.
Serve lunch or snacks at the work site. Have the youth bag cookies or make sandwiches. Have a Habitat for Humanity T-shirt, Christmas card or thank-you card designing contest for local youth.
Clean up a donated lot before construction begins. Partner with a local environmental group and have the youth recycle as much as they can while cleaning.
Landscape after the house is finished.
Educate the youth about the overall picture of poverty housing by taking a tour of a substandard home or apartment. Have a partner family talk to the youth about how Habitat has impacted them. Have the youth write about their experience and publish one of their reflections in the next newsletter.

With the Partner Family

Gather housewarming items (cleaning supplies, plants, etc.) and have a group of youth present it to the partner family at their house dedication.
Decorate pots for houseplants to be given to partner family at the house dedication.
Design and sew a quilt for a partner family.
Have the youth decorate a stone or rock for the partner family; if this is being done at a vacation Bible school, they can draw a blessing on the rock for the partner family’s garden.

Fundraising

Have a craft fair or silent auction for items that youth make.
Hold a "Hike for Habitat" event.
Have youth build birdhouses, playhouses, mailboxes, dollhouses, flower boxes, etc., to sell at the Habitat Home Improvement Store. Label each item with the young person’s name, age and the organization they represent. When the item sells, mail the tag back to the young person explaining how much additional money was donated to Youth United through the sale.
Sell homemade baked goods and snacks at school, a religious institution, or in your community.
Challenge an elementary school to collect pennies for Habitat and have each grade present their pennies at an assembly. The group with the most pennies can get a prize like a pizza party or extra time at recess.
Give Legos^TM out to different groups and have each group build a house. Display the houses and have people vote on the best ones by putting money in a jar in front of each house.

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