ChildrenÕs Activities & Resources
ACTIVITIES
SET UP NEEDS
1. List of donation locations in your community that you and/or the
children are interested in helping
¯ Contact information: Name, Phone, Hours open for donation
¯ Specific Needs
¯ Any special instructions per the site
v Some domestic shelters have
limited access and room for storing items, please check with them before
starting the challenge
2. Create a listing of
families that are in need
¯ What are their specific needs (if applicable)?
v Should only be accessed by
coordinator (privacy is necessary)!
3. Make a volunteer list at your location
¯ Name, contact Information and what they are willing to donate, and experience/skills
they are willing to share
v Cooking, cleaning tax preparations, Mr./Mrs. fix-it, sewing,
babysitting, etc...
COMMUNITY CHALLENGES
1. STUFF THE MINI-VAN
Ask local dealership to donate a vehicle or someone willing to donate
the use of their vehicle for the week
(Optional) Challenge a fellow community site to see who can pack in the
most items to donate to a local pantry, shelter or group
Determine your winner criteria or set a goal for your faith community to
reach
¯ For example: total weight of items donated, volume of items donated,
dollar value, etc...
Get volunteers to load and unload items
Coordinate with the donation site
¯ Contact person, name and phone
¯ Drop off time and location
v Do this promptly, as many
locations are staffed by volunteers with limited hours
Get volunteering information for your community (for future use)
Base the items collected from donation site wish lists
Items to be stuffed:
¯ Non-perishable foods, cleaning supplies, baby items, new clothing items,
new school supplies, etcÉ
2. PB&J CHALLENGE
See how much Peanut Butter & Jelly your community can donate
Decide on how to set up teams
Have a PB&J picnic/dinner to promote the idea (kick-off)
Color code theme - Purple/Red & Brown/Tan
3. BACKPACK BUDDIES
Possible Late summer/early fall
program
Set goal for whole community or
teams to reach for
Collect backpacks (new or gently
used) to use/donate
Collect new school supplies
¯ Organize each backpack with school supplies
Have list of local schools and
programs that could use items for lower income families
Collect gift cards to donate, but
select certain stores and set an amount standard
¯ Cards can be placed in the outside pocket with a note stating that it is
to be used for those items not included in the backpack
SEASONAL/HOLIDAY
THEME CHALLENGES
1. THANKSGIVING
- TURKEY DRIVE
*Be sure to consider whether
or not you have the proper storage room for frozen turkeys
Hold a turkey/thanksgiving dinner
drive
Create donation boxes/Rubbermaid
containers
Fill with all the fixings for a
Thanksgiving dinner
Get volunteers to deliver boxes
to needy families in your community
2. LABOR DAY/MEMORIAL DAY/4TH
OF JULY - RED, WHITE, & BLUE CHALLENGE
Create list of items needed or purpose of drive
Set teams and see who can get the most red, white and blue donations
Assign point per color
¯ i.e. - Red = 2 points each, Blue = 5 points each & White = 5 points
(15 points if item(s) have all 3 colors on packaging or maybe a bonus)
Hold a celebration for winner with the agency/organization/program that
resources were raised for
3. WINTER - CABIN
FEVER CHALLENGE
Decide on an outdoor activity (or pick several) the community would like
to participate in
¯ i.e. - sledding, snow shoeing, sleigh ride
Set date/time/location
Set requirement for participating
¯ i.e. - non-perishable food item must be donated to go sledding
4. Christmas, Eid or Hanukah Donations
During these holidays, depending on your faith group, donations are
usually asked of us. Perhaps a donation of a gift or money could be made to a local
non-profit organization or program that helps those in need.
¯ Christmas - December 25
¯ Eid Al-Fitr - approximately September 19
¯ Eid Al-Adha - approximately November 26
¯ Yom Kippur - September 28
¯ Rosh HaShanah - September 20
¯ Chanukah - December 12
5. EARTH
DAY CHALLENGE (can be done anytime of the year!)
*Earth Day is April 22nd of
each year
Set up a day in April to help local homeowners in need
¯ i.e. - cleaning, fixing, yard work, basement de-cluttering, etcÉ
6.
ÒTAKE A BITE OUT OF POVERTYÓ
Decide on an organization/agency/program to raise funds for
Have children create ideas for the bake sale
Host the bake sale with a poverty backdrop and with each sale include a
slip of paper with an important statistic regarding poverty
¯ For helpful statistics go to www.irp.wisc.edu or see the Fox Cities
Project Promise website at www.projectpromisefoxcities.org
7.
POVERTY MEAL
Hold an anti-poverty dinner or lunch where children eat a 'poverty line'
meal
Have children discuss feelings of the experience and what they can do
about it
List ideas that may come out of this discussion and follow through if
necessary
8.
POPCORN
During class-time, have someone pop a bag of microwave popcorn, bring it
into the meeting, and eat it (or you can use any other food item that the
children would like and want)
After several minutes, discuss the experience of wanting something but
being unable to attain it, the difficulty of concentrating while wanting
something else, and the disparity of some having resources while others do not
Generate ideas of ways to help others that want some things, but canÕt
get them
9.
THEME-BASED PRODUCT DRIVE
Hold a theme-based product drive such as peanut butter and jelly (see
above), trick or teeth (dental hygiene products), school supplies,
winter/spring/fall coats (depending on the season), shoes, or whatever else the
children can come up with
¯ Use your list of needs in the area to help you
Have the children come up with catchy slogans for their campaign
10.
LOCKDOWN NIGHT
Organize a lockdown evening at school or in the parish hall, where the
theme is poverty awareness
Invite and set a goal (i.e. - 10% of the students) to sleep overnight in
cardboard boxes on the playground or in the gym
Guide the students in a reflection/discussion on poverty during the
lockdown
Group them into teams and challenge teams to create a project that will
either bring about poverty awareness, educate the community on poverty, create
action that will generate a positive impact in eliminating poverty
NEED MORE IDEAS?
1. Have children brainstorm ideas for creating drives or collections for
the resources needed
2. Pick one (maybe two depending on numbers) project that is agreed upon
among them
3. Develop a plan with them to implement the project(s)
4. HAVE FUN!!
*DonÕt forget to always collect data to measure the
impact that your project had and report that back to the children so that they
can see the impact their project had in helping to eliminate poverty or raise
the awareness level of the issue in our local community.
RESOURCES
1. ÒHow to Help
Kids Learn to Give during the HolidaysÓ
A good article on ways to get the children involved in giving around the
holidays http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/539127
2. MULTIMEDIA ART ACTIVITIES - EXPLORE POVERTY
The following website provides wonderful multimedia art projects all
based around exploring poverty http://www.humanityquest.com/topic/art_activities/index.asp?theme1=poverty
3. POVERTY AWARENESS ACTIVITIES
The following website has great ideas to help raise awareness of
poverty http://www.wmu.com/VolunteerConnection/Project_HELP/Poverty%20Awareness%20Activities.pdf
4. GRANDMAÕS GIFTS
PROJECT IDEAS
See the following website for more great youth activity ideas www.grandmasgifts.org/Projects.aspx
5. FOOD FAST
Food Fast is Catholic Relief Services' 24-hour hunger awareness program
for Catholic youth in the United States. Focusing on global poverty and
justice, Food Fast provides an experience of solidarity with our brothers and
sisters overseas, living our faith, and joining together in community to create
lasting change in the world. This
year, Food Fast focuses on the global dimension of migration, its relationship
to hunger and poverty and how we as Catholics can respond to this issue.