A natural place to teach citizenship is within your own community where youth community service and volunteering opportunities are plentiful. Among the many possibilities, consider some of the following:
  • Be a good neighbor. Demonstrate neighborliness to your child. Shovel a neighbor’s walk, pick up trash, run errands for ailing or elderly folks, participate in a block party, or simply chat over the fence. Encourage your child to help neighbors with chores such as getting mail or taking care of a pet when a neighbor is away.
  • Draw your child’s attention to the good work other people in your neighborhood do. Talk about what they do and how it improves people lives. Then thank them.
  • Stay informed about your community. Read the local paper and ask your child to read it too. Discus the issues you read about, and if your kid feels strongly, encourage him or her to write a letter to the editor expressing an opinion or taking a stand.
  • Teach your child about government. Review the responsibilities of the federal, state, and local government. (You don’t have to know everything. That’s what libraries are for!) Consider taking a tour of local government buildings such as a courthouse or city hall. Maybe you can witness a trial or a citizenship ceremony. When an issue you are interested in comes up, attend a school board or city council meeting with your child. Speak at the meeting, if appropriate, and let your child do so. Discuss the results of the meeting. What will happen at a result of the meeting? What next steps might the two of you take?
  • Model participatory democracy by making a habit of phoning and writing letters and e-mails to government officials about the issues that you care passionately about. Discuss these communications with your child, and post the addresses and phone numbers of government representatives in case your actions inspire your child to do the same.
  • Volunteer in your community. Many local nonprofit organizations are looking for volunteer help from people of all ages. There are never enough volunteers! Depending on your family’s interests, you and your child may be able to volunteer together for an organization like the Humane Society. Or perhaps there is a scouting or other service organization in your area that your child is interested in joining. Explain what the volunteers organizations do in your community do: for example, a YWCA, food bank, homeless shelter, Red Cross, hospital auxiliary, recreation association, and so on.
  • Pick a project. Let your child choose a project that would improve the neighborhood. It might be cleaning up a park, pulling weeds in a playground, painting a mural on a building, or planting flowers in a traffic circle. Plan together how that project could be accomplished. What do you need to do to get started? How much will it cost? Will you need to get permission, and if so, from who? Who can help you complete the project? Make a plan together, and then carry it out.