11 At-Home Volunteer Opportunities for Kids

Project Linus provides comfort and security to ill and traumatized children through lovingly handmade blankets. Volunteer "blanketeers" are needed to create homemade blankets of all sizes and styles, from knit blankets to quilts to easy no-sew fleece blankets. They even provide free patterns for your family to get started. Volunteers drop off blankets at local chapters located around the country.

Families can help Operation Gratitude in their work to provide care packages to our military and first responders through a variety of hands-on remote volunteer opportunities for kids. Options include crafting paracord lanyards, knitting handmade scarves and hats, writing letters of thanks, and creating blank greeting cards that deployed troops can use to write home to loved ones. Some activities will even earn kids community service hours from Operation Gratitude.

The Warm Up America! Foundation provides handmade blankets and warm accessories to fulfill requests from homeless shelters, nursing homes, children's hospitals, and more organizations serving people in need. Volunteers contribute individual 7" by 9" knitted or crocheted sections that are then joined together to form a full blanket. A great volunteer opportunity for kids who are practicing a new hobby! Donations of full blankets, scarves and hats are also accepted and all contributions can be sent in through the mail to the foundation's office in Texas.

Alexandra F.:  Zooniverse makes it possible for anyone to contribute to real scientific research, and is a great way to volunteer from home and supplement at-home learning for kids.

Volunteers choose from a wide variety of projects in different scientific fields and are generally asked to answer simple questions about documents, images and/or videos provided through the Zooniverse online platform.

My teen has enjoyed working on a space-related project, and there are often projects tracking animals in the wild which may be especially interesting for kids! Minors sign up with a parent's permission and email address.

Freerice is an online quiz game created by the World Food Programme, a humanitarian organization working around the world to end hunger. Kids can answer questions about a variety of subjects including vocabulary, math, geography and literature, and difficulty can be adjusted to the right level for your child. Each correct answer earns the WFP a donation equivalent to the cost of 10 grains of rice from ad sponsors. It's educational screen time that gives back!

Kristy Pepping:  Kids outgrow clothes and toys. A great way to empower them is to have them go through these items and consider what they can give away to those less fortunate. Not only will it help them organize their closet and toys, but they will be giving in the process.

Kristy Pepping:  Do Something is the largest not-for-profit for kids who want to see social change. It's a digital platform so work can be done virtually from home. There are several active campaigns to choose from. Some of these include collecting jeans for kids, donating personal care products for kids and creating self-esteem messages.

Sole Hope provides treatment, protective shoes, and prevention education to people in Uganda suffering from jiggers. Jiggers are debilitating parasites that infect the feet of children and adults, causing even simple activities like playing and going to school to be impossible. Sole Hope "Shoe Parties" are a fun way to volunteer with kids from home. You'll trace, cut and pin pattern pieces created from an old pair of your jeans, and send the pieces off to Uganda to be finished with a tire sole by a local shoemaker. The purchase of a Shoe Party Kit is required, and comes with instructional materials, a sample shoe and tracing pattern. The cost of the kit sponsors the construction of 2 pairs of shoes, and an additional fee is required for any extra pairs you'd like to create. These funds cover paying the wages of the Ugandan tailors, and getting the finished shoes (along with counseling and medical care) to people in need.

GivingFactoryDirect:  Looking for somewhere to donate your high quality new and gently-used children’s clothing? Giving Factory Direct matches you with a child experiencing clothing insecurity, and provides a pre-paid UPS shipping label so you can ship clothing directly to a child who needs it.

How It Works: Create an account to let us know what size and gender of clothing you'd like to give, and you will be matched to a child at one of our verified nonprofit partners within 30 days. Giving Factory Direct serves children ages 0-12 living in homeless or low-income situations, and accepts clothing in sizes newborn to adult medium.

When donating, please use Group Code Upparent2022

If you and your children can sew, knit, crochet, or quilt (or are considering picking these up as new hobbies for the kids), consider making blankets for children in need of comfort through Binky Patrol. Binky Patrol works through their local chapters around the United States to get handmade blankets to various organizations serving children, including foster care, hospitals, and shelters. You can find patterns and details about how to help on their website, as well as addresses for local chapters and where you can send completed binkies.

Create For Kids provides activity kits and handmade cards to bring creativity and joy to hospitalized children. As a Create For Kids volunteer, your child (or family!) can make cards, assemble and donate themed art or activity kits, and build care packages. Community service hour verification can be provided.