We all want to raise kind, compassionate children. Kids readily show kindness to those they’re familiar with, but cultivating empathy for strangers whose situations differ from theirs is harder. For many children, it can be hard to understand why not everyone gets to eat breakfast or why some people have to work on holidays.
Volunteering helps children develop compassion and empathy for those outside their immediate social circle. But let’s be honest: Volunteering — especially with kids — isn’t all smiles and instant gratification. Teaching kids the value of helping others, even when it feels more like work than fun, is a parenting challenge.
Enter: Seeds of Caring. The organization offers community service projects geared toward children ages 2-12 and their families. My family has participated in several programs that left a lasting positive impact on our son.
What is Seeds of Caring?
The organization aims to empower kids to create a kinder community with their hearts, hands, and minds. Through hands-on service, reflection, and opportunities for family engagement, the organization hopes to cultivate a lifelong commitment to caring and creating a more inclusive and just society. Seeds of Caring works with dozens of non-profit organizations to help children take action on issues affecting their community. The projects encompass a wide variety of activities and topics, such as homelessness, racism, and environmental care.
Why is Seeds of Caring unique?
Seeds of Caring specifically design projects and educational materials to be engaging and understandable for young children. These opportunities are more than just completing tasks — they are thoughtfully developed to teach kids the why behind their efforts.
Events break down complex social issues into age-appropriate concepts so kids — and their parents — can understand what’s happening in their communities. The discussions challenge children to relate these ideas to their experiences, fostering empathy.
What activities do they offer?
Seeds of Caring offers both “Anywhere Projects” and in-person events.
As the name suggests, you can do “Anywhere Projects” wherever you want on your own time. Each project has a downloadable guide with step-by-step instructions, educational materials, and discussion prompts. These offer great flexibility for busy families and allow children to complete activities in familiar environments.
My family built care packages for children in the hospital. The project involved buying cereal, fruit snacks, and other goodies. We packed them into ziplock bags and made a card for each. As we put together the packages, we used the prompts to discuss how my son felt when he was sick and what made him feel better. This conversation helped him understand how these bags helped other children. We completed the project over several days to accommodate his limited attention span, and creating the cards helped make it fun. When we were done, we simply dropped the bags off at a local ambassador’s house. Easy peasy.
The group also offers in-person projects. These events begin with an age-appropriate educational activity to help children understand the social issue they will be working to solve. Then, families participate in structured, hands-on service projects.
The event my family participated in started by reading a book called “Lily and the Paperman.” The story was about a young girl who was initially scared of an impoverished man selling newspapers. She began to notice that he didn’t have socks or a hat. Eventually, she decided to create a care package with things he needed, including her favorite quilt. (Not me crying in the back of the room.) After the story, the leader led a conversation with the kids, discussing how Lily felt and explaining how the story related to our community.
From there, we completed several different projects. One activity involved the children coloring a hot chocolate cup and building a care package for unhoused neighbors. We made a little treat for our mail person and a thank-you sign for the garbage collector at other stations. Each project was hands-on, creative, and required minimal support from parents.
After we finished, my son said, “Mommy, can we do this again next year?” Now, he wants to make little candy packages for every delivery person who comes to our house.
How to get involved
Volunteering is an important part of shaping compassionate adults. Seeds of Caring shifts the focus of community service from mere task completion to the broader impact of the child’s efforts and supports parents in reinforcing the value of caring for others in our community.
The group has service projects running continuously. You can find them on the Seeds of Caring website.
Of course, this organization is not the only one offering volunteer opportunities. You can find more in the article Volunteering With Kids In Indianapolis.
