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Make Your Teen’s Volunteer Time More Successful

By contributor,
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Teens volunteer for many reasons. Volunteering helps them make a difference, develop new skills, explore careers, have fun and feel good about themselves.
Share these tips with your teen to make volunteering more successful:

1. Stay flexible. The first place your teen volunteers may not be a perfect fit—but every experience can teach something.
2. Be persistent. Your teen may need to make more than one call before making a connection.
3. Take training classes. Many organizations that use volunteers offer training. These classes can make your teen’s volunteer experience much richer.
4. Be responsible. A volunteer who commits to being at the homeless shelter at 6:00 can’t suddenly decide to go to the movies instead.
5. Don’t expect to start at the top. Volunteers often do jobs that don’t seem very exciting. But these jobs can lead to other responsibilities. One supervisor said she asked volunteers to staple papers early in their volunteer experience. If they read as they stapled and asked questions later, she knew they’d be able to handle more responsible tasks.

Source: “Catch the Spirit: A Student’s Guide to Community Service,” The Prudential Insurance Company and the U.S. Department of Education, Consumer Information Center.

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Hopkinton Middle School