How do older children get involved in volunteering, fundraising or campaigning activities? #iwill want to know: chance to win £300 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

We are working with the #iwill campaign to celebrate young people, aged 10-20, who take part in volunteering, fundraising and campaigning. #iwill would love to hear what your child does or what they’d like to do.

To celebrate #iwillWeek 2017 (which which runs between 20-24th November), we want Mumsnetters to celebrate young people who lead social action and their capacity for building communities by bringing others together. The week is all about shining a light on the impact that young people are having, as well as the great work of the 750+ #iwill partners who’ve pledged to create more social action opportunities.

Share your story below and here are some questions to get you thinking!

What do your children do in any of the following areas?

~ Volunteering - do they support environmental projects, older or vulnerable people or other young people themselves?
~ Fundraising - how do they get involved with raising money for local, national or international projects?
~ Campaigning - are they showing their caring side by fighting for something they believe in?

Why do they get involved?
How do you feel about your child getting involved in these kinds of activities?

If they don’t do this sort of thing, why not and do you think they would like to get involved in things like this? (there’s lots of opportunities to get involved here)

Please share your story below - everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one person will win two £150 vouchers for the store(s) of choice (from a list) - and you can keep one for yourself and give the other one to your child!

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

Standard Insight T and Cs Apply

My son is part of his school's fundraising charity "Mini Vinnies" which raises money for the St Vincent charity.

Also this year he took part in a 2k race and raised nearly £200 for our local cancer hospice and he has convinced me, his sister, his auntie and his cousin to take part next year :)

Another parkrun volunteer here. My 13 year old volunteers, she loves barcode scanning, and token sorting at the end. It's very sociable, and volunteers get a lovely purple t shirt after they've volunteered 25 times.

She'd like to help with older people, too, but not sure how.

I co-ordinate youth clubs, one of my aim is to introduce the young people to the community and volunteering and helping out. We have raised money by abseiling and they have asked to carol sing next week to the the local retirement home.

My daughter attends a music group session run by the local YMCA which itself is a charity. They have events through the year, staging concerts to raise money for many causes. The last fund raiser was for the local food bank and the next one is a Christmas concert for a children's cancer charity.

My DD is 9, but already mucks in when I've got an event on (I'm a fundraiser). I take her to see the work of a range of charities. I make sure she knows the difficulties other people face, and she's started to ask if she can send a donation to those that touch her heart.
My DN is 16. She often comes with me to events and has become fab at getting on with what needs doing. She's started volunteering at a hospice.
I try to show them both a good example and hope they get involved because they want to, not just because of me.

My son volunteers at the local sports club weekly and we always support the fundraising events by the local swimming club; usually bag packing at our local supermarket which does raise well needed funds to keep the club going.

my little boys school is really good with supporting local charities. They get the children to collect money on sponsor forms for sponsored walks to raise money and awareness for national and local charities.

All 3 of mine are in scouts at various levels, so they are always up to something or other. I'm also a wwf ambassador for youth so we campaign together for animal rights and protection

My daught (14) joined the princes trust this year and volunteers at the Cub Scout but before this she was a scout and took part in fundraising for the community and tidying the community

Both of the boys are involved in the local campaign to keep their youth club open . One goes to a drama group their and another is a volunteer mentor . Oxfordshire , like lots of places are seeing them close . They have be fundraising to support it , running stalls at fetes and at the moment selling Christmas cards .
They have also been campaigning on the subject too , writing letters and getting people to sign petition . The people who run the centre have been pretty good at supporting the kids in running the campaigns in the way they want to .

My son is currently doing his silver Duke of Edinburgh award, part of that is to attend and help the christmas party which they are having, He helps out at our local community centre too.

The youngest DD, has just done a sponsored toddle, and we get involved in local groups to help fund-raise, we have joined several whereby the kids, young and old ones, litter-pick the local woodland, the 17 yr old DD volunteers at a charity shop weekly, she loves it, it is great experience for her and it gets her mixing with people. As a family, we've always been involved in helping charities in different ways, it's so great to do, and we've made some great friends, the kids and us parents.

Most of his activity is through the cubs. They do bag packing, sponsorships and coffee mornings to raise money for local and national causes. He sees it as a great benefit and rewarding part of cubs and is proud when he achieves something.

My son regularly helps us raise money for a local Hospice, that my father was in for 7months until he passed away. My son spent a lot of time there, and he understands the importance of how fundraising helps the hospice. We recently took part in a 6 mile evening walk.....safe to say we slept well that night! I think it's great to get the kids involved in these things, especially if it's for a charity that has had a personal affect on your life.

They do alot of fundraising at school for various charities and sometimes do sponsored runs/walks.

Dd supports the same organisation as I do - a Romanian dog rescue group.

She sells old toys and donates pocket money and does jobs to raise cash for them.

She loves sending off the money and seeing photos of the dogs she has helped.

My daughter is only in reception class but they raise money for local charities with their own made Christmas decorations :)

The little ones join in with fund raisers and donations from the school and from the church, collecting food for food banks etc.
This past Summer my 14 & 16 year old volunteered by themselves and spent hours working at the temporary shelters following the fire at Grenfell Tower. They were serving food and helping sort out clothes and shoe donations. I was very proud of them that they didn't have to be asked, they just went down and offered to help out. We were all shocked by it being only down the road from us.
My younger children also helped out with finding clothes and toys and toiletries for the families displaced by the fire.

My children are a bit young so we haven't got involved yet (pre-schoolers). Very good ideas on the link though.

My daughter has always been involved in volunteering. From age 13 she was a maths tutor to younger children who were underperforming and would give up her lunch breaks to help them. She has then been a young leader for girl guide and helped with the rainbows xx

My daughter used to do voluntary work with school and scouts but hasn't been able to now shes in her final GCSE year. She done bakes, sponsored walks and bag packing in the supermarket.

Thanks for all the comments - motherstongue wins the vouchers! Well done.