How to Volunteer at a Public School

Do you want to do something good for yourself and for your community? Are you looking for a great volunteer opportunity? Do you enjoy working with school age children? You may want to volunteer at a public school. So, how do you go about doing this?

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Time on your hands or extra money
• Willingness to volunteer
• Ability to get to the school to volunteer
• Creative and open mind

How to Find a School to Volunteer Yourself

1. You need to find a school at which to volunteer. If you have a child at any school in the area, then you already have your answer.

2. If you don't have children of school age, then you will need to find a school. You could simply go to the phonebook, look up schools in your area, and give them a call. Tell them you are an interested parent/adult wishing to donate your time.

3. Otherwise, there are some great organizations with websites on the internet. Start by visiting the Project Appleseed website, listed in Resources below. This is a leading resource for helping parents and adults volunteer in public schools nationwide.

4. Another great organization is the National Coalition for Parent Involvement. You may contact them at the website listed in resources to find out more about getting involved in local schools.

5. Attend a local PTA meeting and express your interest in volunteering. Here, you'll get to meet some teachers and administrators directly and find out if they could use your help.

How to Actually Volunteer

6. 
   You could help with a fundraiser.

   Once you have found a school that needs you, you're ready to volunteer. So now what? Call the school and ask them what they need. They may need volunteers to help with special projects or fundraisers, for instance.

7. You can use your own talents to volunteer. For instance, you might help make costumes for a play if you are a fashion designer or skilled in sewing.

8. If you have a child at a school, talk to the child's teacher. You could help directly in the classroom by making photocopies, putting together paperwork, or sanitizing toys used during breaks.

9. Attend PTA meetings of the school to find out more about the school's interests and needs. You could use this time to talk to your child's teacher to find out what new volunteer work needs done.

10. There might be a fundraising event or charity drive coming up where you could donate baked goods or help wash cars. Maybe you could sell hot dogs at the high school football concession stand or make posters for the big game.

11. Be creative. If you think there is a need for something at a school, talk to the school about it. The schools will generally welcome any new ideas, especially if you are willing to volunteer your time to deal with them.

Tips & Warnings

• Your motivation could help others get involved. Ask your friends and family to also volunteer their time. You could even do it together.
• If you don't have time to volunteer, you could make a monetary contribution to the school. Or, you could buy lots of cookies the next time there is a fundraiser!
• You don't need to volunteer consistently or even reguarly. You could volunteer once, for a certain project, or volunteer for the two weeks you're on vacation from work.
• If you are not known in the community, the school may want to do a background check on you if you will be in the classroom. This ensures safety of the students.

Resources

• Project Appleseed website
• National Coalition for Parental Involvement website