Generation SERVE Project Ideas

Continue to serve your community on your own with these service project ideas.

Environmentalism

• Plant a tree or native plants in your yard.
• Start a rain collection system at your home.
• Implement a recycling program at your school, office, church, or other community gathering place.
• Plant milkweed or other wildflowers for the butterflies that migrate through your city.
• Begin composting! Here is a guide to composting from Planet Natural and here is a helpful guide to composting if you live in an apartment. 
• Clean up litter from your neighborhood parks and green spaces.
• Keep bird feeders and a bird bath in your backyard.
• Participate in Austin Parks Foundation's volunteer opportunities offered on the 1st Saturday of each month. Check out their volunteer calendar here.
• Plant seeds or small plants to grow your own vegetables.

Animal Welfare

• Consider fostering a dog or cat while they wait to be adopted.
• Walk a shelter dog with the help of an adult.
• Ask your local animal shelter about their read-to-animals program. If they have one, provide companionship to shelter dogs and cats by visiting them and reading them a bool.
• Hand out bags of dog food to our homeless community members with dogs.
• Make the following items to deliver to a local animal shelter - contact the shelter in advance to see what they will and will not accept.
  • homemade dog toys
  • blankets for the kennels
  • warmers for the bottle baby kittens
  • cat or dog toys
• Austin Humane Society offers a Summer Kids' Series that includes some volunteer opportunities throughout the summer! Learn more here.

Senior Support

• Schedule a time to read with or play games with residents at a local senior facility.
• Deliver a care package to a resident at a senior facility during holidays.
• Contact a senior facility to see if you can send holiday cards or birthday cards to their residents.
• Recruit a team to Walk to End Alzheimer's. Learn more and register to walk here.
• Participate in the Family Eldercare Summer Fan Drive. Learn more here.

Helping People

• Donate your gently used handbags to the Handbags for Hope drive organized by the Texas Advocacy Project.
• Donate your gently used coats to Coats for Kids organized by the Junior League of Austin.
• Organize a food drive in your neighborhood or at your school for Central Texas Food Bank.
• Raise money through a lemonade stand or through your own online fundraiser page for a local nonprofit organization.
• Organize a school supply drive at back-to-school time to donate to one of these organizations - Foundation Communities, Manos De Cristo, For the Children, Communities in Schools, Austin Independent School District, Hindu Charities for America, SAFE, Salvation Army, or your neighborhood school.
• Buy or wrap gifts for a family in need through one of these local organizations - Partnerships for Children, Operation Blue Santa, Foundation Communities, SAFE, Saint Louise House, Salvation Army, Easter Seals of Central Texas, Mobile Loaves & Fishes, CASA of Travis County, STARRY,  or Casa Marianella.
• Make homeless care kits to hand out to our community members experiencing homelessness.
• Visit, cook dinner, or run an errand for a sick friend, neighbor, or family member.
• Make a birthday party-in-a-box for a foster child. Visit popupbirthday.org for instructions. 

Find more ideas at Doing Good Together!