Project Ideas

Generation SERVE Project Ideas

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

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.

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.

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.

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!