12 Community Service Projects Kids Can Do in Small Groups

Do you ever wish your church offered more service projects in your community?

Do you wish you could go to your community rather than just trying to bring your community to you?

This can seem like an issue for your Senior Pastor and other adults in your church, but it’s actually much easier to begin service projects with the kids at your church.

12 service projects you can do for your community:

1. Water Bottle Sleeves

When a kid in our church is part of a sports team, we always ask their parents if we can provide them with water bottles to hand out at a game.

We get our kids involved by having them make custom water bottle sleeves during the Small Group time and taping them on the bottles.

For the sleeves, we simply cut construction paper to fit around the bottles and use tape to attach them.

For example, we made water bottle sleeves for a swim team with phrases like “Just keep swimming” and “Oxygen is overrated.”

The family then handed them out at a swim meet and made a card for the coach explaining what it was all about.

Through service projects like this, over 60 kids and parents ended up with a really positive image of a church.

2. Melted Crayons

Our local children’s hospital asked us if we could have our kids melt used crayons in silicone molds for the children at their hospital who suffered from motor issues.

We bought circle and flower molds from Amazon on the cheap: http://a.co/8rg0G1P and http://a.co/hyXegKX

We asked families to bring used crayons and also took a bunch that we already had lying around.

The kids took the wrappers off and broke the crayons into small pieces and put them in the molds.

Then we baked them at 350 degrees until the crayons were melted and let them cool.

If you don’t have an oven at church, you can just take the crayons home and do the melting there.

When we delivered this service project, the hospital was really thankful.

3. Art Kits

We partner with a local organization that works with low-income families, so we asked if there was anything our kids could do for them.

They shared that they’d love for us to make art kits for the kids they serve.

So we went to the Dollar Store bought a bunch of small craft items and combined them with stuff we already had at our church.

When we delivered the packs, they were super appreciative.

4. Handmade Cards

We had our kids make cards for the kids of missionary families in our church.

We wrote encouraging notes to them and then scanned and emailed all the cards, since they couldn’t receive mail.

We also did this with a local retirement home our church ministers to.

For the retirement home residents, the kids wrote encouraging verses and notes on the cards.

The retirement homes residents were so moved by this service project that some of them cried.

5. Origami

This was another thing our kids did for the retirement home ministry.

We had them make simple origami birds.

Then on the wings, they wrote Matthew 10:31, “So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.”