Open Meeting: November 30, 2023
Volunteering as a Family
People all over the world spend “time, talent, and treasure” to aid charities and other nonprofits in their endeavors. Most focus on sharing treasure, that is donating money. For example, Giving Tuesday which occurs on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, reminds us to share our good fortune with those less fortunate.
But people also offer their time and talent as volunteers to assist various causes. They do this mostly by doing unpaid work through organizations that may encompass the local neighborhood to the world at large and may include schools, churches, food banks, homeless shelters, animal rescuers, the environment, civic causes, and more. Spending time in volunteer activities is so well-established in the United States that the U.S. Census Bureau quantifies the practice and periodically publishes data the latest of which show that a quarter of the US population volunteers, and that most volunteers are parents.
More people would volunteer if they knew where to turn. Our first speaker, MiaLisa McFarland Millares, Executive Director of “Doing Good Together,” will discuss available sources of volunteer opportunities that allow parents and children to volunteer together and share the experience of helping those in need.
Our second speaker, Rachel McGovern, is Visiting Professor at the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University and has done research on how families that volunteer together have strengthened family bonds and otherwise benefited by teaching kindness, compassion, and service to others to their children.
A full recording of this session is available on our YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/CKXkiQezxBU
The NGO Committee on the Family has been wonderfully fortunate in the high caliber of panelists and speakers who have graciously addressed us. In an effort to enrich the intellectual experience of our audience, we have invited guests representing a diverse set of views and beliefs. We should note here that the expression of any views on this or any other program does not constitute an endorsement of those views by the NGO Committee on the Family, our member NGOs, or our co-sponsoring organizations.