Purpose
Provide humanitarian aid in your community. Like the Savior, you can help those in need by showing love, lifting burdens, and bringing hope.
Activity Suggestion
Volunteer with a local community organization to help provide humanitarian service to those in need. While local opportunities and organizations will vary, here are some possibilities:
- Contact a local food bank; can you help them sort food?
- Is there a nearby homeless shelter that needs help preparing and serving meals?
- Help at a blood drive. You could even help organize it beforehand, including advertising for it and arranging for people to donate blood or serve in another way.
- Millions of refugees are trying to rebuild their lives in unfamiliar places—how can you help them? The Church offers a website full of resources. Also consider inviting local refugees to share their stories with your group.
- Invite an expert to help your group make quilts or blankets to donate to a shelter.
- Hold a donation drive. Contact a local shelter or other humanitarian group to learn what items the organization needs, such as hygiene kits or blankets. Then hold a donation drive in your ward or branch or community to collect the needed items. Deliver them as a group to the organization.
If you don’t know how to find a local humanitarian organization, try visiting JustServe.org, which tracks service opportunities in selected areas worldwide.
As you plan this activity, please follow the counsel given in chapter 13 of Handbook 2: Administering the Church (2010) and review “Safety Recommendations for Church Activities.”
Please adapt activities as necessary to ensure all individuals are able to participate, belong, and contribute.
Adaptation Ideas
- Ongoing service—Once your group has established a relationship with a humanitarian organization, stay in contact with them. What needs will they have in the future?
- Natural disaster—It isn’t usually possible to make specific plans for a natural disaster since it’s hard to know when and where disasters will occur and how much damage they will cause. But you can help respond to one by contacting Helping Hands to find out how your group can assist disaster victims—even those who don’t live nearby.
Discussion
Encourage youth to talk about how what they are learning can help them and others grow closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Discussions can take place before, during, or after the activity and should last just a few minutes. You could ask questions like the following:
- Why is it important to offer humanitarian aid to those in need?
- What have you learned as you have provided humanitarian aid to others in the past?
- How have you felt when you’ve received service from others?
Related Resources
- “Service,” For the Strength of Youth (booklet, 2011),null32–33
- I Was a Stranger—An Effort to Serve and Include, ChurchofJesusChrist.org
- “Guidelines for Disaster Cleanup and Church Volunteer Safety,” ChurchofJesusChrist.org
- JustServe.org