Taking the elderly on shopping trips can help them maintain independence.
An unfortunate aspect of modern society is that older citizens, who in the past would have stayed with their family as they got older, are often now placed in retirement or nursing homes. If you are teaching a class in which you want to teach your students about empathy and volunteerism, you can have them carry out projects designed to help the elderly in the community maintain their independence.
Big Button Drive
One of the many problems that the elderly face as they get older is that many of the gadgets we all use become harder for them to use. This is in part because of problems with eyesight, but it can also happen because of hand tremors or arthritis. One project your kids could do is to gather funds to help buy the elderly in the community TV remotes and phones that have extra-large buttons.
Carpool Shopping
Have your kids create a program in which young adults sign up to take elderly neighbors to the grocery store. They don't have to make a special trip to do this, but can instead offer to take their neighbor to the store when they themselves are going. The kids can create sign-up sheets for the elderly and people who can take them and pass these around the neighborhood, providing contact information.
Yard Work
Another problem that the elderly often have that can cause them to give up their home is maintaining their yard. Your kids can create a program in which they and other kids in the neighborhood provide free yard help for the elderly. Although they cannot do complex landscaping work, they can offer to do simple things like cutting the grass or raking up leaves.
Coupon Drive
Since many of the elderly are forced to live on fixed incomes, they can sometimes have a hard time making ends meet. They are sometimes forced to make choices between things like food, medicine or heat. One way your kids could help is to set up a coupon repository, perhaps at the local library. Kids will gather coupons and add them to this repository. It will make it easier to organized the types of coupons into separate folders. The elderly can then help themselves.
Tags: help elderly, kids create, create program, create program which, elderly community, help elderly community, kids could
