Natalie Silverstein is an author of two books on kindness and service, a speaker, consultant, nonprofit founder and passionate advocate for family and youth service. She believes that volunteering is not simply a “nice” thing to do, that there are no “random” acts of kindness and that we need to flip the narrative on mandatory service hours. In this episode, we discuss the many benefits of teen service. Natalie will offer tips, tools and inspiration to help parents as they encourage teens to find their passion and purpose through meaningful community service.
Key Takeaways
- Understanding the science behind service (doing good is good for you)
- How to help teens think about marrying their skills/talents/gifts with the social justice issues they care about
- How to motivate teens to do service, and to want to continue this work into adulthood
- Serving others is good for you. Students who volunteer with regularity are less inclined to get involved in risky behavior.
- Time to volunteer; we seem to find time for their activities, and we should be able to find time for volunteering. When we make it a priority, along with their other activities, we can find time for an extra hour a week.
- It can be as simple as looking out for your neighbor, people you know who have a need for some extra help.
- Volunteering is a feel-great activity. It builds self-confidence and satisfaction.
- Teens who volunteer with their friends are more likely to want to continue to do it.
