10 Ways for Families to Serve at a Nursing Home

Thank you Allstate for sponsoring this post. I chose to write this post because I love that doing good in local communities is at Allstate’s core.

My number one job is parenting my children. I want to raise children who are kind and generous. I want to raise children who are aware of the needs of others. These are life lessons that take a lot of intention – both in word and action.

One way to teach this is by doing good in our local communities. While our family donates to many non-profits, I realized that we had a gap in that we haven’t given much of our time in recent years. Now that the kids are getting older, it was time to change that. In the late fall, I started researching opportunities where we could volunteer as a family. With my kids being various ages, this proved to be more difficult than I anticipated.

It struck me that a local nursing home would be a good fit. With our extended family living out of state, my children aren’t around a lot of elderly people. My grandmothers were both in nursing homes at the end of their lives, and so the idea of volunteering at a local home really appealed to me as a way to serve in their memories.

I called one that was close to our home, and the volunteer coordinator was delighted to receive my call. She said that they don’t have a lot of families volunteer, but that the men and women love having children visit.

I was inspired by Allstate to take action, because they too believe that young people are change makers and that it is important to pour love into our communities. Our family has been an Allstate customer for more than a decade and their commitment to doing local good is at the core of who they are, and an important value to us.

In the below video, Allstate encourages kids to come together and dream about solving a problem, and then become change-makers by helping that dream come to life. They believe in empowering youth and are inspiring the next generation to make a difference. Not only that, but the kids are learning social and emotional learning skills like problem-solving, empathy and teamwork that will help lead to success down the road. It made me tear up.

When I told the kids that we were going to volunteer at a nursing home to visit some grandmas and grandpas, they thought it was a great idea. We talked about how people get lonely because their families can’t be with them all the time, and I showed them Allstate’s video for some inspiration.

We then brainstormed a list of ideas that we could do when we visit in the coming year. Some of the ideas:

1. Play games, especially chess (Elias is on the chess team and loves playing chess with adults.
2. Bring crafts to make
3. Have a Valentine’s Day party
4. Pass out treats
5. Bring books and read together
6. Give hugs
7. Play cards
8. Throw a birthday party
9. Decorate cookies
10. Have a movie night with popcorn

Their enthusiasm was contagious. For our first visit, we bought individually packed cookies. I loved seeing the thought they put into each package.

I know that, as the year goes on, we will develop meaningful relationships with the residents. I am excited to see how our kids grow, the conversations we will have, and the memories we will make together.

Our kids are going to change the world through acts of love and service. It’s a gift to watch it happen through one act of kindness at a time.

Does your family do any volunteering together? If so, please share your stories. And if you have volunteered at a nursing home, I’d love your ideas and tips! This is new to us, but we are so excited.

This post was written as part of the Allstate Influencer Program and sponsored by Allstate. All opinions are mine. As the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer, Allstate is dedicated not only to protecting what matters most–but to guiding people to live the Good Life, every day.