Tucson Family Volunteers (formerly Crafting Kind Kids)

We are a family volunteering organization that collaborates with Tucson-area nonprofits to create kid-friendly volunteer projects for families with kids ages 4+. We believe that you're never too young to volunteer.

Did you know that the 4-13 age range is often excluded from a nonprofit's in-house volunteer opportunities? Tucson Family Volunteers was created by a Tucson mom of three to take the guesswork out of identifying places to volunteer with young children. Planting the seeds of kindness, empathy and compassion as soon as possible is key to crafting the next generation of leaders, activists, philanthropists and overall kind, caring humans.

With so many nonprofits in need of volunteers and kids' natural enthusiasm for projects, Tucson Family Volunteers finds kid-friendly solutions to often large, complex societal problems. We do this through collaborations with nonprofits where fun, intentional and meaningful give-back projects are created for families to easily accomplish in 60-90 minutes. All of our hands-on family volunteer programs are designed to expose young children to the needs in our community, specifically being unhoused/food insecurity, environment/sustainability, community beautification, arts and culture, community health and wellbeing, and awareness and empathy.

Our projects include in-person volunteering where families work together to solve a need. Every in-person family volunteer project always includes: a kid-friendly presentation by the partnering nonprofit, where we invite their executive director or staff to speak with the Kid Volunteers about the problem they are working to solve and why this particular volunteer project matters; a fun, meaningful, kid-friendly volunteer project; takeaway snacks; and before/during/after conversation prompts so that families can continue the discussion at home with their Kid Volunteers. The effects of hearing from those doing the work, humanizing those who will benefit from the volunteer project and continuing the conversation at home creates a full circle, well-rounded service experience for young children.

We also offer at-home projects for families to do on their own, following a curriculum created by Tucson Family Volunteers so that kids understand what they are doing, who they are helping and why.

Our family volunteering programs offer a variety of kid-friendly give-back projects that tap into the interests and passions of the Kid Volunteers. From park cleanups to assembly line bundling projects to playing wheelchair games alongside adaptive athletes, we actively craft volunteer projects that highlight the many ways kids can help Tucson. We know that families are time-strapped. We work collaboratively with local nonprofits on meaningful and impactful give-back projects that directly benefit their clients, and help Tucson families in crafting kind, caring, empathetic kids, in a low-commitment, short-time span manner.

Testimonials

"We love every one of the [volunteering] events because they are all so different and help different demographics. From the wheelchair event to the Veteran event and all the bag stuffing events, it really let's us take control and know what difference we are making....even if it's a small one."

"Great to spend a bit of time giving back to the community as a family!"

"I have always volunteered. I think it's extremely important to be involved in the community. My grandkids are starting to get more involved so this event today helped cement in my granddaughter's mind the importance of giving selflessly to others."

"We loved participating- thank you for creating this opportunity for our kids to get involved!"