Volunteer Opportunities in West Michigan
Looking for something meaningful to do with your family? Volunteering together is a great way to bond, teach your kids about giving back, and make a real impact.
When you’re looking for things to do with kids in Grand Rapids, consider volunteering!
Volunteering helps kids develop empathy and understand the importance of helping others. We’ve put together a list of family-friendly volunteer opportunities in West Michigan. Check out the categories below to find something that fits your child’s age and interests.
If you don’t find what you’re looking for here, try United Way’s online Volunteer Center or Volunteer Match for more options. Local retirement homes, churches, and schools often have volunteer opportunities, too.
in this article
Family Volunteer Opportunities
Volunteer as a family to make a difference together.
Here are some of the best places in West Michigan where volunteers of all ages can get involved and make a meaningful impact in their community.
Adopt-a-Forest
Public Forest Land in West Michigan
All ages welcome
Adopt-a-Forest works to enhance enjoyment of public forest lands through forest cleanup & education
How Volunteers Help:
Transform Michigan’s forests by picking up litter and preserving natural spaces for all to enjoy.
Gather your family or friends, gear up with trash bags, buckets, sturdy boots, gloves, sun protection, and bug spray, and head out to clean your adopted area.
Use their dumpsite database to find a suitable spot and make it a fun, rewarding adventure.
Family Futures
678 Front Ave NW #210, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
Family Futures helps families in West Michigan thrive through parent coaching, developmental screening, education, home visiting and prevention-based programming.
How Volunteers Help:
Assisting with weekly mailings that provide developmental information to local families.
Taking on flexible projects that can be done from home or during non-traditional hours. Volunteers are encouraged to bring family, friends, or coworkers, making it a collaborative effort to positively impact children and families in Grand Rapids.
Festival of the Arts
Downtown Grand Rapids
Free, accessible, and welcoming to everyone, Festival of the Arts gives everyone the opportunity to experience the best West Michigan performers, artists and craftspeople.
How Volunteers Help:
You can help for a few hours, a few days, or year-round. This event is completely run by volunteers, so there are lots of ways to get involved:
Help out at exhibits and events, children’s activities, performance stage crew, set-up, clean-up, fun with printmaking, food committee, artisan village, and more.
Friends of Grand Rapids Parks
Parks in Grand Rapids
All ages welcome, when supervised by an adult
Friends of GR Parks regularly host community volunteer projects and beautification projects for local parks that anyone is welcome to join!
How Volunteers Help:
Friends of GR Parks regularly host community volunteer projects that anyone is welcome to join! Depending on the season, you might have the opportunity to beautify flowerbeds, plant trees, prune street trees, or clean up a park.
In The Image
4255 Kalamazoo Avenue SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49508
All ages welcome, when supervised by an adult volunteer
In The Image provides free clothing and household necessities to families in need in West Michigan.
How Volunteers Help:
Help in the Free Store sorting, hanging, and stocking clothing, or assist with building maintenance, repairs, and painting.
Help by organizing a “Fill a Shoe Box” drive, sock drive, or a drive collecting school supplies and books. You can also host clothing or furniture drives. Collect items from their project wish list or help stock and organize essential items for emergency situations.
ICCF (Inner City Christian Federation)
415 Martin Luther King Jr. St SE, Suite 100, Grand Rapids, MI 49507
All ages welcome, when supervised by an adult volunteer
ICCF provides safe, beautiful, and affordable homes in Grand Rapids
How Volunteers Help:
Whether it’s through framing a new home, serving a meal at Family Haven, or providing administrative help, they have individual and group volunteer opportunities that can be tailored to your abilities and availability.
Family Haven (Emergency Shelter): Sort donations, prepare meals, organize activities like crafts or game nights for children, and help with outdoor projects.
Junior Achievement (JA of the Michigan Great Lakes)
4090 Lake Dr SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546
Junior Achievement inspires and prepares young people to succeed in a global economy.
How Volunteers Help: Become a mentor, share professional insights and personal experiences to inspire kids to develop essential life skills and pursue their dreams with confidence.
Junior Achievement of Michigan Great Lakes provides volunteers with training that is simple and relatable. Programs are engaging and fun – and a classroom full of eager kids ready to learn from you!
Kent County Parks Dept
1700 Butterworth Dr SW, Grand Rapids, MI 49534
All ages welcome, when supervised by an adult volunteer
The Kent County Parks Department offers diverse volunteer opportunities across over 30 parks so you can find a project type, site, service day and time that fits your group
How Volunteers Help:
Help protect and improve trails and green spaces in our community through park and trails cleanup, habitat restoration, and trail building projects.
The Parks Department has projects for individuals of all ages and for groups from 2 – 200! Check the volunteer calendar for upcoming events.
United Way
118 Commerce Ave SW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
All ages welcome
Heart of West Michigan United Way reduces the burdens of poverty in West Michigan by intervening in crisis, mobilizing communities to action, and empowering people to build toward self-sufficiency.
How Volunteers Help:
Stuff the Bus: Host a school supply drive, drop off donations, or order from their online supply list.
Day of Caring: A corporate volunteer event each September that helps local nonprofit organizations get things done. Projects include meal preparation and food packing, painting, landscaping and yardwork, and event support.
Stuff The Sled: Bring holiday cheer to children in need.
Operation United: Get matched with a local veteran or active military family to complete outdoor improvements such as yardwork, landscaping, and minor outdoor repairs to make veterans’ homes safer, more accessible, and more enjoyable.
Women at Risk International
2790 44th St SW, Wyoming, MI 49519
All ages welcome, when supervised by an adult volunteer
With a mission of rescue, restoration and empowerment, Women at Risk provides a safe place for women and children to heal from abuse, trafficking, and exploitation.
How Volunteers Help:
Families, children, and large groups are encouraged to join our community of “WARriors.”
Help at Headquarters by preparing donations, tagging products, organizing inventory, or even becoming a volunteer staff member.
Help from Home by collecting items from the wish list or shop with a purpose at the WAR Chest Boutique.
Mel Trotter Ministries
225 Commerce Ave SW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
All ages for some activities, 14 and up for other activities
Mel Trotter Ministries provides rescue and restoration for those experiencing hunger and homelessness in Grand Rapids
How Volunteers Help:
Whether you get involved behind the scenes or directly with guests, you’re making a difference. Help by providing basic needs and meals through the Outreach Team, sorting and organizing donations in the Donation Room, assisting the clinical team in Medical Services, preparing meals in the Kitchen, contributing to daily tasks and projects in Administration, and in Kids Korner.
Volunteer Opportunities for Kids
Getting your kids involved in the community from a young age doesn’t have to be hard.
These opportunities make volunteering fun for your little ones while shaping your kids’ perspectives of the world around them.
Kids Food Basket
1300 Plymouth NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49505
Ages 5 and up
Kids’ Food Basket believes healthy food is a right, not a privilege, for every child. They are providing meals, pursuing a hunger-free West Michigan, and increasing access to healthy, fresh, nutritious food for children and families.
How Volunteers Help:
Sign up for a shift at the facility to help prep and pack Sack Suppers.
Want to help from home? Have your creative kids decorate Sack Supper bags (regular ol’ brown or white paper lunch bags) with cheerful messages, drawings, or holiday themes. Drop decorated paper lunch bags off in the bin just inside the front door at Kids Food Basket.
More ways to help: be a delivery driver or volunteer at the farm.
Feeding America West Michigan
864 West River Dr NE, Comstock Park, MI 49321
Ages 7 and up
Feeding America West Michigan partners with over 800 agencies in a 40-county service area to get food directly into the hands of those in need.
How Volunteers Help:
Help at the food bank sorting, labeling, processing and repacking food donations. Share your skills writing handwritten cards, packing goodie bags, or with data entry, bookkeeping, or guest reception.
The Salvation Army – Bell Ringer
1215 E Fulton St, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
All ages welcome
The funds you raise as a Salvation Army bell ringer will make a year-round impact in your community through social services assistance, homeless shelters, disaster relief, children’s programs, rehabilitation services, anti-human trafficking, and more.
How Volunteers Help:
In November and December volunteers of all ages are invtited to help ring bells at one of several locations in the Kent County area to raise funds for the Red Kettle Campaign.
It is a wonderful opportunity to teach children about philanthropy, and can show them how just a little change can make a big difference.
Teen Volunteer Opportunities
You have probably noticed that your teen cares a lot about the world they’re growing up in.
Giving them a chance to serve their community not only helps give your teen a feeling of real-world impact, but also helps grow their sense of belonging.
Below you’ll find an extensive list of volunteer opportunities for teens of all interests. Try one, or try them all!
Grand Rapids Public Library
111 Liberty Street NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Ages 11-17
As a volunteer at the Grand Rapids Public Library, you have the option of helping at the main library downtown, or at any of the branches locates throughout Grand Rapids. The following list as based on needs at the main library:
How Volunteers Help:
Teen volunteers help with a variety of projects, including:
– Sorting LEGO Mindstorms parts
– Finding out-of-order picture books in the children’s area
– Putting together take-home craft kits
– Creating a list of recommended graphic novels for 5th – 8th graders
– Filling a display shelf with historical fiction chapter books
Adopt-A-Highway
Ages 12 and up (Children ages 12 – 17 must have adult supervision)
Every year Adopt-A-Highway volunteers collect 60,000 bags of trash from Michigan roadsides. Grab some friends and help keep Michigan’s roadsides clean and attractive in your community.
How Volunteers Help:
Participants are asked to pick up litter three times a year from the highway roadsides in their designated area.
A two-mile stretch of roadway is recommended. All types of state highways may be adopted, including two-lane roads, limited access highways, boulevards and business routes.
The Calvin Ecosystem Preserve & Native Gardens
1750 E Beltline Ave SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546
Ages 12 – 17
From stewardship and greenhouse workdays to lending your hand as summer camp assistant, there are always ways to help at the Calvin Ecosystem Preserve & Native Gardens. Dress for the weather and be ready to get your hands dirty.
How Volunteers Help:
– Maintain/create trails
– Plant native species around the Preserve
– Collect seeds for propagation in our greenhouses
– Assist with invasive species control
Equest Center for Therapeutic Riding
3777 Rector Ave NE, Rockford, MI 49341
Ages 14+ or 12 and up with an adult
Have a passion for horses? Equest Center for Therapeutic Riding strives to improve quality of life through equine-based therapy to physically, mentally and socially/emotionally challenged individuals.
How Volunteers Help:
Volunteers can work on Equest Projects from home, tackle renovation projects at the center, or assist special needs riders during therapy sessions and work with the horses.
Grand Rapids Public Museum
272 Pearl St. NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
Ages 12 and up
Volunteer at the Grand Rapids Public Museum to connect with the community, learn more about the Museum’s worldwide collections and interact with other like-minded people.
How Volunteers Help:
Help as a Greeter welcoming guest to the museum, an Exhibit Interpreter, or Education Assistant. Season opportunities are also available. For the summer, you could be a Camp Curious Assistant.
You can even help document the number of fish being caught in the Grand River as a Community Science Angler Counter! How fun is that?!
Catholic Charities West Michigan
Ages 13 and up
Catholic Charities West Michigan provides prevention, education and crisis intervention to vulnerable populations.
How Volunteers Help:
Preparing, serving, cleaning a lunch meal daily at God’s Kitchen, or as a volunteer shopper at the Food Pantry in Muskegon assisting guests, greeting incoming clients, or helping with administrative tasks.
You can also help from home painting bowls given to guests at benefit events that support God’s Kitchen and food pantry programming.
Grand Rapids Children’s Museum
11 Sheldon Ave NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Ages 14 – 18
The Grand Rapids Children’s Museum just celebrated 25 years of play, and continues to loudly and boldly spread the message that play is more important now than ever before.
How Volunteers Help:
Youth Volunteers spend their time interacting directly with museum visitors.
Flat River Outreach Ministries
11535 Fulton St E, Lowell, MI 49331
Flat River Outreach Ministries mission is to be the Greater Lowell community hub where hope, resources, and gifts are shared.
How Volunteers Help:
Help organizing the Food Pantry, sorting and pricing items in Treasures Thrift Shop or with administrative tasks in the main office.
Habitat for Humanity Kent County
425 Pleasant St. SW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Ages 17 and under with a chaperone
Habitat for Humanity of Kent County works with individuals and families of all sizes, colors, ages, and backgrounds to help everyone build a safe and healthy home base to pursue their dreams.
Everyone, regardless of race, age, or abilities, can make a difference to help build affordable housing for local families. No experience, tools or skills are necessary to participate – we will show you how!
How Volunteers Help:
- 16-17 year olds may assist on most construction sites, but may not use power tools or work from a height of six feet or more
- 14-15 year olds may paint trim in our warehouse or landscape in our learning garden
- Youth under 14 years may not volunteer on the construction site, but they can:
- Help to stock ReStores by collecting donations
- Fundraise to help build a child’s bedroom (items range from a doorknob to carpeting)
- Say “thanks” to our volunteers by making snacks or lunches
- Make cookie or pizza kits to help kids feel at home when they move in
- Make fun seasonal gifts to show volunteer appreciation.
- Create a scrapbook of photos commemorating different steps in the homeownership/building process
- Practice building skills and provide families with personalized home accessories, or use your projects as a fundraising resource
John Ball Zoo
1300 W Fulton St, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
Ages 14 -17
Join our Youth Volunteer Team at John Ball Zoo and help in a variety of ways throughout the zoo. The program runs during the summer, but the volunteer opportunities extend through the fall.
How Volunteers Help:
Help with wayfinding, greeting, and summer camp.
With additional training you can be stationed at the Wallabies or Hobby Farm.
Volunteers also have the opportunity to become Ambassador Animal Handlers! If you are interested in Animal or Zoo Kitchen assignments, a weekly commitment is required for the summer.
HELP FROM HOME: Purchase items on their wish list that are sent directly to the zoo.
Revive & Thrive – Grand Rapids
1514 Hall St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506
Ages 14 – 19
Revive & Thrive Project provides meals to those facing a health crisis while providing teens with healthy eating and job skills.
How Volunteers Help:
The Revive & Thrive Project provides teens with the opportunity to work under adult mentor chefs to learn how to prep, cook, and package nourishing meals for people fighting and recovering from severe illnesses.
Grand Rapids Symphony
300 Ottawa Ave NW, Suite 100, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Ages 16+, ages 13 – 15 with an adult
In almost everything the Grand Rapids Symphony does, the smiling faces of its volunteers are seen as they donate their time to bring the music they love to the people of West Michigan.
How Volunteers Help:
Concert volunteers are needed during the Main Season, at Education Program concerts, and in the summer at our community events.
Gilda’s Club
1806 Bridge St NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
Ages 16 and up
Gilda’s Club provides free emotional healthcare to children, adults, families, and friends on any kind of cancer journey, ensuring no one has to navigate cancer or grief alone.
How Volunteers Help:
Garden and Grounds: planting, weeding, raking, spreading mulch, and sweeping.
Clubhouse Cleaning: A continual need, includes dusting, window washing, sanitizing of surfaces, vacuuming and mopping, and polishing furniture.
Supper Together: Volunteers are responsible for setting up, preparing, serving and cleaning up meals for members. You can choose to donate your own ingredients or use food provided to Gilda’s Club.
Volunteer at special events.
HELP FROM HOME
Collect wish list items
Bake cookies, cakes, cupcakes or brownies to provide along with our weekly meals. Bake at home or schedule a time to come and bake in the kitchen at Gilda’s.
Make cards for members and their families (thank you, sympathy, thinking of you, get well).
Degage Ministries
139 Sheldon St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Ages 16 and up
Dégagé Ministries provides Emergency, Empowerment, and Engagement services to people experiencing homelessness or poverty in Grand Rapids.
How Volunteers Help:
Host an activity such as Bingo, Family Feud, Card Tournament, Game Night, Special Snack and more in their dining room. Help sort and organize donations. Create decorations for holidays and schedule a time to come and decorate.
HELP FROM HOME: Collect items for their wish list.
Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM)
101 Monroe Center St NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Ages 16 and up
Support a greater connection to art and our community by volunteering at GRAM!
How Volunteers Help:
Assist GRAM staff with data entry, distributing materials, and general office tasks.
Aid in building projects and outdoor maintenance.
Assist at GRAM during the annual Festival of the Arts, helping with guest services, children’s art activities, and the Student Art Show.
Enhance guest experiences in the galleries by greeting and assisting visitors.
Embrace GRAM’s role as a welcoming downtown space, supporting community engagement.
Welcome guests, distribute attendance stickers, and assist with item check.
Help visitors find books, shelve materials, and assist with library organization.
Provide customer assistance, maintain displays, and manage inventory at the museum store.
Support exhibition openings, member events, and programs by checking in visitors, managing coat check, and assisting with general inquiries.
Engage families and youth with gallery activities, art workshops, and answering questions about art and exhibitions.
Versiti – Michigan Blood
1036 Fuller Ave NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Ages 16 and up
Versiti Blood Center of Michigan collects more than 135,000 units of blood annually and has a nationally recognized stem cell (marrow) program.
How Volunteers Help:
Greeting donors at blood drives or the cafe at the donor center
Monitoring donor rest/serving refreshments
Technical support
Clerical support
Donate blood (for those weighing 110 pounds or more, with parental consent)
The Salvation Army – Kent County
1215 E Fulton St, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Ages 16 and up
The Salvation Army in Kent County has been giving food, providing disaster relief, and giving hope to those facing hardship in our community and beyond.
How Volunteers Help:
In November and December, volunteers of all ages are invited to help ring bells at one of several locations in the Kent County area to raise funds for the Red Kettle Campaign.
Dress up and spread holiday cheer as a volunteer Christmas Santa Claus at the KROC Center.
Other current needs include sorting and organizing food in the emergency food panty or volunteer mid-week with the senior program at Fulton Heights Citadel Church.
Get Out and Spread Kindness!
No matter where you choose to spend your time volunteering, it will be appreciated.
Are there any other great volunteer opportunities out there that we missed? Let us know!
I want to work on cleaning up the forests.
My 12 year old daughter would love to volunteer somewhere in the city, she has done some hours at In The Image, loves animals.
Thanks
I have 2 teenage boys looking to volunteer ages 13 14 , in need of any extra hands feel free to email or call
I am a CLS worker for Arbor Circle and would love to get my teen I work with involved with volunteering, not only for his service hours for school, but also to show how important it is to give back. There aren’t a ton of things going on during the time that I work with him and would love to do some of the “work from home” options, but feel that if we were to go around asking for donations, they’ll want proof that we aren’t trying to scam them. Is there something we can get from various places to show we are working to help them?
I’d like to have my 9/8/6 year old participation in the kids food basket. After school. I think this can help build good character.
Looking for volunteer work for my 7, 3 year old, and myself. Want to show them the importance of giving back to our community!
My son needs to volunteer he is 18 years old and a senior in High School this is for his government hours. We would need something that we can do together that would be in the evening or weekends. Although this is for school credit I would like to show him importance of volunteering so that he will hopefully continue to sign up to help in the community. Please let me know of any opportunities we can get started as early as tonight. 3/20/14
Hello, I have a 15 year old daughter who wants very much to volunteer somewhere in the city and we will find something for her…. I would love email updates for any new opportunities 🙂