Caring with a click

Sometimes packs and groups find it difficult to find ways of doing things for their community and the environment in their program. The leaders may think that the children will find it boring, it is too time consuming or that it is difficult to find organisations to work with.
Most of the issues above stems from inexperience. Getting involved in the community, locally and globally, is fundamental to scouting, and scouts all over the world do it differently, and kids love to make a difference!
There are things to consider:
*Make sure that your help is needed!
This may seem obvious, but it is important that you do some research so you don't end up doing the wrong thing. Collecting clothes and toys is popular, but most organisations need money a lot more, and it is easier and cheaper to distribute.
* Don't go to big!
Find small projects, that you can manage and can see results from. Kids love to help, but they are impatient and forget quickly. Do a sponsored walk, a limmited collection, a garage sale or put on a show over a limmited period. Make sure that you give the kids feedback on the result, and that they know about, or are there when the money/collection is handed over. If you get a thank you, make sure that the kids hear, if possible: frame it and hang it on a wall in the hut.
* Find easy ways for everyone to help every day!
A good deed a day is a motto that has been in the scout movement from the beginning. Show the Cubs that a good deed doesn't have to be big and flashy: It can be something small like picking up a missplaced piece of rubbish a day, helping a school friend with a difficult math problem, standing up for someone who doesn't dare speak in assembly, sending a post card to someone who's ill or something as simple as putting a link to a charity web site on the group's web page or your blog. (i.e. see right margin!)
* Find good examples!
Show your Cubs that people help other people in many different ways! It's not just big, international, media covered events that count. LiveAid, Comic Relief, WorldHungerDay are great, but make sure your Cubs know that helping in a small scale is just as great; that world hunger is a big issue, but that there are other ways of looking at the world too, and that there might be people close by that need help.