FAQ for Parents

Are you a parent of a teen needing community service? Would you like to inspire your teen to give back? Got a question? First, be sure to read about and join the Boomerang Foundation for Parents. You can join or start conversations with other parents and educators and connect with other parents trying to inspire compassion in teens. You're not alone.

Here are some questions submitted by parents and answered by other parents. Please join the conversation. Submit your questions and offer advice (please, we need it) to boomerangfoundation@gmail.com.

My teen has been assigned community service, now what?

Alright, first off, take a deep breath and get yourself some chocolate. Feel better? Good. Now, YOU are not the one who should be doing this! Your teen was assigned the community service, not you! The best way to help them is to stand in front of whatever MTV show they are watching and tell them to get off of the couch and log on to boomerangfoundation.org. We are here to help!

There are natural consequences to putting things off; it becomes more difficult to get it done and your teen may not get credit or graduate. There are also natural consequences for compassionate hard work in service of others or addressing important issues: a deep sense of purpose and meaning.  Make sure your desire to be supportive does not rob your teen of the depth of this experience. Like a Boomerang, you get back what you give.  The truth is, your teen will get as much out of his community service project as he puts in.

YOU are not the one who should be doing the community service assignment or worrying incessantly about how he’s going to get it done. Your teen was assigned the community service, not you! The best way to help is to guide and facilitate; don’t do it for him.  By doing it for him or by forcing him to do something that may not have meaning to him, your “helping” may do more harm than good in allowing him to learn the value and benefits of community service.  Remember, you’re there to support and facilitate opportunities, not to find or force them.

Truthfully, one of the last things a busy nonprofit needs is to answer calls from parents looking for a way to get their teen’s community service paper signed.  Remember, it is not the mission of most nonprofit organizations (except ours!) to help teens find community service opportunities.  And most busy nonprofits do not have the time or resources to help parents find community service opportunities for teens who should be finding the opportunities themselves. 

This website is here to help! Browse the site with your teen. Check out our student page to be inspired by projects others have done, get words of wisdom and helpful tips, find toolkits for your teen to start his or her own projects, or to find out a little bit more about local organizations that not only want your teen’s help, but need it!

Hit the student tab at the top of the home page. Next, check out our student page to be inspired by projects others have done, get words of wisdom and helpful tips, find toolkits for your teen to start his or her own projects, or to find out a little bit more about local organizations that not only want your teen's help, but need it!

What can I find on The Boomerang site that will help me help my teen get their community service done?

Answer:

Here is a guide to some of the features on this site:

  • Search by zip code to find volunteer opportunities from thousands of nonprofit organizations – local, regional, national and international.
  • Boomerang Project Planner, which follows the format of a professional business plan, teaching your teen business skills like budgeting, forecasting, marketing and evaluation in planning their own unique community service project.
  • Résumé builder, which allows teens to highlight their community service experience and to use for employment, internship and college applications.
  • Service learning information and curriculum-based community service activities.
  • Links to helpful resources and information.
  • Linking Parents Facebook Page with ideas and strategies to help you encourage your teen and to support their community service and volunteerism.

What you won’t find on this site are ways you can do community service for your teen. 

This site will give you an opportunity to act as a “consultant” and “coach,” to your teen.  It’s great to be involved and even join them in serving the community; do it with them, not for them.  Together with your son or daughter you can surf the volunteer match section to find teen-appropriate volunteer opportunities by zip code. Then, gather ideas about how to self-generate projects and use the Boomerang Project Planner to help guide your teen from through the whole process of creating a business plan.  Use the Résumé Builder to support your teen in creating an impressive and professional résumé.

This online community of adults - parents, teachers, nonprofit leaders, and mentors - can gently nudge teens in the right direction and ignite the power within them to create a more compassionate world.

My teen has been assigned community service and needs a paper signed documenting that the work has been done, but the deadline is approaching and he is sitting on the couch watching TV. What do I do?!

Answer:  There are natural consequences to putting things off; it becomes more difficult to get it done and your teen may not get credit or graduate. There are also natural consequences for compassionate hard work in service of others or addressing important issues: a deep sense of purpose and meaning.  Make sure your desire to be supportive does not rob your teen of the depth of this experience. Like a Boomerang, you get back what you give.  The truth is, your teen will get as much out of his community service project as he puts in.

YOU are not the one who should be doing the community service assignment or worrying incessantly about how he’s going to get it done. Your teen was assigned the community service, not you! The best way to help is to guide and facilitate; don’t do it for him.  By doing it for him or by forcing him to do something that may not have meaning to him, your “helping” may do more harm than good in allowing him to learn the value and benefits of community service.  Remember, you’re there to support and facilitate opportunities, not to find or force them.

Truthfully, one of the last things a busy nonprofit needs is to answer calls from parents looking for a way to get their teen’s community service paper signed.  Remember, it is not the mission of most nonprofit organizations (except ours!) to help teens find community service opportunities.  And most busy nonprofits do not have the time or resources to help parents find community service opportunities for teens who should be finding the opportunities themselves. 

This website is here to help! Browse the site with your teen. Check out our student page to be inspired by projects others have done, get words of wisdom and helpful tips, find toolkits for your teen to start his or her own projects, or to find out a little bit more about local organizations that not only want your teen’s help, but need it!

My daughter is busy with sports, the school play, and a heavy academic load to help her get into a good college. We just don’t know when there will be time for community service. What do we do?

Answer: Getting into college in this day and age is a difficult business, even for those ambitious students with the best grades. Here’s the thing about community service: there are plenty of organizations that would love to have your ambitious teen be of service to them. Yes, with the college-bound, socially and academically active teenager, finding a few extra hours per week for community service seems impossible. But it is not.

Look to Boomerang to help you out! Check out our site for ideas about getting involved! What sort of organization does your teen want to work with? Does the environment engender excitement? No? Perhaps volunteering at a children’s cancer organization or a tutoring club? Try to find an organization which is not only conducive to your time frame, geographical location, etc. but your teen should also be interested in the organization’s mission and goals. Community service isn’t supposed to be a form of torture and a meaningless obligation; it should be fun and make one feel good by doing good!

If your teen is extra ambitious, check out our toolkits for implementing individual community service or community-building projects, whether out in the community or in school. For example, they could initiate a Compassion Week by following our toolkit! This has the potential to bring together students and administrators in a school-wide week of inspiring compassionate behavior! By the way, colleges are looking for students with the ingenuity to create and complete meaningful projects.

Volunteer without leaving home!  There are many nonprofits needing help with using the Internet and social media to get their important messages out.  Your teen could do a lot of social good without leaving her computer.  Can your teen set up a Facebook page, design websites, blast text or email messages?  Then, there are nonprofits that need them!

My teenage daughter is far more interested in going to the mall with her friends than doing community service. How do we spark her interest?

Answer: The trick with getting in with teenagers is to find something accessible and easy which can involve their friends. Maybe your daughter and her friends would like to host a fashion show for a cause at the mall.  A soccer team can put on a field-goal kicking contest for a cause, groups of friends can do bake sales or car washes that benefit a local nonprofit or cause. Check out the Boomerang Service Project Planner to come up with a project that’s fun, social and makes a difference.

If your teen has a community service requirement for a class or graduation, this is a great way to plant the seed. If not, the key is to entice them with other benefits. Teenagers can sometimes be self-centered, meaning unless they can see an immediate benefit to themselves, they aren’t likely to walk up to you and say, “So I think I’m going to go volunteer at the American Red Cross tomorrow.” If your teen is college-bound, community service looks excellent on college résumés, in addition to job résumés.

What about having a family day of service, where your whole family participates in an event like a beach clean-up day, or makes a commitment to raising money for a valuable cause or event? Make it fun for all involved!  Check out the Boom Boom Cards family deck.

Remember what it was like to be a teenager? When our parents would make us do things against our wills or “because I said so”, they got nowhere. In fact, when we were forced, we immediately wanted to rebel. Give your kids options and incentives and explain why it is important to you that your family gets involved in the community. When you begin to treat them with a certain degree of adult respect and understanding, you will find yourself getting it back, like a Boomerang.

Our family is concerned about Internet safety and teens. Is Boomerang safe to use?

Answer: As with any activity your teen participates in online, we urge you to take all precautions and monitor Internet use.  Since parts of or website are open-source, we cannot immediately control all content.  We will remove any inappropriate language as soon as it is called to our attention and encourage thoughtful, kind and encouraging relationships among users.  Our desire is to make sure all users have an inspiring experience that is absolutely safe. As stated in our privacy policy, “we adhere to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which is a federal law passed in 2000 designed to protect young people using the Internet.” For more information, please see our privacy policy as well as our terms of use agreement.

Again, we encourage adults to monitor teenage computer use, whether at school or at home

Got a question? Got advice? Join or start a parent discussion group on iSpot. Log in, create a SPOT, start or join a group. Remember, we are all in this together. If you prefer email: info@iSpotCompassion.org