Volunteer opportunities for teens.

City guides

Every place on these lists was checked on the organization’s own site, with its age rules and how to sign up.

• Volunteer opportunities for teens in Atlanta 19 places

Where teens can volunteer, and at what age

Every organization sets its own rules, but the same kinds of places tend to follow the same pattern. The examples are from our Atlanta list.

Food banks and meal programs

Often the youngest start: the Atlanta Community Food Bank takes volunteers from 8 with an adult working alongside them. Most want an adult with anyone under 18. Find yours with Feeding America’s food bank finder, which searches by ZIP code.

Hospitals

Many run a summer teen program that starts at 15 or 16 (Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at 15, Piedmont Atlanta and Wellstar Kennestone at 16). They are selective, ask for vaccine records and a TB test, and take applications in January to March. If you want to go into medicine, this is the one to plan for.

Animal shelters

Younger teens can usually help only with a parent, and often not with the animals themselves. LifeLine Animal Project in Atlanta takes volunteers from 10 with an adult but wants you to be 18 to come alone. Ask about cat socializing, enrichment toys and adoption events, which are open to younger volunteers more often.

Libraries

One of the easiest places to start on your own. Around Atlanta, county libraries take volunteers from 13 to 15, and many run a teen advisory board that meets monthly to plan teen events. Call your branch.

Parks, rivers and trees

One-day cleanups and plantings are open to younger kids with an adult. Sweep the Hooch, a cleanup of the Chattahoochee River, takes walkers from 10. Trees Atlanta welcomes all ages at plantings and lets 16- and 17-year-olds come alone with a signed waiver.

Zoos and museums

Year-long teen programs, usually from 13 or 14, where you teach visitors and help behind the scenes. They take applications in winter, sometimes with an essay and a fee (Zoo Atlanta’s Volunteen program applies in January; Fernbank Museum posts its program in February).

Building homes

Habitat for Humanity build sites usually start at 16. Atlanta Habitat takes 16- and 17-year-olds with a parent’s waiver but keeps them off power tools. Rules are set by each local Habitat, which you can find with Habitat’s local finder. High schools can also start a Habitat campus chapter.

Online

Schoolhouse.world, a nonprofit founded by Sal Khan of Khan Academy, runs free tutoring over Zoom, led by high school students who get certified in a subject first. It is a good fit if you’re strong in math or test prep and can’t get rides.

How to find a spot near you

1. Start at school. Your counselor knows which places take students. Service clubs like Key Club, a high school service club in 40 countries, National Honor Society and Beta Club run projects all year.
2. Call your public library. Ask about teen volunteers and a teen advisory board.
3. Look up your food bank with the Feeding America finder and check its youth rules.
4. Check the nearest hospital for a teen program. Search its name plus “teen volunteer” in January, before applications close.
5. Search Idealist. Its city pages (Atlanta’s lists over 2,000 openings) have a distance filter. There is no age filter, so read each listing’s rules.
6. Find your city’s volunteer center. Many cities have one calendar of projects, like Hands On Atlanta, where each listing shows its age rule.

Does volunteering help you get into college?

Some, and depth matters more than hours. In their own Common Data Sets, 68% of colleges say they consider volunteer work, but only 18% call it important or very important. At colleges that admit under 20% of applicants, 28% do. What stands out is one place you stuck with and what you did there. More in how many volunteer hours you need for college and what colleges weigh.