What can I do for a

Single Parent

How often have we heard the phrase, “It takes a village to raise a child”? There a many large and small ways to build a community.

Offer your time

  • Offer an opportunity to socialize (with and without kids)

  • Help with homework

  • Invite to share holidays

  • Attend kids' events/performances, film if possible

  • Provide a break: babysit/spend time with kids while they

    • Run errands

    • Do something for themselves/personal care

    • Take a walk

    • Take a nap

    • Attend appointments

  • Be an emergency contact: last minute meetings, changes with school schedule, kids sick, child care falls through

  • Encourage schools to use relationship-neutral language for events and assignments relating to family

Provide transportation

  • Shuttle kids to appointments

  • After school activities

  • Errands

Shopping

  • School supplies

  • Shoes & clothing

Financial Support (directly assist or help raise money)

  • Basic needs

  • Paying bills

  • Child care

  • Gas cards or bus tokens

  • Legal services

  • Child care

  • School activities and fees

  • Special school occasions

  • Pay for pet sitting/kennel stay/grooming

Organize

  • Hand me downs

  • Household organizing (closets, etc.)

  • Go through kids clothes/toys, donate what's outgrown

  • Filing system for paperwork

    • Birth certificates

    • Emergency contacts

    • Vaccine records

    • Custody or other legal paperwork

Help build a community

  • Family, friends, other parents

  • Playdates, after school activities, car pools, no school days

Help filing out forms

  • School forms

  • Taxes

  • Applications for services

Research/Locate resources

  • Community support services

  • Single parent support groups

  • Daycare providers, colleges, pediatricians, after school options

  • Insurance options/info

  • Legal resources/services

  • Advocate for them

Assist related organizations & nonprofits who support parents

  • Donations

  • Volunteer

  • Serve as a board member

  • Write legislators in support of family friendly policies

  • Share social media pages and websites

  • Organize supply drives (diapers, medicine, school supplies)

  • Support efforts to redesign public policies to support single parents