The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee: 70 Acts of Service

This is an invitation to communities to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee by serving others. In honour of the Queen’s 70 years of service, HOPE Together has listed 70 Acts of Service to start you thinking. There are 70 ways to make a difference – but you might have lots of other ideas.

Serve others and make a difference in your community, right where you are. Choose a handful of acts, or complete one a day for 70 days, it is up to you! Gather your friends, family, and community together to make a difference in your street, village, town or city.

1. Think of an everyday item that’s in good condition. Find a recipient and give it away. Umbrellas, hand cream, etc.
2. Drop a small card to a hidden hero, just to let them know they’re noticed.
3. Clean the sink in your school, home, office, or staffroom.
4. How often do you say ‘hi’ to your neighbours? Take that moment where you meet and spend time getting to know them a little more. Know them well already? Then invite them for coffee or a meal.
5. Find out how you can volunteer for a local cause you love. Too shy? Volunteer with a friend.
6. Clear your schedule for an hour to serve someone. Ask them what they need doing or what would help them most.
7. Contact a homeless shelter and ask what they need. Then meet it.
8. Strike up a conversation with someone you don’t know at the bus stop or in a café maybe.
9. Leave something anonymously for someone you know: a coffee on a desk, an encouraging note taped to their car, a box of pastries left in the shared kitchen.
10. Ask others what they think your gifts are, and how you could use them to bring life in and through your community, then act on what they tell you. While you’re at it, encourage others to use their gifts too!
11. Become an Age UK Digital Buddy. Half of people over 65 feel out of touch with the pace of modern life. Learn how to inspire older people in your community to make the most of technology.
http://www.ageuk.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer/become-an-age-uk-digital-buddy/
12. Allow extra time when you are out and about and look for simple ways to be generous – help someone carry a heavy bag, offer directions, acknowledge passers-by.
13. Take a chunk of time to chat to someone you might not usually ‘see’: the street vendor, the window cleaner, the station attendant, the homeless person who sits in the doorway.
14. The Do It Trust connects you on the spot with a volunteer opportunity near you. Find a way to instantly bless your community here. http://www.do-it.org/about
15. Set a target to encourage everyone you talk with today. Everyone. This might actually be easier than you think – choose to prioritise encouraging words whenever you speak to others and it will come naturally.
16. Spend time drafting an intentional message telling an old friend or teacher about their impact on you. What might you write on a sincere thank you card? Send that.
17. Make a care package for someone in need – a rough sleeper you often pass, or someone you know in your community who could really do with some essentials.
18. Let someone know you’re available to help. Tell them you’d be up for checking in with regular texts. Or even let them know they can call on you for anything, from having you on speed dial to going along with them to an event.
19. Tackle a community clean up that makes an impact – contact your friends and neighbours with some suggested dates and times and see who responds!
20. Gather a few friends to organise a car wash in your neighbourhood.
21. Get cleaning. This will work best if you find somewhere that’s important to you like your street or somewhere in your community like a local school playground or a care home garden.
22. Research local clubs, community gatherings or other local initiatives. Can you support any of them – financially, with time, or with resources? This doesn’t have to be a life-changing moment. A demonstration of support that turns you outwards is all that’s needed.
23. Get rid of graffiti. Check with your local council and chat with your neighbours, the school-run/coffee mums, the guys on the rugby team, and see who you can gather together to help.
24. It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of large-scale injustice or to switch off when it comes to national or international events. Take stock of what you feel passionate about then write a letter, add your
name to a campaign, or share something on social media.
25. Make a practical difference today to those seeking refuge. Men, in particular, this is your time for a clear-out (groups supporting refugees often report that they receive low numbers of good quality men’s clothes).
26. Donate tinned and dried food to those helping destitute asylum seekers or check out Welcome Boxes welcomeboxes.org, a group welcoming newly-arrived refugees and asylum seekers with love and friendship, starting with a Welcome Box of gifts to say hello.
27. In a queue? Buy the next person in line a coffee/sandwich/pint along with your order. Or pay for a bus
ticket for the person behind you.
28. Could you fundraise for an organisation you feel passionate about? Search on give.net today and start fundraising. Get others from your community to help you!
29. Cook for your friends, family or neighbours tonight and try to make sure everyone sits together to eat at the same time. Don’t rush the meal – enjoy each other’s company.
30. Start simple: gather together a few bags of your belongings to take to your local charity shop. And not just the scraps – let’s give some good stuff away too!
31. Grab a stack of Post-it notes and write down some one-line encouragements. Then stick them up around your house, your gym, or your workplace for other people to find.
32. There are plenty of small ways to put others first. Perhaps hold the door open for more people than necessary. Give up your seat on public transport. Let someone else go ahead of you in the queue.
Let someone else choose the TV channel.
33. What can you do to help? Clear a table in the café, stack the baskets or trolleys in a shop, put something back on a shelf if it has fallen off. Yes, technically you’ll be doing a job that someone else is paid to do, but your helpfulness might be making someone’s day a little less stressful.
34. Fix something quick and simple for someone today. Change a light bulb, sew on a button, or teach someone a few shortcuts on the computer.
35. We’ve probably all got things at home we can share. A spare nearly-new toolkit, two copies of the same book … you get the idea. What could you share with someone else today? Snap a photo and post
it on social media, letting your friends know they can have it for free.
36. Offer to do the tea/coffee run at work or wash up everyone’s mugs at the end of the day. Say ‘yes’ to that difficult task announced at a meeting. You get the idea… run with it!
37. Bring in your neighbours’ bins this week – or even for the whole street!
38. Could you support people in your community and the NHS during times of need? Become an Emergency Response Volunteer – find out more from the Royal Voluntary Service http://www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk
39. Plant a community garden. Who could you work with in your local area on this? Then share what you grow!
40. The next time you get on a bus or go shopping – take something for the person serving you – some flowers, a bar of chocolate. Tell them what a great job they are doing.
41. Club together with others and buy crayons and colouring books to donate to the local children’s hospital.
42. Bake some cookies or muffins and drop them off at your local fire station.
43. Plant a tree for the Jubilee – http://www.queensgreencanopy.org
44. Make lunch for a family member or friend today and include a nice note in their lunch box too.
45. Leave some coins taped to a car park/ vending machine or on a supermarket trolley for the next person to use.
46. Try wearing the same clothes for a week – Around 2.6 billion people in the world lack basic sanitation. This will give you a taste of what life is like for them.
47. Live Below the Line Challenge – More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day (about £1) Try living for five days with £1 a day for all food and drink to support people living in hunger. Find out more at http://www.thehungerproject.org.uk
48. Write to you MP on matters relating to the environment or poverty in your area.
http://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/contact-your-mp/
49. Use no hot running water today either from your taps or shower – approximately 15% of the world’s population is without running water – let alone heated water.
50. Go without using the internet today – 40% of the world’s population has no internet access.
51. Survive the day by using no more than 4 litres of water to wash, eat and drink – People in rich countries use 10 times more water than those in poor countries.
52. Eat plain rice for each of your meals today – rice is the staple diet of over 3 billion people.
53. Do not put the light on when it gets dark tonight – 10% of the world’s population have no access to electricity.
54. Write a letter to someone facing persecution – find out how at http://www.csw.org.uk/connectencourage or
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/write-for-rights
55. Sew some reusable sanitary towels for women in the third world http://www.sewconfident.co.uk/charity/
56. Make a collection for your local foodbank.
57. Spearhead a group activity to make and send ‘Get Well’ cards for children in the local hospital.
58. Wear second-hand clothes for a weekend after visiting a charity shop.
59. Mow the lawn for your neighbour, parents, or someone you know.
60. Visit your local lunch club and offer to help with the washing up.
61. Depending on the time of year, sweep snow or leaves from the pavement outside your home.
62. Invite someone who normally eats alone to have a meal with you.
63. Are you a member of a club, sports team, church or other community group? Brainstorm ways in which you can serve your community this year – and make an action plan.
64. Take a group into a local old people’s home and organise a sing song of favourite hymns and old songs
65. Get a group together to pick up litter in a local park or beauty spot.
66. Organise a second hand clothes swap with your friends and neighbours – everyone brings some clothes and everyone gives a small donation to a charity of your choice to take away someone else’s cast offs!
67. Ask the local supermarket if they could donate their day old vegetables. Make soup and run a pop up café collecting money for a charity of your choice.
68. Put together simple gift packs for nurses in your local hospital, teachers in your local school, or your local street sweepers, with a note of thanks.
69. Ask a local care home if there are residents who have no visitors, who’d welcome a visit. Commit to visiting at least once a month.
70. Set up a free shoe-shine stall in your high street or town centre – with the necessary permission from the local authority.