Volunteering for Children

The best place for her to do it is to join the student leadership at her school. Schools have a lot of volunteer opportunities (especially in this era of budget cuts). My daughter helps out at her school on the gardening committee (they weed the school gardens several recess periods per month), on the recycling committee (they go to all the classrooms and pick up the recycling, then sort through it and separate it, and the money they make goes to fund PTA events), and she also tutors younger children in reading and math. Volunteering at school is a great and easy way for kids to get involved in their community. As she gets older, there will be greater opportunity for her (candy striper at the hospital, volunteer at the food bank, etc).

We have a couple of animal rescues that want their animals socialized so they can be adopted, so kids can volunteer to walk dogs, play with the cats, brush the animals, feed them, etc. You can also try in nursing homes that might want visitors for their residents (although, that's a little harder for kids, especially if they're shy). You may also check in a library or preschool to see if they'd like her to volunteer to read to little kids or help them with reading or writing.
Good question!

Kids that age can oftentimes help out in the nursery of a church. Really, they just play with the younger kids and help clean up the toys.

October is coming around - do you have a local church that does a pumpkin patch fundraiser? The pumpkins have to be turned so they don't rot on one side. Grab a couple of her friends, and head to the pumpkin patch to turn pumpkins (call the church first and arrange for a time). This is simple at the start, but beware: all that bending and pushing (some of those pumpkins are a bit heavy and it takes some effort to roll them) will wear her (and you!) out by the end!

Nursing homes, churches, after school programs at her school, libraries.

Unfortunately most organizations (soup kitchens, humane society, food banks, etc) will not allow children that young to do volunteer work due to liability issues.

Here are some things I did with my kids...
our town has a clean up day or you can pick a park or a school yard and periodically pick up garbage
make Christmas cards to send to our troops
talk to her teacher, there may be some things she can do in the school, help a teacher, read to a younger child

My daughter and I help with Meals on Wheels. It takes about 1 hour and a half.

My daughter and I volunteered at a program called Food Share at Aldersgate UMC in Carrollton for about 2 years. We never attended that church, but they were more than happy to welcome us. Basically, once a month on a Saturday we would meet to distribute donated food into bags for about 21 families. Some of the food comes from the community garden behind that church. Then, we would each take a couple of names and bags of food to deliver to homes. These are typically older people and they always loved having a child come along to help deliver the food. It was a great experience, but we're living a little further away now, so we are looking for other opportunities. I think there might also be some chance to help out with delivering food from the garden to a food pantry, but not 100% sure about that.

http://aumchurch.org/site/cpage.asp?sec_id=180011478&...

There are also volunteer possibilites at Metrocrest Social Services in Carrollton. I'm pretty sure they allow kids to participate.

http://www.metrocrestsocialservices.org/involved_voluntee...

My boys bus tables at church dinners. We go visiting nursing homes at Christmas (sing Carols) and Easter (deliver cookies). We canvass for Heart and Stroke each February, and the boys do all the talking. We participate in the community clean up each spring.

Operation Kindness in Carrollton allows children as young as 6 to volunteer with a parent. We have been going for a month or so and my 8 year old (3rd grader) loves it. We play with the animals (cats and dogs) to socialize them or help the be less scared of being in the shelter, walk small dogs, give them treats, clean up cages occasionally (not required), and help stuff envelopes and at fundraising events. Not hardcore volunteer work like I am used to doing, but it is a good intro for her to learn commitment, responsibility and animal care. You must volunteer 6 hours minimum per month, which hasn't been difficult for us, but initially I was worried we wouldn't be able to work in the hours with school work, etc.