Category: Community Page 7 of 8

Charities That Help Children at Christmas

On December 10, 2019

For Christmas this year, start a tradition with your family and give back to children who are in need. Below you will find four charities the help children during the holidays.

One of the most recognizable charities on this list is Toys for Tots. Between October and December you can purchase anew toy and drop it off at a U.S. Marines’ Toys for Tots location. One of the members of the U.S. Marine Corps will then collect the toys and give them out to children in the community. When donatating a toy make sure that it is unwrapped!

Operation Christmas Child

Leading up to the holidays, don’t throw out your shoeboxes! Operation Christmas Child is a charity that collects shoeboxes that are filled with all sorts of little gifts from toys to school supplies to candy to hygiene products. As a volunteer of this project, you can select a specific age group and fill a shoebox with items of that age group.

On top of the little gifts you pick out, there is a small donation required to cover any shipping costs. If you decide to donate online, you will be able to track your shoebox until it reaches its new home.

Make-A-Wish Foundation

Make-A-Wish Foundation is a charity that is pretty active year-round, but during the holiday season they are busier than ever. The foundation works to making the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions come true. During the holidays many companies will partner up with Make-A-Wish to make the most impact as possible.

To help out Make-A-Wish this season, consider dropping off a letter to Santa at any Macy’s location. Every letter you drop off Macy’s will donate a dollar to Make-A-Wish.

Another way to help is buy gifts through the Make-a-Wish store. You have to get your Christmas shopping done anyway, you might as well give back while you are doing it. Not only will your friends and family receive a wonderful gift, but every item you buy, a portion of the proceeds will go back Make-A-Wish Foundation.

During the holiday season, My Two Front Teeth and the Family Giving Tree, join together to help children. To help a child start by visiting either of the charities’ websites. Each website have a list of children’s names, their ages, as well as what they would like for Christmas. From there you can pick which child you would like to support.

Top Charities Family & Kids Love Giving to at the Holidays

By Jerry Swon

On November 8, 2019

In Blog, Community, Volunteer

There is no better time than during the holidays to give back as a family. Whether you already give back throughout the year or wish to start a holiday-giving tradition in your family, giving back is a wonderful way to teach your children about the value of kindness. Expressing kindness through giving to those in need will lay the groundwork for your children to become more kind and generous adults, which we all know the world needs more of.

Here’s a list of top charities family and kids love giving towards during the holiday season:

Toys for Tots

Toys for Tots provides the opportunity for your family to shop for children who are less fortunate. You can purchase a new, unwrapped toy and take it to a Toys for Tots drop-off location near you. The toys will then be distributed to children in your very own community.

World Wildlife Fund

The World Wildlife Fund was established to protect wild animals and their habitats on a global scale. Your family can choose an animal adoption kit of your choice or shop the website with a portion of the proceeds going directly towards the WWF’s global conservation efforts.

Better World Books

Does your family love to read? This wonderful program allows your children to set aside their gently used books and donating them. The books will then be redistributed to children around the world. You can go to their website to find a donation box in your area or mail your books to their headquarters. This is a charity that’s great for any time of the year.

Operation Christmas Child

Operation Christmas Child takes a collection of shoeboxes filled with school supplies, toys, hygiene items, apparel, candy and more to children in need. If you donate online, you will receive a special label so that you can track your box’s journey to its final destination.

Make-a-Wish Foundation

The Make-a-Wish Foundation helps make the wishes of children with life-threatening medical needs come true. There are numerous ways to give back to this charity. You can shop at specific stores where a portion of the proceeds will go towards the Make-a-Wish Foundation. You can also raise funds by purchasing gifts through the charity’s online store.

Angel Tree

Angel Tree helps children who have a parent in prison. Statistics show that one in three prisoners is a parent with 75% of female prisoners being mothers. Through this charity, your family will pick a child to sponsor in your city or you can make a monetary donation online.

Festive Ways to Volunteer In The Fall

By Jerry Swon

On September 23, 2019

In Community, Volunteer

There are so many opportunities for volunteering in the community during the fall. With seasonal events held regularly and community celebrations happening, volunteers can really make a difference this time of year. Best of all the cooler weather seems to bring more smiles of the face of volunteers!

Although we are only in September, October is right around the corner. A festive and fun opportunity to volunteer this fall is by organizing a trick-or-treating expedition for any underprivileged children in the area. Children’s groups are a good place to start. They may be in need of volunteers for Halloween day/night.

Another place where people can really make a difference is at nursing/retirement homes. Those who have children dressing up for Halloween are encouraged to take their kids there, in costume. This is also an activity that can be organized for the children in the neighborhood, as a group. The residents of nursing/retirement homes often enjoy seeing the children in their costumes and briefly interacting with them.

Other ways to help out in any community include starting a collection for a local charity. March of Dimes and Trick-Or-Treat UNICEF are both non-profit organizations that will likely appreciate the help. Getting people in the community to donate what they can is enough to make a difference in the holiday season.

Food banks always need donations, but this is especially true in the fall when the holiday season is about to begin. They are often happy to work with the public to run a food drive. People are generally more open to donating to this type of cause. Getting friends and neighbors together is an effective way to ensure local food banks have all the supplies they need for the season.

Charities aren’t just looking for food donations. Fall also brings with it cooler weather that requires warner clothes. The Warm Coats Warm Hearts Drive collects coats to give to those in need in communities all over the country. Another non-profit that needs help during the fall is The Pajama Program. This program ensures that local children have warm pajamas. It is always in need of volunteers to help organize and run events related to its cause.

These are just a few of the ways that people can volunteer during the fall season. Doing so can create a sense of appreciation and gratitude that only serves to enhance the meaning of the season.

Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey: Preserving and Protecting Wildlife

By Jerry Swon

On July 17, 2019

In Blog, Community, Volunteer

Many people may view New Jersey as a small state filled with big cities and urban communities. The fact is though, New Jersey has much wildlife that is considered to be rare and endangered. These animals need help to survive.

These rare and endangered species can be found throughout the state, in the northern mountains, the central farmlands, and along the eastern shore. They even can be found living on bridges and skyscrapers. They struggle against the building of roads and developments, as well as, the contamination of the wetlands.

How the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ Helps

The mission of the Foundation is to “preserve rare and imperiled species of wildlife that live and breed in, and migrate through New Jersey.” They research the best science and utilize known workable conservation techniques. They get the public involved by sponsoring educational activities and allowing volunteers to help. All of this effort is put forth to help endangered species to recover or to keep another species from becoming endangered.

The Foundation further accomplishes its mission by doing the following:

Research the various types of species, their populations and their preferred environment.
Implement conservation plans to impede the decline of populations and start the recovery of species.
Restoring wildlife habitat that can support the growth of wildlife communities.
Educating New Jersey citizens about the wildlife that lives here and how they are responsible to help protect it.
Developing partnerships to help the Foundation be more effective and efficient.
Developing a workforce of volunteers committed to protecting the biodiversity of N.J.

You Can Volunteer to Help Protect New Jersey’s Wildlife

The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of N.J. is looking for volunteers to help them fulfill their mission. Are you interested in helping to protect New Jersey’s rarest animals or helping restore important wildlife habitats? Would you like to help New Jersians have pride in their unique wildlife heritage? You can do that by helping out the Foundation. Listed below are some of the ways you can help.

Join and become a member of the Foundation.
Sign up to donate on a monthly basis.

Volunteer to help; choose from a list of projects to support.
Adopt a species.
Attend and support a Foundation event.

The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of N.J. is working hard to keep wildlife in New Jersey’s future. They do this by building strong wildlife populations and habitats. They appreciate the support of other like-minded individuals. Maybe you can be one of those individuals.

How You Can Bring Change to Your Community

By Jerry Swon

On June 5, 2019

In Blog, Community

There is nothing as good as living in a place and bringing about some form of positive change. Creating an impact within your community can help to improve the lives of the locals while also creating a name for yourself. The opportunities are limitless as far as the options you have to bring some change in your community.

Donating for charity

Every community should have an opportunity for residents to contribute to charity. Even if no charity organization exists in your area, you may opt to rally the locals towards donating and raising money for other charitable causes. You may also champion the idea of establishing regular visits to nearby children homes as a way of upholding philanthropy.

Be a responsible resident

Another way you can help bring about change within your area is if you get yourself actively involved in local politics and issues of social, economic, and political concern. Active involvement in such issues helps ensure that the local government is brought to task and supervised accordingly to ensure responsible leadership. Such a contribution helps alleviate some of the most common leadership challenges that poorly governed communities face.

Being a recycling ambassador

One of the greatest challenges we have in our time is the need to live environmentally-responsible lives. Being cautious of how resourcefully to use the environment by recycling and practicing proper disposal of waste can help bring an impact. As we all know, trash has a very negative impact on our environment. Recycling helps us conserve energy and keep our environment looking healthy and clean. Recycling waste yourself can also impact other people who may have you as a role model as far as maintaining the integrity of the environment is concerned.

Buying local

Buying local has a ton of great benefits! It reduces environmental impact, keeps the community unique, and creates more local ownership and jobs. It is always said that buying locally produced items helps build the local economy. You should, therefore, target frequenting the local stores and grocery outlets for your common shopping needs. Besides, buying locally produced items gives you access to fresh produce directly from the farm. Buying locally also help sustain the locals’ businesses, thereby creating economic sustainability.

Become socially conscious

Social consciousness in a community is crucial in helping maintain peace and stability within the area. Social responsibility can be practiced by endeavoring to check on the welfare of your neighbors and empathetically solving common social problems.

How You Can Encourage Interaction Within Your Community

By Jerry Swon

On February 10, 2019

In Blog, Community

Communities hold great importance to our lives. Looking at your own life, you will notice that you are a part of multiple communities, like school, work, or church. One of the reasons why these groups have such an impact on our lives is due to the interaction that the organization’s members have with one another. Engagement with your community is not something that can happen overnight. To increase interaction within your own community, try implementing the following strategies.

Get to Know Your “Neighbors”

Whether you are talking to your neighbor who lives next door or the friendly florist in town, it is beneficial to know who makes up your community. When someone new comes to town, find a moment to introduce yourself and learn a little bit about the person. Getting to know the people that live around you, helps to form relationships and bonds with more ease.

Compose and Send Out a Community Newsletter

A great way to increase interaction is to let others know when there are planned events or meetings. A monthly newsletter allows members of your community to be connected and kept up to date as possible. Although it will require some work on your end, a newsletter helps to announce events, share thoughts, help create a community dialogue. To create your own community newsletter, start by forming a newsletter committee. Once your newsletter committee is formed, decide on what information you would like to include and delegate who gets what roles. From there, you have to set a few deadlines, and soon enough you will be ready to publish and share your newsletter with all members of your community.

Create and Hold Regular Events

Events are a great opportunity for community members to engage and interact with each other on a personal level. Events can range from simple to intricate. A community barbeque or potluck may be a good event to first coordinate, while a community-wide fundraiser may be something you will want to visit further down the road.

Create a Community Center

If your town doesn’t have one already, create a petition to build a community center. A community center can offer a variety of benefits including boosting the local economy, providing a meeting space, and keeping adolescents safe. More often than not, community centers help encourage participation and engagement by hosting events, activities, and even classes. Community centers can also help motivate residents to become more involved with volunteering.

The 4 Factors Behind Creating A Community

By Jerry Swon

On November 8, 2018

In Blog, Community

Have you ever wondered why people participate in communities? Or how that community came to be in the first place? Social psychologists, McMillian and Chavis explain that a sense of community is formed when members feel that they belong, matter, and share the same faith. McMillian and Chavis explain that there is more that goes into a community than just a simple definition. The following are four factors that contribute to creating a sense of community. As you read, reflect on whether your own community posses these factors.

1. Membership

When you have a membership to a group, you have a feeling of belonging. The people within your community should share similar interests or views as the other members.McMillian and Chavis state that communities often come with boundaries. Boundaries help to create a higher level of trust between members and to make sure that anyone who joins is a good fit.

2. Influence

The second factor of community is influence or rather a sense of mattering. Members of an organization should feel as though they have influence over the community and vice versa. As you create a community, form an environment where your members have a say in what happens. The community should be something that its members care about and adds value to their lives.

3. Fulfillment of Needs

By joining a community, a member should receive what they hoped for by joining. Like any product, your community should solve a problem or provide a purpose for its member to make it worth their time and dedication.

Members should feel rewarded by participating in a community in order for them to continue to be active. A reward could range from a support network to conversation to inspiration.

Be sure to talk to your members to get the best idea of who they are and how the community can best serve them.

4. A Shared Connection

When looking at a healthy community you will notice that there is often a story on how they formed or what hardships they have experienced. Shared experiences have the ability to form a strong emotional bond between members. Often when a community goes through a crisis, they rely on one another to make it through the tough time.

After reading what four factors create a community, do you find that your own community posses these factors? If not, utilize this knowledge as you build and develop your community.

How to Encourage Others To Give More Often

By Jerry Swon

On October 8, 2018

In Community

In light of a natural disaster, such as a hurricane or earthquake, many people’s lives are abruptly altered. Victims of a disaster rely on the generosity of others in order to get through a difficult time. Donations to food banks, disaster relief organizations, and other charities can make all the difference in the lives of disaster victims.

Although there are those who do generously give, there are those who fall to what is known as a compassion collapse, that makes them less giving towards people who are in need. To increase generosity among others, there a few methods that one can implement to encourage others to give more of themselves.

Highlight the impact they will create.

When people donate their time or money, they want to know how their donations are going to make an impact. In one study, it was found that with more details about a charity’s intervention, the more people believed their contribution would help solve a problem.

Having more knowledge on where the charity is planning to utilize the money, will help donators feel more satisfied in their contribution.

Focus on a single person rather than an entire group.

Donators are more likely to give to an individual over a group. There have been multiple studies citing that when people know a single individual with a face and a name, they are more likely to give. This notion is known as the identifiable victim effect.

Utilize and take advantage of contagious generosity.

Often generosity can be contagious. When people see others donating, they are more likely to donate as well. In a 2016 study, participants who watched other make considerable donations were more likely to do the same than the participants who watched others who donated little to nothing. When around others who are showing an empathic response, they are more likely to show more empathy and donate more to a cause.

Make the cause more relevant.

When someone wants to contribute to an organization or charity it is usually based on how the cause relates to the donator on a personal level. Someone who has two dogs at home will be more willing to donate to a pet drive than someone who has never had a pet. People are more giving when the cause has relevance to their own lives in some way.

Implementing these strategies in your organization will help to encourage others to give more of themselves more often.

Market Street Mission: Aiming to Help the Homeless, Helpless, & Hopeless

By Jerry Swon

On September 7, 2018

In Blog, Community, Volunteer

Roughly half a million people in the United States experience homelessness each year. With such a large population affected by homelessness, the organizations that seek to help the homeless and offer rehabilitation in addition to food and shelter are inspiring. Market Street Mission of Morristown, New Jersey is one such organization, and they’ve been helping the homeless for more than a century.

Mission

Their mission, as stated on their website, reads, “The Market Street Mission ministers to the homeless, helpless, and hopeless in Northern NJ by meeting their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs through a structured program which enables them to lead responsible, productive lives.” They aim to help those who are disenfranchised or unable to help themselves, and though their mission statement does not directly reference their faith, they also aim to teach the way of Christianity in order to instill hope. They do not shun those who suffer from addiction but rather offer a hand to guide them in the direction of recovery. Overall, the Market Street Mission wants to help provide things like food, shelter, and ministry primarily to the homeless population of New Jersey.

History

In 1889, Louisa Graves Owen realized that many of the women who attended her Bible study classes were married to alcoholics; she, with her husband, opened a residential program for alcoholic men. This program eventually transformed into the Market Street Mission, and the goals turned from only helping alcoholic men to helping anyone, especially the homeless, and teaching the gospel to those who would benefit from hearing it.

Programs

The largest program of this organization is the Life Change Program, which is centered on men who want to make a change in their lives, usually in regards to alcoholism. The program typically lasts a year and entails two phases designed to foster sobriety and promote a sense of community engagement. Therapy and counseling sessions, as well as classes on topics like “Fatherhood” and “Relapse Management” are provided to better care for the needs of the enrolled men.

In addition to the Life Change Program, Market Street Mission hosts daily chapel services open to the public, as well as family counseling services.

Involvement

Donations of canned goods and other non-perishables, as well as monetary donations, are most appreciated, and their website regularly updates a list of current needs for locals to reference. They encourage all to research and educate themselves and others about the issues homeless people face, and to advocate for programs that support those in need. More information on how you can get involved and support their mission can be found on their Make A Difference page.

Creating Community Change: Finding or Forming a Local Group

By Jerry Swon

On September 6, 2018

In Blog, Community

Creating change in your community sometimes feels like an impossible task; without organization and clear goals, the prospect of enacting and maintaining a significant change seems somewhat impossible. However, if you believe your community is in need of change — whether you want to propose a sustainability initiative or a rehabilitation program — a local group of like-minded people might be the answer.

Finding A Group

Though you may feel inclined to jump in and create your own group, make sure you do a full sweep of any existing groups. Finding a group that suits your goals and needs will not only save you time and energy but will also provide an established platform for you to share ideas. You will also avoid creating unnecessary tension, should a group with your goals already exist. Make sure you exhaust all your resources in your search; it’s better to spend time researching what groups are in your community before going ahead and creating your own.

Look into your local newspaper or do a quick Google search to see what you find. There are a number of kinds of groups that might exist, from youth programs and university organizations to town councils and neighborhood associations, and while your community might not have all of these groups, it will be beneficial to explore what exists and engage with community leaders; even if the group you’re looking for isn’t out there (yet!), other leaders may be able to offer support and advice for starting your own group.

Forming A Group

If you find that there isn’t a group that fits your desires, that is when you will want to think about starting your own group. While the process isn’t necessarily easy, it will be rewarding. Arguably the most important step is the first step: Network. In order to have a functional group, you have to connect with other locals. This will require you to get out and talk to people, find those who are like-minded and those whose skills will help achieve your goals, and get them interested.

The next step after cultivating interest is to schedule your first meeting. You should choose a place that is easily accessible and make sure you spread the word; use social media platforms to create and share events, or hang flyers in your area.

Even if attendance is relatively low, keep in mind that you’re bringing people together who also want to enact a change. The process might be slow, but as long as you work on a schedule and objectives, your group will have goals.

Take notes and be mindful of everyone’s opinions. At this first meeting, some attendees might be intimidated or nervous, so encouraging everyone to share and creating a space that’s welcoming is important.

Once you have spent time discussing ideas and potential goals, the meeting will eventually draw to a close. Thank everyone for coming, and be sure to remind everyone of the next meeting; you’ll want to send a reminder, too, roughly one week prior to the next date. In the days between meetings, make a list of items to address at the next meeting and follow up with any lingering questions (typically via email).

It may feel like a tedious process, but the outcome is certainly beneficial. If you want to enact change in your community, finding or forming a small group of people who want the same things are great ways to get involved and foster community engagement.