Community Service

Interested in starting a community service project in your area? 

How do we get started?

1. Find out about Community Service Organizations (CSOs) operating in your local community.  Obtain booklets or pamphlets created by your local county government office that provide basic information on the various CSOs available in your area.  For example, Loudoun County, Virginia provides a booklet for county residents entitled, “2010 Guide to Services.”  These booklets are usually updated annually.
2. Distribute these booklets to the members of your club and to members of your local Republican committee. 
3. Make time to review the booklet, contact the organizations listed, and schedule visits to meet with the community service organization’s leadership and/or volunteer coordinators.  They will gladly introduce you to their staff, provide tours of their facilities, tell you about their upcoming fundraising activities, share “wish-lists”, and inform you about volunteer opportunities (as individuals and/or as a club).   Let your community know that Republican women care!
4. Visit  your local community volunteer center.  These centers promote volunteerism by providing information, referral and recognition of volunteer activities.  Loudoun County’s community volunteer center is called Volunteer Loudoun.  Volunteer Loudoun is affiliated with the national Hands On organization. 
5. Attend various fundraising or service events.   Encourage other club members to attend and/or volunteer with you.  Keep in mind that many CSOs require volunteers to go through a training or orientation program; some even require a background check.  Some organizations only accept volunteers who are 18 years of age or older; while others provide opportunities for youth to be involved with adult supervision.  Several CSOs may require you to sign agreements to ensure clients names and/or locations of various shelters are kept confidential.
6. If you’d like to get more involved, investigate whether your county has a Leadership program available.  County leadership programs meet monthly to discuss and create change projects for their communities.  There may be an application process and a fee associated with joining your community leadership program.  Many of them are 9 or10 month-long programs and begin each fall.
7. Feature a different CSO every month in your club newsletter and/or at your club meetings.  Help increase awareness within your club, local Republican committee, and neighborhood of the services offered by these groups as well as their accomplishments.
8. Each club has something that stands out as needing the help of Republican Women.  Community service is not just for Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s a lifestyle.  Community Service chairpersons, please get your committee together and decide what you will do to make a difference in your community.  I look forward to hearing about the ways you served your community.  Please share information and ideas with other CSO committee chairs in other RWCs.  Thank you for all that you do for others!

Here are a few ideas for community service projects.  Did you know that:

• The Panera Bread restaurant chain donates their unsold produce every evening to various groups which then distribute the “dough-nations” throughout their communities?
• October is Domestic Violence Awareness month?  Participate in planning and/or attending a fundraising event for your local women’s shelter. 
• Some churches have organizations that will provide matching funds to money raised for various causes/groups by church members?
• Many shelters and food banks also dispense personal care items to their clients?  Diapers and women’s personal care products always seem to be in short supply.
• Freedom Alliance is an organization that provides scholarship funds to sons and daughters of military personnel killed or 100% permanently disabled while in the line of duty?  These scholarships are renewable for a total of four years.
• Volunteers of America is a national organization that many counties hire to operate transitional housing programs, emergency homeless shelters, and drop in centers in many communities?  Drop in centers are places where the homeless can go to receive a meal, wash their clothes, and take a shower.  Many shelters are only 89-day programs and many transitional housing programs are 2 years in length.  With the current state of the economy, the need for these types of services is growing exponentially and the waiting lists for many shelters and transitional housing programs are quite lengthy.
• Virginia has a 12-month long financial management class for people with documented low-incomes called the VITA program?  This program is taught by a financial planner who advises families about how to avoid fees and penalties from banks, how to improve credit scores, and how to create a monthly budget.  If qualified families save $2000.00 during the course, the State will award them an additional $4000.00 which must be used for purchase of a home or college education.
• Most counties have a literacy council that trains and provides tutors for individuals who require assistance with reading, spelling, and math? 

Here are a few more ideas for community service projects:

• Locate your county’s Free Health Clinic and donate books for children and adults to read while they patiently sit in the waiting room.  Make up little goodie bags to keep the children entertained with crayons, construction paper, and a few stickers.
• Team up with a local church that’s already involved in Project Angel Tree and help collect and/or deliver Christmas presents to children whose parents are incarcerated. 
• Participate in the NFRW’s Support the Troops program and mail packages overseas to our soldiers on the front lines.  Talk with your local privately-owned mailbox/office supply stores and see if they will donate the postage to mail your package to the troops. 
• Find a group that hosts military appreciation dinners and treat a veteran to a meal.
• Contact your local Youth Initiative, which is an organization that promotes healthy, safe, living, learning, and leadership opportunities for youth in your county. 
• Reach out to your county’s Volunteer Caregiver program and help transport frail elderly or disabled adults to doctor appointments or stop by to visit with them in their homes.
• Treat representatives of your local police, fire and rescue, and emergency services to a summertime BBQ or picnic.  Thank them for their service to your community.
• Stop by your local National Guard Headquarters, speak with the commanding officer, and see if there are times that you can drop by with coffee and muffins.