THE CITIZEN BLOG
THE CITIZEN BLOG
Send Digital Letters to Seniors at A.G. Rhodes
A note from A.G. Rhodes:
Health officials project challenges in the upcoming weeks with increasing COVID-19 cases expected nationwide, and we are taking difficult measures to further minimize risks. We greatly appreciate the outpouring of support, but out of an abundance of caution and to reduce the amount of physical items coming in and out of our building, as well as non-essential personnel coming up to our front door, we request that you NOT send mail, packages or deliveries to the A.G. Rhodes homes at this time. Please understand that we expect this to be a temporary situation, and we will post updates as necessary. Below are ways that you can continue supporting our residents and staff during these trying times.
One way you can help is by emailing notes, letters and cards of appreciation to residents at A.G. Rhodes. You may mail them to the activities departments of one or all of our three locations listed below, and they will distribute them.
You can send encouraging pictures, letters and drawings virtually by emailing them to waystohelp@agrhodes.org.
Donate Diapers to Helping Mamas
Moms in need, need your help! You can donate diapers (and other baby essentials) to Helping Mamas and keep your social distance practices in tact with these convenient drop locations.
Foster a Pet
Foster homes provide temporary care for cats, kittens, dogs and puppies in their own homes, perfect for those who want to volunteer but may not be able to make it to the shelter regularly.
Some animals need as little as two weeks of care, while others may need care for up to three months. Fostering is flexible enough for most lifestyles, and we will do our best to custom-match the animals to each foster home. By offering your time, energy and home to an animal in need, you prepare the animal for adoption into a permanent home as well as help prevent overcrowding in our shelter.
Cycle Responsibly with ABC
For the next six weeks, the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition will be offering a 6-lesson course. ONLINE!
Whether you are riding our city streets out of necessity to get to work, to the pharmacy, to the grocery store, or to an appointment or you are wanting to just get out and move your body, the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition is here for you.
In each lesson, you will brush up on all the skills needed to safely ride in Atlanta’s streets with a focus on how to make an essential trip while social distancing. You will:
Learn where to get a bike or your bike repaired
Learn how to do an ABC-Q check to make sure you're bike is ready to go
Fit your helmet
Plan a route to your workplace, a grocery store, the pharmacy, or another essential business.
Discuss signaling and other timely communication strategies
Know how to safely take the lane
All interactive, virtual classes are 'live' on Wednesdays between 5:30 and 6:10. You will get a follow-up communication before each class on how to engage online.
Help Childcare Providers Access Loans/Grants
Quality Care for Children (QCC) is recruiting volunteers to help child care providers access SBA loans/grants that are a part of the federal government’s CARES Act.
Child care is composed primarily of small mom and pop businesses and nonprofits. Like other small businesses, they are at risk of closing and never reopening. When the crisis is over and everyone is ready to return to work, many families may struggle to find care. Many small child care programs will not survive without some help.
There are many excellent child care programs led by incredible individuals who are experts in early education, but have little experience completing loan and grant applications. That’s where you come in!
How you can help:
Talk through their choices and help determine if they are eligible to apply
Assist them in completing the applications
Double-check that everything is correct and they have all the required documentation
Reassure them that they are doing everything correctly
They will offer a train-the-trainer session to educate volunteers about the SBA program and prepare you to provide this support. QCC will connect you with a provider in need of assistance and you and the provider can schedule a phone meeting at a mutually agreeable time. Volunteers should expect to dedicate between a half-hour to two hours of phone assistance.
Can you help support our network of child care providers during this uniquely challenging time? Interested parties should contact ariel.santillan@qccga.org for next steps.
Hot Projects: Week of March 30
Check out this week’s Hot Projects that include awesome volunteer opportunities with APS/Atlanta Community Food Bank, Salem Missionary Baptist Church Food Pantry, Bridging the Gap and more!
Hands On Atlanta/Atlanta Community Food Bank COVID-19 Food Packing Vol
Tuesday March 31, Wednesday April 1 and Friday April 3 From 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM + Saturday April 4 from 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM (Various Schools in APS)
This volunteer opportunity will support with food insecurity in the Atlanta community. With many recent updates and changes due to COVID-19 multiple individuals and families are not able to work; or may not have access to regular food initiatives. Hands On Atlanta will be operating 5 sites in the Atlanta Public School (APS) district. Volunteers will unload pallets of food, pack the food in meal bags to be distributed to families through a drop off-line. Volunteers may also be asked to help with hot meal distribution to children.
Food Pantry Distribution
Tuesdays from 1:00pm to 4:00pm, Wednesday from 12:30pm to 2:00pm and Saturday from 8:30am to 11:30am (Lilburn)
Come help us feed our community healthy and nutritious meals by serving in our weekly food distribution. Volunteers will greet clients and assist them with paperwork, sort food, stock shelves, prepare bags for distribution, help clients carry food to their cars, general housekeeping and maintenance on food preparation areas and equipment.
C3 Ministries’ Food Pantry Distribution
Thursday April 2 with shifts from 8:30 AM - 7:00 PM (Marietta, GA)
Our mission at C3 Ministries is to provide resources of four various ministries in order that families can become whole, independent and ultimately able to return to serve others. Serving over 250 families every Thursday and over 471,508 pounds of food this year, we are greatly impacting our communities and with your help, we can continue to be more successful in making an impact in our community. Give back to your community while having fun and meeting new friends, while re-stocking food shelves, loading boxes with food items and assisting in expediting boxes to attendees vehicles.
Come Get Dirty and Have Fun on an Urban Agriculture Farm
Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturdays from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM (Ashview Heights/West Atlanta)
TLW (Truly Living Well) is a 501C3 nonprofit educational Center for Natural Urban Agriculture. We grow food, we connect people to the food, and we build equitable and sustainable food communities. It is our mission to grow better communities by connecting people with the land through education and training. Volunteers will be working together to complete farm tasks in order to keep the farm operating at peak level and its herbs and plants flourishing. Volunteer tasks include: flipping and planting beds, seeding for summer crops, filling produce beds with soil, planting of seedlings, watering, and weeding, mulch designated areas with wood chips; ability to push 40 lb wheelbarrow, process, sift and stage compost, harvest, weigh, and bundle produce for farmer's markets and more.
Food Pantry Warehouse Associate
Saturday April 4 From 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM (Newnan, GA)
Bridging the Gap, a 501c3 non-profit, exists to feed, serve, and restore those who are hurting and in need in our community. The Warehouse Associate will be responsible for unloading and/or loading donations from the public as well as our daily food deliveries. They will also assist with weighing, sorting, and putting away of food to prevent spoilage. This person will work with the warehouse manager or warehouse team leader to methodically prepare food boxes for clients.
Our 2020/21 AmeriCorps applications are now live! Learn more about what you'll do, what you'll get, why students and nonprofits across metro Atlanta need you, and how to apply for this meaningful year of service!
Girl Power
Today’s girls face very real and profound issues as they navigate gender, economic and social barriers. But Girls Inc. is working to ensure positive outcomes for all girls – like increasing their graduation rate, helping them solve real-life problems and inspiring them to get involved in their communities – and Cox has committed itself to the cause.
Girls Inc. is inspiring girls to be strong, smart and bold, and Cox Enterprises is supporting that mission in a big way.
Today’s girls face very real and profound issues as they navigate gender, economic and social barriers. But Girls Inc. is working to ensure positive outcomes for all girls – like increasing their graduation rate, helping them solve real-life problems and inspiring them to get involved in their communities – and Cox has committed itself to the cause.
In fact, during the recent annual Girls Inc. New York Luncheon, Janet Barnard, EVP & Chief People Officer, Cox Automotive, accepted the Corporate Vision Award on behalf of Cox Enterprises for helping to increase opportunities for girls and women and inspiring them to achieve great things.
This award comes as Cox announces a new community partnership with Girls Inc. in which we will become the National Sponsor of STEM and College and Career Readiness programming across the United States.
Scaling Nationally
Cox has been supporting Girls Inc. in a variety of ways for more than 10 years. Employees often volunteer and mentor at local chapters across the country. And, as a corporate partner to Girls Inc. of Greater Atlanta, Cox sponsors its annual fundraiser and hosts its Business and Entrepreneurship Week Marketplace Day – a program where girls learn about branding businesses, creating budgets and executing marketing plans, and then sell their goods at a popup-style artists’ market at Central Park.
In addition, Anne Harris, Director of Marketing and Creative, Cox Media, and LeVoyd Carter, executive director, diversity and inclusion, CCI, both serve as board members for the Omaha and Atlanta chapters respectively.
The expansion of Cox’s partnership to the national level significantly expands our level of involvement with Girls Inc. and aligns perfectly with our values to support inclusion, diversity and promotion of women, as well as our committed focus to STEAM-related causes.
About Girls Inc.
Girls Inc. encourages STEM learning and engagement through year-round, after-school programming, weekend activities and experiences. Through hands-on activities, girls can explore, ask questions, persist and solve problems. And, by interacting with those pursuing STEM careers, girls come to view these careers as exciting and realistic options for themselves.
Hot Projects: Week of March 23
Check out this week’s Hot Projects that include awesome volunteer opportunities with APS/Atlanta Community Food Bank, Your Community Food Pantry, Reflections of Trinity and more!
Hands On Atlanta/Atlanta Community Food Bank COVID-19 Food Packing Vol
Friday March 27 and Friday April 3 From 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM (Various Schools in APS)
This volunteer opportunity will support with food insecurity in the Atlanta community. With many recent updates and changes due to COVID-19 multiple individuals and families are not able to work; or may not have access to regular food initiatives. Hands On Atlanta will be operating 5 sites in the Atlanta Public School (APS) district. Volunteers will unload pallets of food, pack the food in meal bags to be distributed to families through a drop off-line. Volunteers may also be asked to help with hot meal distribution to children.
YCFP - Mobile Food Pantry (Big Miller Grove Location)
Thursday March 26 from 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM and Saturday March 28 from 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM (Lithonia)
Your Community Food Pantry (YCFP) is a subsidiary of FACDC. FACDC is a 501(c3) non-profit organization that brings free/low cost services to churches, schools, community organizations, and directly to the people. Our mission is to eliminate hunger, and to improve the overall sustainability of communities. Volunteer tasks include unpacking food boxes, unloading pallets, checking-in clients, directing traffic, cleaning-up, and more.
C3 Ministries’ Food Pantry Distribution
Thursday March 28 with shifts from 8:30 AM - 7:00 PM (Marietta, GA)
Our mission at C3 Ministries is to provide resources of four various ministries in order that families can become whole, independent and ultimately able to return to serve others. Serving over 250 families every Thursday and over 471,508 pounds of food this year, we are greatly impacting our communities and with your help, we can continue to be more successful in making an impact in our community. Give back to your community while having fun and meeting new friends, while re-stocking food shelves, loading boxes with food items and assisting in expediting boxes to attendees vehicles.
Reflections of Trinity/Team 58 Weekly Grocery Prep 2020
Wednesday March 25 and Friday, March 27 from 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM (Powder Springs, GA)
Reflections of Trinity is a non-profit organization dedicated to meet the basic needs of those in crisis with food, clothing, and housewares and facilitates structured opportunities for people to engage in meaningful community service. Every week Reflections of Trinity outreach team, Team 58, has volunteers who come and help prepare boxes of food, load and unload trucks, put away food on shelves and in freezers, and get our Food Bank ready for the Grocery Distribution we do every Saturday.
Food Pantry Warehouse Associate
Thursday, March 26 and Friday March 27 From 10:30 AM - 3:00 PM (Newnan, GA)
Bridging the Gap, a 501c3 non-profit, exists to feed, serve, and restore those who are hurting and in need in our community. The Warehouse Associate will be responsible for unloading and/or loading donations from the public as well as our daily food deliveries. They will also assist with weighing, sorting, and putting away of food to prevent spoilage. This person will work with the warehouse manager or warehouse team leader to methodically prepare food boxes for clients.
Our 2020/21 AmeriCorps applications are now live! Learn more about what you'll do, what you'll get, why students and nonprofits across metro Atlanta need you, and how to apply for this meaningful year of service!