Hot Projects: Week of July 20th

Coca-Cola Week of Service: Truly Living Well

Monday July 27, Wednesday July 29th and Friday July 31st from 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM (Ashview Heights Neighborhood, Atlanta)

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. Tasks may include: weeding and cultivating beds, filling raised beds with soil, planting of seedlings and watering, mulch designated areas with wood chips, processing compost, harvesting and processing produce, light landscaping and other projects as needed.

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Coca-Cola Week of Service: Patchwork City Farm

Monday July 27th, Tuesday July 28th and Wednesday July 29th from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Oakland City Neighborhood, Atlanta)

Patchwork City Farms (PCF) is a 1.2 acre independently-owned urban farm located in the city of Atlanta GA. Its original inception began in the Historic West End neighborhood of Atlanta and has now moved to is permanent location of Oakland City. PCF continues to be at the leading edge of Farm to Table, Slow Food, and Sustainable Agricultural movements to name a few. The farm is Certified Naturally Grown and we are committed to growing produce that is safe and nutritious. Volunteers will be weeding, mulching walkways, filling raised beds with soil, and planting.

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Coca-Cola Week of Service: West Atlanta Watershed Alliance

Daily Monday July 27th - Friday July 31st from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM (SW Atlanta)

West Atlanta Watershed Alliance believes that a healthy environment equals a healthy community, our overall efforts are focused on growing a cleaner, greener, healthier, and more sustainable West Atlanta community. Coca-Cola Week of Service volunteers will be weeding, mulching, harvesting, planting & doing beautification at the 2 acre Bush Mountain community garden.

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Coca-Cola Week of Service: Open Hand Driver

Monday July 27, Wednesday July 29th and Friday July 31st from 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Lindbergh/Atlanta)

Open Hand helps homebound seniors and others suffering from disability or chronic disease by providing Comprehensive Nutrition Care™(CNC), a combination of nutritious, home-delivered meals, and nutrition education. Open Hand prepares, packages, and delivers 5,000 nutritionally-appropriate meals a day, six days a week with the support of volunteers. Volunteer drivers are a critical part of the service Open Hand provides to the community, since a majority of the organization’s clients are homebound. In fact, a volunteer driver is quite often the only person a client may see on any given day. Volunteers will pick-up meals, deliver meals to clients using their own vehicles and gas, and return the delivery list and delivery bags back to the Open Hand site. Delivery routes are available throughout Metro Atlanta, and the Open Hand team will work with volunteers to select a route where they will feel comfortable. Training and detailed, turn-by-turn directions are provided for all volunteer drivers. The routes are for a specific area of town and the drop offs are only a few miles apart.

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Coca-Cola Week of Service: SVdP Chamblee Food Distribution

Saturday April 4 From 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM (Newnan, GA)

The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul Georgia is an independently funded, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Funding comes from individuals, foundations, corporations, religious institutions and the community at large. Everyday more and more families are left without food due to the COVID-19 pandemic. SVdP has been working to provide food to families all over the Atlanta-metro area. As needs increase we are working to make sure families are being fed. Our food pantry has turned to a mobile model to best fulfill the needs of our clients, all while staying with in CDC COVID-19 guidelines. Clients will be able to pick up food via drive thru and we need your help to do it! Volunteers will help with Food Pantry Client & Delivery Check-In and Food Pantry Product Distribution.

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Equitable Dinners: Lift Every Voice (Virtual)

You're invited to join Equitable Dinners on Aug. 16 for a frank talk about race equity and housing, especially during a pandemic crisis. Enjoy a short play written by Dana Stringer, followed by intimate conversations in small groups.

Equitable Dinners: Lift Every Voice is a free, live, monthly conversation series featuring art, experts, and an opportunity to connect with your neighbors locally and around the world to talk about race and equity. 

Join us one Sunday a month from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm through September 2020, we will hear from a new expert, watch a 10-minute play written for the event, and join together in conversation. 

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Needed: Facilitators and Virtual Hosts

Facilitators help guide the conversation and virtual hosts call each person that has registered to welcome them to the movement. We will train both facilitators and hosts. Please consider volunteering!

Help students with their Scholarship Research Process

The Scholarship Academy (TSA), is a nonprofit founded by a recipient of over $200,000 in scholarships, teaches low- income and first-generation high school students how to create realistic college funding strategies.

Through in-school curriculum modules, financial aid counselor trainings, and access to an innovative scholarship planning platform, The Virtual Scholarship Center, we connect students to local/state-based scholarship resources that enable them to pursue debt-free degrees.

How it Works

1. Students sign up for virtual office hours via their virtual scholarship center account

2. Based on availability and interest, volunteers (you) will help students:

   • Understand their Financial Award Letter

   • Identify additional private aid

   • Re-negotiate their financial aid packages

   • Edit scholarship essays

Hands On Atlanta and Sock Fancy Partner to Giveaway 50,000 Masks

In an effort to stop the spread of Covid-19, Sock Fancy and Hands On Atlanta will donate 50,000 non-surgical, protective masks to metro Atlanta community organizations.

Atlanta, GA -- Sock Fancy and Hands On Atlanta will distribute at least 50,000 non-surgical protective masks to metro Atlanta nonprofits, schools, and community organizations in need. The partnership was sparked through Sock Fancy’s timely pivot from making custom socks to making protective masks to meet the urgent demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. Through their pivot, Sock Fancy launched a “One-for-One” campaign, promising to donate 1 mask for every mask purchased. With the state of Georgia reopening, the need for every member of our community to be able to protect themselves (and each other) has never been higher.

“We recognized our ability to help our [Atlanta] community as soon as we heard of the urgent demand for PPE from healthcare and nonprofit organizations across the country. We knew our staff and manufacturers would rise to the occasion to get the masks produced. Partnering with Hands On Atlanta to distribute the masks to our communities’ most vulnerable has made it possible for us to fulfill our “One for One” commitment” said Stefan Lewinger, Co-founder and CEO of Sock Fancy.

During the initial phase of their Covid-19 relief efforts, Hands On Atlanta focused on fighting food insecurity with Atlanta Public Schools and the Atlanta Community Food Bank. They also created a resource where Atlantans could find opportunities to serve in-person (utilizing social distancing) or virtually from home. As relief turns into recovery, they’ll continue to provide volunteer opportunities while shifting to meet the growing needs of the community. Food assistance, workforce development, voting, and access to PPE are among the core focus points of the next phase in their efforts.

“We’ve heard from our nonprofit and community partners that staff and client safety is their top priority. So, when the team from Sock Fancy called us to see if we could help with their distribution efforts, we dove in head first,” said Jay Cranman, President and CEO of Hands On Atlanta.  

The partnership is already off to a great start. Over 4,000  masks have been donated to the Atlanta Police Department for distribution to those experiencing homelessness in downtown Atlanta.

“As has been said many times throughout the course of this pandemic, we are truly in this together and are grateful for your partnership, particularly in service to those who are most vulnerable among us,” said Tammy Hughes, Social Impact Director for Atlanta Downtown Improvement District/Central Atlanta Progress.

For more information on this partnership and to apply to get masks for your nonprofit, community organization, or school visit the Hands On Atlanta website at https://www.handsonatlanta.org/masks.

Atlanta, we hear you.

We’ve been listening.

Mayor Bottoms, we hear you. Killer Mike, we hear you. John Lewis, we hear you.

Atlanta, we hear you.

Thousands of you have taken to the streets to peacefully protest. Thank you. Thank you for leading, for standing up and for saying enough is enough. We hear you and we march with you in solidarity, advocating for racial justice and the end to violence against the Black community. More simply put, we believe black lives matter.

In the coming days and weeks, the protests will end and the news cycle will change. But the movement must continue. It will take more listening and more action if we are to overcome systemic racism and realize our vision for Atlanta – to become the most equitable and engaged community in the world.

Keep working.

For the 5,000+ annual volunteer projects across metro Atlanta, where volunteers like you, support organizations with Black leadership, like A.G.Rhodes, First African Community Development Corporation (FACDC), Grace Community Fellowship, New Life, Reflections of Trinity, Salem Missionary Baptist Church Community Services, Star-C, SWEEAC, Truly Living Well, and the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance.

For the commitment and sacrifice from our AmeriCorps members who are in Title 1 schools mentoring, coaching and leading elementary students. For the volunteers who show up every Saturday during the school year to support students in our Discovery program. For the work of our Civic Fellows who advocate for our work and directly support our partner nonprofits. For fighting food insecurity with the Atlanta Community Food Bank and supporting our city's most vulnerable alongside Partners for Home. For our Covid-19 relief efforts, and so much more.

Our volunteers [you] represent the best of Atlanta.  Through your actions, you can glimpse Dr. King’s beloved community beginning to take shape. You're doing this work every day.

Keep doing it.

““The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” ”

— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Use Your Skills to Support Star-C

Please join Star-C as we continue to keep our kids educationally engaged. STAR-C’s mission is to improve the quality of life for individuals in affordable housing communities and stabilize local schools by stabilizing rents and providing academic support and other wraparound services.

We would love volunteers who can help us with a project that includes virtual activities for our kids. This will help STAR-C students by providing necessary academic support, engaging content, and safe activities for students to complete independently or with their families while they are unable to physically attend the STAR-C After School Program where they would have normally had this type of engagement. 

Volunteers can provide the following virtual videos: 

• Simple Yoga demonstrations

• Simple Meditation demonstrations

• Children Exercises

• Reading Books aloud (reading different chapters each day/weekly series)

• Cooking demo (healthy snacks)

• Arts and craft videos (step by step instructions)

• Trivia

• Family games (instruction on how to play different games that are family related)

• Gardening videos

Please send your videos and contact information to Keya Oates@keyaoates@tristarinvest.com. You can also reach me at 404-668-3949.

Send a Thoughtful Note to InCommunity

InCommunity provides care and support to those with developmental and intellectual disabilities (IDD). They recently had to close down their day programs due to COVID-19. The day programs were a consistent part of their individuals’ routine where they saw their friends, interacted with the community & arts, and practiced daily living skills. With “shelter in place” and a shift in routine, it is an adjustment for all.

Those in their programs and in our residential group homes still need care and support from us. Their InCommunity members would love to hear from you during this challenging time! Help spread the love. Send a thoughtful note to those who are still working hard to support individuals in their homes and to those who are being cared for who long for a sense of normalcy. Taking a moment to say thank you or sending a note to say we appreciate you can go a long way!

How it Works

1. Grab a card, postcard or piece of paper for the letter - don't forget an envelope!

2. Write your letter or letters, there's no limit to how many you can do!

3. Take a video or picture of your letter encouraging others to join and share on social media using tagging @incommunityga

4. Mail your letter!

Mail Your Letters

• InCommunity

  3301 BUCKEYE RD, SUITE 700

  ATLANTA, GA 30341

  ATTN: Daniel David

Letter Writing Tips

• Start with a salutation, such as "Dear friend” or “Greetings”

• Share a personal message with an individual in our home: “You are not alone. We are in this together” or “Hang in there. We hope you are safe and healthy.”

• Please avoid glitter or additional items in the envelope.

• Please mail all letters to address provided above.

• Purchase and print stamps from home or have them delivered from the US Postal Service.

Help the Visually Impaired with Be My Eyes

Be My Eyes is a free mobile app with one main goal: to make the world more accessible for blind and low-vision people. The app connects blind and low-vision individuals with sighted volunteers and companies from all over the world through a live video call.

How it Works

1. Someone who is visually impaired and in need of assistance will open the open and make their request. 

2. Volunteers will get a notification on their phone with details about the request and the support needed.

3. Volunteers can respond to the request with a video call (think Skype or Facetime) and solve the problem in real-time.