The holidays have just passed, the new year is upon us, and many of us have been fortunate enough to have enjoyed a wonderful holiday season. Christmas, Hanukkah, and all the other holiday and seasonal celebrations often bestow upon us wonderful times, gifts, and generosities from others, and many of us often want to give a little (or a lot) of that generosity and fortune right back into the community.
The big holiday season of food drives and toy drives may be wrapped up, but that doesn’t mean the giving is over. There are plenty of opportunities to give back as much as possible to our communities, and to those in our community who are less fortunate or who are striving to make the world around us better in some way.
The Kids’ Work families always tend to rise to the occasion whenever we do any sort of charity drive, so we thought our families might like to know more about other volunteering opportunities, especially ones that are family-friendly.
Volunteering Opportunities
There are a number of volunteering opportunities in the Roscoe Village / Chicago area. One of the best ways to get connected with opportunities is to visit the Roscoe Village website. If you go to roscoevillage.org/volunteer you can easily sign up to be a part of their volunteer team. By signing up, you indicate your interest in receiving occasional emails (they say around 10 per year) which alert you about projects or events that need volunteers. It’s convenient because you don’t have to commit to weekly or even monthly meetings or events, and in fact you don’t have to commit to anything at all. They are very glad to have you for even just one of the events they send out information for, which makes it an easy way to get involved without getting overly committed. The sorts of events this organization heads up are things like the Halloween Parade, the Winter Festival, etc., and often times only require a few hours of set up or check-in of attendees for the different events – nothing super demanding.
If you or your family wants to seek out other opportunities on your own for giving back to the community in the form of volunteering or other assistance, there is a great expo coming to town in February that you should definitely check out to see how you can get involved. It is free to attend, and takes place on Sunday February 22, 2015, from 10a-4p. There will be more than 75 non-profit organizations represented, in every category from the environment to the arts to social justice. The expo will take place at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (2430 North Cannon Drive, Chicago, IL 60614), so if you’re looking for a way to get your family involved in volunteer opportunities, this is a great place to do it.
And of course, you can join Kids’ Work in working with the Lakeview Pantry and Toys for Tots programs during the holiday season. We also serve as a drop-off site for the Bundles of Joy program, which collects diapers for families in need. For more info about this program, you can visit bundleofjoydiaperbank.org
Whatever you choose to do, volunteering with your family is a great way to get involved in your community, and there are always plentiful opportunities available.