Denver
Domestic Violence
Domestic Violence occurs when a family member, partner or ex-partner attempts to physically or psychologically dominate another. Domestic violence often refers to violence between spouses, or spousal abuse but can also include cohabitants and non-married intimate partners. Domestic violence occurs in all cultures; people of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexes and classes can be victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. Domestic violence has many forms, including physical violence,
spiritual abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, economic deprivation,
intimidation and threats of violence. The effects of domestic violence are far reaching. From schools and neighborhoods to businesses and communities, its impact and costs are felt by all of us.
SafeHouse Denver
Description
Shelter, counseling and advocacy for victims of domestic violence
Event details
TBD
How you can help
TBD
Arising Hope
Description
Shelter, counseling and advocacy for victims of domestic violence
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Beautification Project at on of our safe houses.
Trafficking / Sexual Abuse
The United States is the number one offender of sex trafficking of children. Since 2003, the FBI's Innocence Lost National Initiative has rescued more than 6,000 children from sexual exploitation. The average age of entry into prostitution and pornography in the United States is 12 to 14. Because of inconsistent, ambiguous, and contradictory laws, American youth are arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated for involvement in commercial sex. Only 18 states – Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington – have enacted Safe Harbor laws, offering protection instead of criminalization to minors.
Resilience Rising
Description
Providing opportunities for safety, healing, and empowerment to survivors of child sexual exploitation
Event details
10 volunteers needed, adults or teens with guardian permission
How you can help
Landscaping - painting/staining fences, laying sod, laying mulch, digging/raking, planting bushes/bulbs, etc.
Street's Hope
Description
Working to heal women escaping sex trafficking and the commercial sex industry, empowering them to transform their lives.
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Bedroom Beautification & safe house donations
Wings Foundation
Description
Serving Adult Survivors of Sexual Abuse
Event details
TBD
How you can help
TBD
Helping the Homeless
There is a significant lack of adequate emergency shelter to meet the needs of our citizens in Denver, such that tonight, after every shelter bed in the city is full, there will be hundreds of men and women sleeping on the streets, in their cars, or in abandoned buildings. Compounding the problem is the lack of health, mental health, and substance abuse treatment services for those experiencing homelessness, which creates multiple barriers to housing and employment. Last year, more than 2,000 individuals who are homeless and mentally ill in Denver were on the waiting list for mental health services at the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless’ Stout Street Clinic due to lack of capacity to serve them. There is also an extreme lack of supportive housing and affordable housing for those in need.
Denver Sharing Smiles and Sandwiches
Description
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Delivering warm beverages and winter necessities to the homeless.
Feeding the Hungry
Food insecurity is a lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods. Food insecure households are not necessarily food insecure all the time. Food insecurity may reflect a household’s need to make trade-offs between important basic needs, such as housing or medical bills, and purchasing nutritionally adequate foods.
ANSAR Pantry
Description
Serving the homeless and underprivileged members of the greater Denver and Aurora communities
Event details
5+ volunteers needed,ages10+, lifting required
How you can help
1.Help on-site the day of the event
2. Organize a mini-drive with your friends, family, and colleagues. Organizers of mini-drives are responsible for gathering and delivering all donations to ANSAR on 3/25 between 12:00 and 3:00.
3.Shop and deliver your own donation to ANSAR on 3/25 between 12:00 and 3:00.
CitySquare Denver
Description
Serves approximately 700 neighbors and gives away more than 10,000 pounds of healthy food to our neighbors in a typical week.
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Help sort and organize food pantry donations.
Bienvenidos Food Bank
Description
For more than 35 years, the Bienvenidos Food Bank has offered emergency food assistance to people in need.
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Deliver food and help in the pantry
Totes of Hope with Harvest Mountain Ministries
Description
Totes of Hope® was created in 2006 to assist children with nutritious, kid-friendly food to sustain them over the weekend when school is not in session. Every Friday, children take home a tote filled with 8-9 pounds of nutritious food items to feed them and their families.
Event details
25 volunteers needed, any ages
How you can help
Food drive for weekend food program at title one school Eiber Elementary and work at school garden.
Epworth Foundation
Description
Promote and support healthy families by working in the areas of Youth and Families, Hunger Relief and Health.
Website
Event details
24 volunteers needed, ages 13+
How you can help
Pick up food donations, clean and organize food bank and offices, spring clean-out of community/food bank garden (weather permitting).
Community Gardening
Community Gardening is a fun way to integrate food security and health. Community gardens bring people together to learn and grow - pun intended. Many community gardens serve their local communities by donating fresh produce to food banks and homeless shelters and working with refugee programs.
Denver Urban Gardens
Description
Nonprofit that builds community gardens in and around Denver
Event details
Up to 150 volunteers, times and locations vary, ages 8 and up recommended but younger children are welcome
How you can help
Dress to get dirty! Closed-toed shoes and gardening gloves recommended. Task will depend on garden chosen.
Jovial Concepts
Description
Developed to create accessibility to high quality food for those in need by turning lawns into organic gardens
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Prepare and/or establish garden plot
Description
Developed to create accessibility to high quality food for those in need by turning lawns into organic gardens
Event details
10 – 20 volunteers needed, ages 13+
How you can help
Planting a small rose garden at an intercity public high school
Sprout City Farms
Description
Sprout City Farms offers a variety of programs designed to meet the food access and educational needs of the communities that we serve.
Event details
Up to 20 volunteers needed, any ages
How you can help
Help our community farms get ready for spring! Rebuild beds, remove straw mulch, aerate soil and install irrigation.
Alleviating Poverty
The causes and effects of poverty are often interrelated in such a way that one problem hardly ever occurs alone. Bad sanitation, for example, makes it easier to spread around old and new diseases, and hunger and lack of water make people more vulnerable to them. Impoverished communities often suffer from discrimination and end up caught in cycles of poverty.
Dress for Success
Description
Our programs help women find positions that offer a livable wage and a career path and succeed in both life and work.
Event details
We need 10-15 volunteers to assist with cleaning and organizing our boutique space.
How you can help
Volunteers will be sorting clothing, jewelry and accessories by size, color, etc.
Bella Boutique
Description
Provides area teens with free gowns, shoes, accessories and more for their high school dances.
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Volunteers can host donation drives in their neighborhoods or workplace or volunteer as personal shoppers in the shop.
The Senior Hub
Description
Advancing the quality of life for older adults through advocacy and community programs
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Pet Food Drive for Seniors' Pets
Description
Building strength, stability and self-reliance through affordable housing.
Event details
Volunteers must be 16 or older.
How you can help
On March 25th, we are in need of volunteers to help support construction work at Sheridan Square from 9 - 4:30pm. No experience needed, we will provide all the materials and training needed!
Denver Dream Center
Description
The DDC assists low-income families in the Denver community, using donations and community help to enrich others' lives.
Event details
20 – 40 volunteers needed, all ages welcome
How you can help
We need donated toiletry/paper towels/toilet paper/new or gently used clothing/diapers/wipes/baby items/etc for volunteers to bring, and then stay to help sort and organize these items to be given out to families living in Denver housing authority complexes, and families transitioning out of shelters.
The Action Center
Description
Providing an immediate response to basic human needs and promote pathways to self-sufficiency for Jefferson County residents and the homeless.
Event details
10-20 volunteers needed, ages 15+
How you can help
Beautiful Junk Sale fundraising event, volunteers needed to help with cashiering and stocking the shelves
Clothes to Kids of Denver
Description
Clothes To Kids of Denver provides free school clothing to preschool-12th grade students from low-income or in-crisis families in a warm, welcoming store-like setting.
Event details
15 volunteers needed, ages 18+
How you can help
This will be on Friday, March 24. Afternoon volunteers will be processing donations and organizing the store. Morning volunteers might be working with clients. All volunteers will need to have a background check.
Baby Haven
Description
Provides childcare and early childhood education for children whose mothers are in residence at The Haven Mother’s House
Event details
15 volunteers needed
How you can help
Painting and cleaning Baby Haven, a child care center for low-income families
Trips for Kids Denver Metro
Description
Empowering at-risk and disadvantaged youth, using the bicycle as a tool to foster positive life skills, healthy youth development, and a sense of fun and adventure.
Event details
25 volunteers needed, all ages
How you can help
Build Bikes! Join us for a day of fun, helping kids build bikes for our ride season. No particular skills required! The bikes are relatively easy to build (come nearly complete), and we have other light support tasks needed during the day (e.g., clean-up, loading bikes for transport, etc.
Handicraft Projects
If you love crafting and helping others there are many ways your skills can be used to make an impact for those in need. Good old fashioned sewing circles, knitting groups, and crocheting parties aren't just for leisure anymore.
Women4Women-Knitting4Peace
Description
MissionKnitting4Peace is a grass-roots organization dedicated to crafting hope, healing & peace one stitch at a time committed to the well-being of women, children, and families we may never meet.
Event details
15 volunteers needed, ages 12+
How you can help
We will be knitting and collecting specific knitted items for donations to Knitting 4Peace.
Angels Above Baby Gowns
Description
We are a group of volunteers that turn wedding dresses into burial gowns for infants that never make it home from the hospital.
Event details
At least five volunteers needed, ages 12+
How you can help
Dismantling dresses, cutting patterns, sewing gowns
Developmental FX
Description
Nonprofit clinic for children with various needs
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Bring your sewing machine and come and make weighted blankets and other sensory supports for at risk kids who may struggle with trauma, anxiety, autism, or other needs. 2-3 hours to support a child for years! We’ll provide directions on how to make, you provide material, machine, time.
Special Needs
Children and families of those with special needs often require individualized assistance to survive and thrive. Disabled and differently-abled individuals can achieve great things when they have the right support structures.
Consultants for Children Inc
Description
Services for children with autism
Event details
TBD
How you can help
TBD
The Right Step, Inc
Description
Therapeutic horseback riding
Event details
300 volunteers needed April 15 - 29
How you can help
Barn chores-cleaning equipment, barn maintenance, event planning/prep-for our Hoedown on 4/29, etc.
Sibling Tree
Description
Siblings of Individuals with Intellectual and developmental disabilities
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Help siblings of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities find a way to have their voices heard and complete that action. This could be writing letters to representatives, finding events where they can share their story, putting together a sibling panel, creating a campaign, etc.
Education
Education is paramount to success. It empowers individuals and creates a lifelong impact that affects families for generations. Opportunities to improve education for youth and adults in your community exist across the spectrum.
CU Women in STEM Girl Scout Day
Description
Supporting women in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Hosting a Girl Scout day where troops are invited for fun science demos.
Denver Urban Debate League
Description
Dedicated to improving educational and life outcomes for underserved students in the Denver metro area’s public schools
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Volunteer as a judge or assist in tournament programming for the 2017 DUDL City Championships No experience is necessary and time commitment varies on individual availability.
The Elevation Project
Description
Redefining service learning as a transformative, equitable program enabling high school students to develop new ideas to better their local communities while learning the importance of why and how to make sustainable choices globally.
Event details
5-10 volunteers needed, all ages welcome
How you can help
Organizing a fun run at Sloans lake. Helping with information and registration.
Animal Sanctuaries
A wise person once said the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Animals large and small, agricultural, wild, and domestic can find sanctuary and rescue from neglect and abuse in the metro area.
Duncan's Place
Description
Dedicated to aiding homeless cats in Northern Colorado. We provide compassionate, safe havens for homeless cats through foster care until their forever homes are found.
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Need as many people that can handle cats, vets, vet techs
Luvin Arms
Description
A place of refuge for abused, or neglected farm animals.
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Help around the sanctuary with several different projects.
Colorado House Rabbit Society
Description
We rescue and rehabilitate homeless, abandoned house rabbits. We also provide education about rabbits.
Event details
20-100 volunteers needed, ages 12+ with parent/guardian
How you can help
Cleaning and yardwork
Danzig's Roost
Description
We are a vegan farm animal sanctuary and advocate strongly for all animals.
Event details
5 volunteers needed, ages 12+
How you can help
Helping around the Sanctuary
Environment
Environmental organizations in the metro area foster healthy communities, clean up roadways and waterways, and advance sustainable food and energy initiatives to preserve our future.
Groundwork Denver
Description
We partner with lower-income communities to improve the physical environment and promote health and well-being. We are “do-ers” not “talkers”.
Event details
More than 20 volunteers needed.
Volunteers will need to have the ability to walk up to 2 miles. Volunteers are asked to spend 3-4 hours with us on this project
How you can help
1. Local watershed/ pollution prevention project: trash clean up along Bear Creek and taking inventory of what is collected to document the need and encourage local businesses and municipalities to invest in this effort to protect the natural resources that flow through our city.
2. Porch Bulb Project: This activity utilizes groups of volunteers who go door-to-door in teams of two offering free energy efficient light bulbs to residents and signing people up for free energy audits, recycling, and tree planting.
North Denver for Social Justice
Description
Nonpartisan advocacy and action on social justice issues affecting our nation, state, city and North/Northwest Denver community.
Event details
Up to 100 volunteers, ages 10+
How you can help
Cleaning up trashed debris along W 38th Ave, between Inca and Federal
Medical Needs
Medical emergencies strike everyone, young and old, all races and all classes. The simple act of blood donation can save a life via transfusion or affect untold lives through groundbreaking medical research. Organizations that support individuals and families of those with medical needs can utilize many different skill sets.
Project Angel Heart
Description
Delivering nutritious meals to improve quality of life, at no cost, for those coping with life-threatening illness.
Event details
10 volunteers needed, 18+ (children are welcome as long as there is an adult with them.)
How you can help
We will be decorating bags from 11-12, then a short tour of building and brief training until 1. Then from 1 -3, volunteers will work in pairs to drive a route and deliver food, approximately 5-8 stops. 2 volunteers must be in car and then walk to doors for delivery.
Make It Happen USA
Description
Bone Marrow Transplant donation registry
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Set up Donor Registration Booths at each community event scheduled for this day.
Bonfils Blood Center
Description
Blood donation
Event details
Ages 16+ with guardian, >110 lbs. It takes a little over an hour to give blood.
How you can help
Make a life-saving blood donation. Call ahead to make an appointment at one of our centers : Lowry, Denver West, Westminster, Highlands Ranch, Southwest Littleton, Parker
USE SITE CODE 7350 to have your donation counted
Colorado Marrow Donor Program
Description
Bone Marrow Transplant donation registry
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Volunteers will fill out a consent form and do a cheek swab to join the National Marrow Donor Registry. Once registered, potential donors do not donate unless they match with a patient in need first, which is about a 1 in 430 chance to save a life. There are 2 ways of donating: 75% of the time it is an non-surgical procedure called peripheral blood donation, which is similar to platelet or plasma donation. 25% of the time it is a surgical procedure done under general anesthesia, where a small amount of marrow is taken from the back of the hip bone (typical recovery is 2 to 7 days of soreness in the lower back).
Ronald McDonald House Denver
Description
Offering a loving home away from home to families needing to be near their seriously ill or injured children while they’re being treated at metropolitan area hospitals.
Event details
TBD
How you can help
TBD
Refugee Services
Each year, thousands of people, forced to flee violence and persecution, are welcomed by the people of the United States into the safety and freedom of America. These individuals have survived against incredible odds.
International Rescue Committee
Description
Responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future.
Event details
TBD, all ages welcome
How you can help
TBD - possibly sorting donations, assisting new refugee families, connecting with community, etc.
Lutheran Family Services Refugee + Asylee Program
Description
Dedicated to helping these vulnerable individuals and families rebuild their lives by equipping them to achieve self-sufficiency within their first year in the United States and fostering integration into their new communities.
Event details
TBD
How you can help
Assembling Hygiene baskets for new refugees, from donations collected ahead of time. Assembly may take place at one location or several locations, TBD. Volunteers will also be needed after assembly to deliver baskets to LFS HQ in central Denver.