The giving season is upon us again as we're rapidly approaching the holidays. This time of year is an ideal time to get involved and help others in need. Finding ways to give back can brighten the holiday season for you and for those who need assistance. It can help people feel less alone by connecting with others.
Our team at Boardman Mitsubishi put together a list of five ways to give back this holiday season in Youngstown, Ohio, which is only about a 15-minute drive north of the Boardman, Ohio, area. We want to help you help others this season.
Volunteer With the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley
- Report Card Mentoring.
- Saturday of Caring.
- Young Women's Mentorship.
You can sign up online for in-person or remote volunteer opportunities. Those wanting to get involved with Saturday of Caring can sign up to be a driver. Drivers can help deliver groceries to people who need assistance, such as seniors and families. There are many other volunteer opportunities on the organization's website you can do this holiday season that may fit your strengths and interests.
Address: 255 Watt St, Youngstown.
Get Involved With the Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley
The Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley has several ways you can help your community this season. One way is by hosting a donation drive. Each month, the organization creates a theme around the initiatives, which tells you what to collect for those in need. The themes for the next couple of months this year are:
- November is about giving thanks, so bring cans of fruits and vegetables.
- December centers around the holidays and hygiene, so bring wrapping paper rolls, towels, and washcloths.
Additionally, this organization offers online signups to help serve meals. Serving meals is an opportunity to get your family involved in giving back this holiday season. Often, there are more individuals with their families arriving at churches, soup kitchens, and food pantries during the holidays. This makes it even more essential for volunteers to come help serve and offer company to those in need.
Address: 1300 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., Youngstown.
Spend Time at the Beatitude House
The Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown sponsor the Beatitude House, a housing shelter for disadvantaged women and children. In this shelter, they provide women and children with a safe place to live and a chance to earn an education. The organization also commits to fostering healthy family relationships with tools women and children can apply to strengthen their lives after they leave. You can volunteer at the Beatitude House to help educate individuals because the organization's goal is to help break the poverty cycle with post-secondary education. Other services to help people are:
- Attachment therapy.
- Trauma recovery.
- Parent support and coaching.
- Neurological reorganization evaluation and implementation program.
You can volunteer as a mentor for students to help guide them through their education and provide them with the support required to get through it. The organization expects mentors to spend one hour per week with their mentees, sharing their education tools and supporting them. Additionally, you will provide the mentee with feedback and helpful advice about various life topics, such as career advice, higher studies, job searching, and technical information. You can apply for this role using the organization's website.
Address: 238 Tod Lane, Youngstown.
Work With Project Making Kids Count
Project Making Kids Count, or Project MKC, is a nonprofit that began with the founder throwing birthday parties for homeless children across the country. Now, the nonprofit's mission focuses on reaching individuals on a personal basis to help improve their lives. There are two ways you can get involved with Project MKC this holiday season:
- Hosting a donation drive, such as toy drives for the holiday season or school supplies.
- Organizing a diaper drive.
The organization's website has tool kits to help you get started with your donation drives. Additionally, sign up to be a volunteer with Project MKC online. There are options to volunteer with the nonprofit on the first Thursday of the month and the second Monday of the month for diaper wrapping. This event entails creating packages of 25 diapers in plastic film wrap and then bunding them into sets of 200 to give to guardians and parents with babies and toddlers in need.
Address: 6961 Southern Blvd., Suite A, Youngstown.
Adopt a Piggyback Family for Christmas
Adopt a Piggyback family for Christmas with the Piggyback Foundation this holiday season. This opportunity allows you to help fellow families in your community who might be struggling, especially during this season. When you adopt a family, you can gather donations and gift cards to brighten the holidays for a family in need for Christmas. Gift cards allow families to do personalized shopping for their children, making the holidays a little extra special for them this year. The kids can also use the gift cards to purchase presents for their parents to show appreciation.
The foundation helps families facing life-threatening diseases. Donations and volunteers help make life easier to manage while families focus on helping and supporting each other through difficult times. This year, the foundation is requesting gift cards because it focuses on personalizing the care and help for families.
P.O. box address: Piggyback Foundation of Youngstown, P.O. Box 3184, Boardman.
We know there are several opportunities to give back this holiday season, and we're just scratching the surface with a few ways to volunteer and get involved in your community. Contact us, and let us know if we missed your favorite way to give back to the community. We'd love to hear about how you like to help others during the holidays.
Here at Boardman Mitsubishi, we value our customers and are proud to serve our community. Visit our dealership in Boardman, Ohio, to speak with our team of sales experts to learn about our new and used inventory to get you to and from your volunteer services.
Image Credits:
Image by Joel Muniz is licensed with Unsplash License