Other One-Time and Group Service Opportunities If you are looking to do one-time service not offered through HoundServe, CCSJ recommends pursuing one of the options below. Because these opportunities require direct communication and planning with the community agency, as well as independent preparation and reflection, we offer a Guide for One-Time and Group Service Planning. Habitat for Humanity Donors Choose: Supporting Baltimore's Classrooms Blue Water Baltimore VIVA House Beans and Bread Center CARES CASA of Maryland Civic Works Food, Faith, and Fellowship Blue Water Baltimore Garden Harvest Irvine Nature Center Jobs, Housing, and Recovery Marian House Moveable Feast My Sister's Place Our Daily Bread Employment Center Project Clean Stream Project PLASE Rebuilding Together Baltimore Reservoir Hill Improvement Council, Inc. Sarah's Hope St. Frances Community Center and Job Fair See More B-More Community Exploration There are many opportunities in Baltimore to meet the immediate needs of the community through fundraising. These opportunities are ideal for groups who are interested in supporting the community, but who have little time or mobility. The fundraising options listed here offer groups the opportunity to meet real needs in the community in the areas of education, housing and the environment. These group activities can double as both a team builder and an opportunity for education about the issues facing Baltimore communities. Some ideas for ways to fundraise include a residence hall competition, a late night pizza sale, a bake sale, dorm room trash collection, a car wash , collection jars at front desk of residence halls, or a donation table in Boulder. Consider pairing your fundraising with some education for your group, like a visit to the organization’s offices or a presentation by a local advocate for the issue. Return to top. Habitat for Humanity Each year Loyola University Maryland sponsors a Habitat house: we provide all funding and labor to complete a home for a new homeowner. Enthusiastic Loyola volunteers easily cover the necessary labor, but raising the $30,000 needed for supplies proves more difficult. By hosting a fundraising event, you can participate in the year-long effort to build a house in Sandtown for a homeowner or family. Each small fundraising initiative contributes tremendously to the $30,000 goal. All members of the Loyola campus community, especially those who have worked to support the house, are invited to the house dedication ceremony in late April. To support Habitat, you may want to consider an event that includes a tour of the home, a competition between residence halls, or a presentation from one of the Habitat Service Coordinators. Contact: CCSJ Service Coordinators at habitatsc@loyola.edu. Return to top.
Donors Choose: Supporting Baltimore’s Classrooms Students in Baltimore City’s Public Schools only have a 35% chance of graduating high school, in contrast to the 81% graduation rate in surrounding suburbs. Lack of resources and technology, though only one factor in this disparity, are a significant barrier to improving the quality of education in the city’s classrooms. The Donors Choose organization provides a space for teachers to request support for projects they would like to start in their classrooms. Often these requests come from teachers who work in schools located in areas of high poverty, where resources are sparse. For this reason, the teachers turn to outside support to provide books and other materials, which may otherwise not be affordable, for their classrooms. Donors Choose provides a means through which outside donators can support the education system and youth of Baltimore. Find more information on the Donors Choose website, or look for more options to support Baltimore city schools. Return to top. Blue Water Baltimore Blue Water Baltimore is a collective of organizations working together to keep Baltimore’s streams, river and harbor clean. As a part of this initiative, Herring Run Nursery works to plant and sell native trees, flowers and grasses to support the city’s ecological restoration. Meanwhile, Baltimore Harbor WATERKEEPER uses legal advocacy and Inner Harbor boat patrols to control the pollution of the Chesapeake Bay. Blue Water Baltimore teaches about our role in keeping the environment clean as it works toward meeting its goal of creating a more sustainable Baltimore City. Donations can enable Blue Water Baltimore to continue its work in the following ways:
$25 provides bags and gloves for one stream clean-up $50 paints a mural on a Baltimore City storm drain $75 plants one tree in a park $100 fuels the Baltimore Harbor WATERKEEPER’s patrol boat for one month $250 installs four rain barrels at a school $500 removes concrete and plants a street tree $1000 installs a rain garden Find more information at the Blue Water Baltimore website. Return to top. Viva House is a Catholic Worker House of Hospitality and Resistance in the tradition of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. The house was opened in 1968 by Willa and Brendan Walsh who have lived there ever since. Currently, the community serves a late afternoon meal 2 days each week and operates a food pantry for their neighbors in Southwest Baltimore. Approximately 240 people are served at each meal and they provide at least 125 families with a 3-day supply of food each month. Volunteers are needed to provide bags of groceries that will be distributed to one of the 125 families in need. Contacts: CCSJ Service Coordinator at vivasc@loyola.edu. Return to top. Five days a week, fifty-two weeks per year, about 300 people walk through the doors of Beans & Bread in Fells Point for a hot meal. People of every age, race, and religion come and their stories are as different and compelling as they are. They come both for the food and the companionship of the staff, volunteers, and other guests. Volunteers are needed to help with preparing and serving the meal, welcoming guests and doing a number of other much-needed tasks such as bussing tables, clean-up, and handing out bagged lunches as guests leave. The number of volunteers needed on any given day may vary. Hours: 9am-1:30pm: Saturdays and the last Sunday of each month. Anytime: Bake desserts to be given out at the meal program Contact: Erin Shutt (Resource Coordinator), 410-732-1892 x105, Erin.Shutt@vincentbaltimore.org *After you have scheduled your dates at the Beans and Bread Center, please notify beansandbreadsc@loyola.edu of the times and dates when you will be serving. At this time, the CCSJ Service Coordinator will provide you with an information packet containing directions, service information and necessary forms. Return to top. Herring Run’s Mission is to improve the environmental and aesthetic quality of the Herring Run Watershed by conducting stewardship and educational programs, and by mobilizing volunteers for monitoring, restoration and advocacy. They seek to restore health to local streams, green and improve neighborhoods, advocate for better stormwater management, and much more. Each year they plant 1,000 native trees and shrubs, remove more then 11,000 pounds of trash from streams, clear more then 25,000 square feet of weed from parkland, and build more then 200 rain barrels. Groups of enthusiastic and motivated volunteers are needed to help with stream clean-ups, weed pulls and tree plantings. Hours: Stream clean-ups and weed pulls are every Saturday in September. Tree Planting is every Saturday of October, into the first few weekends of November, every Saturday in April, and the first few weekends of May Contact: Ashley Traut (Community Outreach Manager) at 410-254-1577x103 or atraut@herringrun.org. Return to top. CARES (Civic and Religious Emergency Services), a program of the Govans Ecumenical Development Corporation (GEDCO), is located on York Road, just a few blocks from Loyola’s campus. CARES operates a food pantry and emergency assistance center that offers food packages, funds to prevent eviction, and utility cut-off prevention funds, and pharmacy assistance to people facing financial hardships. CARES is in need of volunteers to help at their food pantry, either packaging food or interviewing clients. Hours: Food Pantry open Mondays and Thursdays, 9:00am-11:00am, Saturdays, 10:00am-12:00pm Contact: CCSJ Service Coordinator at caressc@loyola.edu. Return to top.
CASA of Maryland is a non-profit community organization that strives to improve the quality of life for recent immigrants to the United States through a combination of direct services, education, advocacy, and organizing. CASA facilitates the self-development, organization, and mobilization of the Latino community to gain full participation in the larger society. Since 1985, CASA has evolved from a primary focus on direct service provision to Central American refugees in the metropolitan D.C. area to the provision of a wide range of educational, organizing, and advocacy activities throughout the State of Maryland. They seek to address the multiple conditions of poverty and disenfranchisement that control the lives of many Latino immigrants and refugees. Volunteers are needed to help with voter registration, neighborhood outreach, member and volunteer outreach, reception, and producing outreach materials. The number of volunteers needed on any given day may vary. *Some Spanish language is helpful, but not required Contact: CCSJ Service Coordinator at hispanicsc@loyola.edu. Return to top. The overall mission of Civic Works is to build a future for Baltimore's youth by addressing community needs. Every year, Civic Works volunteers build community parks and gardens, and rehabilitate abandoned homes for low-income residents. The Civic Works' Volunteer Program is unique because it unites local businesses, organizations, faith-based groups, schools, social clubs and individuals in the common goal of improving Baltimore. By forming bridges with the neighborhoods that it serves, Civic Works is able to create sustainable structures that, over time, become community spaces. Volunteers are needed to help in this process by joining work crews that restore community lots. Tasks may include clean-up, digging, planting or building. Groups are welcome! Hours: 9:00am-1:00pm (or later), Tuesday through Saturday Contact: Earl Millett (Community Development Director), 410-366-8533 Ext. 214, millett@civicworks.com or volunteer@civicworks.com. Return to top.
Food, Faith and Fellowship (FFF) is an initiative of St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore. The program engages groups of people in service and reflection and provides vital assistance to families experiencing homelessness. FFF volunteers bring food and supplies to make and eat a meal together. A portion of the meal is packaged and delivered to Sarah’s Hope, a program of St. Vincent de Paul that provides shelter and services for women and children who are currently experiencing homelessness. After sharing table fellowship, the group engages in faith-sharing and reflection on issues of poverty, homelessness, and social justice. St. Vincent de Paul provides materials to guide the reflection and faith sharing. Contact: Matthew Myers at 410-662-0500 ext. 207 or at matthew.myers@vincentbaltimore.org. Return to top.
Garden Harvest is a non-profit farm located 30 minutes north of campus in Glyndon, Maryland. Their mission is to produce and distribute fruit and organically grown vegetables to emergency food agencies, including soup kitchens, pantries, and shelters in Baltimore. All produce is delivered within hours of harvesting to provide the freshest, most nutritious food to the people who need it most. Volunteers make the work of Garden Harvest possible. With only 3 full-time staff, volunteers are needed to do a variety of essential farming activities. For the fall, volunteers are needed to do harvesting, weeding, planting, mulching, fence building, Activities for groups would depend on the size of the group and the time of year. No previous skills or experience is necessary, although experience is always appreciated. Groups should bring work gloves, water bottles, sunscreen, and wear closed toed shoes. In the event of rain, we will have to cancel so rain dates are advisable. Hours: Volunteers should commit to serving for at least two hours, although three hours is the most common time, anytime between the hours of 9:30am-3:00pm Contact: Edie Dasher (Volunteer Coordinator), 410-526-0698, garharvest@aol.com (email is preferred)14045 Mantua Mill Road, Reisterstown, MD 21136. Return to top. The Irvine Nature Center is a non-profit environmental education organization whose mission is to inspire appreciation and respect for the natural world, to increase awareness of environmental issues, and to encourage individuals to sustain Earth's ecosystem. Through its various programs, Irvine provides quality environmental education to the public and to the schools in the Baltimore area. Volunteers are needed to work on environmental projects and during Pumpkin Fest in October, which is the main community outreach event at the center. Hours: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. seven days a week. Contact: Heather Wight (Group Volunteer Coordinator), 443-738-9240, WightH@ExploreNature.org. Return to top.
Jobs, Housing, & Recovery (JHR) operates programs for people experiencing homelessness with the goal of providing a continuum of services in order to provide a life free from addictions, with a job, a stable home and a future. JHR operates the largest emergency shelter in downtown Baltimore. The shelter is open 24/7 and provides beds, meals, showers and case management services without charge and without any admission restrictions. Volunteers are needed for two different programs that JHR runs, one at the Human Resources Shelter and the other at the Oliver Street warehouse: 1. Human Resources Shelter: Volunteers are needed to help prepare and serve dinner to the clients (dinner is served from 5:00pm-7:30pm) and to help sort and organize donations 2. Oliver Street: At Oliver Street we have a warehouse that houses many of the donations we receive for all the programs under JHR’s Umbrella (Human Resources Shelter, Carrington House, & Light House). We get everything from care packages to towels and blankets to clothing and we always need volunteers to help bundling goods as well as sorting and organizing donations by size and gender. Contact: Ricky Persad (Volunteer Coordinator), 443-768-5311, rpersad@jhrbaltimore.org. Return to top. The Marian House vision is to assist women who have experienced homelessness, abuse, and/or addiction while awakening them to their potential—respecting and loving themselves, joining the workforce, building careers, caring consistently for their children, and making a difference in the community. Located near Loyola’s campus in the Waverly neighborhood, Marian House operates a transitional housing program for 29 women. For each holiday, they have a formal dinner and prayer service as an opportunity for the residents and the staff to share fellowship and conversation. Groups are needed to help serve the meal, staff the buffet and clean up for the following holidays: Fat Tuesday, and St. Patrick’s Day. Other events include a Christmas Dinner and Easter Dinner. Volunteers are needed to prepare and serve the meal, staff the buffet and clean up. Miscellaneous projects may also be needed on a sporadic basis. Contact: Rita Martin (Intake Counselor, Volunteer Coordinator), 410-467- 4121, rmartin@marianhouse.org, 949 Gorsuch Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21218. Return to top. Moveable Feast prepares and delivers nutritious meals and groceries to individuals who are homebound and living with HIV/AIDS or breast cancer throughout the Greater Baltimore Metropolitan Area. Moveable Feast also provides nutritional counseling, transportation, and employment training to people in need. Volunteers are needed for a variety of activities: preparing and packaging meals and grocery bags, baking homemade desserts, and delivering meals to clients’ homes. New volunteers will be asked to complete a half-hour orientation. We will accommodate individual volunteers and groups. Hours: Meal Delivery, Monday through Friday from 9am-1pm. Kitchen Assistant, Monday through Wednesday & Friday from 9:00am-3:00pm, Thursday from 5:00pm-8:00pm, and Saturday & Sunday from 10:00am-3:00pm Contact: Tom Patrick (Volunteer Manager), 410-327-3420, x31, tpatrick@mfeast.org, 901 N. Milton Ave, Baltimore, MD 21205. Return to top. My Sister’s Place is a day center for women in Baltimore City. Located in West Baltimore and opened in summer 2008, My Sister’s Place endeavors to serve meals to roughly 200 women and their children 7 days a week, from 7:00am to 7:00pm. Volunteers are needed for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Volunteers can be expected to set tables, prepare and serve meals, refill drinks, clear tables, and interact with the guests. Hours: Breakfast: 6:45-8am. Lunch: 11:00am-1pm. Dinner: 4:30-6pm. Breakfast and Dinner are highest need. Contact: Jackie Reid (Development Manager), 410-659-3763, 17 Franklin Street & Cathedral, Baltimore, MD 21201. Return to top. Our Daily Bread (ODB) is a meal program of Catholic Charities that is similar to Beans & Bread, but larger. Serving an average of 680 meals a day, ODB is a program of Catholic Charities and operates primarily through volunteer support. Volunteers touch the lives of people who are materially poor through serving meals, cleaning the dining room, and providing hospitality to the guests. ODB is located in the heart of downtown Baltimore, just 15 minutes from Loyola. The number of volunteers needed at Our Daily Bread varies and dates should be scheduled well in advance, especially for larger groups. No walk-ins please. Hours: 9:00am-1:00pm, 7 days a week Contact: CCSJ Service Coordinator at odbsc@loyola.edu. Return to top. Project Clean Stream volunteers improve their community and the areas around the Chesapeake Bay watershed by removing trash, tires and other discarded items from area streams and nearby roadsides. Over 3,600 volunteers remove more than 118,000 pounds of trash and debris from area streams! Hours: April 06, 2013, 9:00am-12:00pm Contact: Dan Brellis (Program Manager) 443-949-0575, x 34, dbrellis@allianceforthebay.org. Return to top. Project PLASE (People Lacking Ample Shelter and Employment) provides supportive transitional and permanent housing to class="apple-converted-space" people experiencing homelessness. Clients receive food, shelter, security, counseling, access to community resources and case management, allowing them to address and resolve the issues that kept them in a cycle of homelessness. We serve the most vulnerable and underserved, including persons with mental illness, HIV/AIDS, addiction, developmental disabilities, veterans as well as former offenders. Today, Project PLASE serves 500 of Baltimore’s homeless men and women per year in our transitional and permanent housing facilities. Volunteer projects include tutoring residents, participating in social activities, moving residents, providing arts & crafts instruction, helping to maintain our buildings, gardening at our farm plot (in Reisterstown) and facilitating relaxation classes (yoga, walking, tai chi). Such programs have a powerful impact on our clients, staff and volunteers. Other volunteer opportunities include helping with the Purses for PLASE booth, tabling at festivals, calling PLASE donors and planning fundraisers. Contact: Faith Savill (Volunteer Coordinator), 410-837-1400x36, volunteer@projectplase.org. Return to top. Rebuilding Together Baltimore is a non-profit, non-sectarian, volunteer organization dedicated to helping low-income homeowners through home renovation and repair. Our goal is to keep people living in warmth, safety, and independence, while helping to build better communities in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, Maryland. Once a year, on the last Saturday in April, skilled and unskilled volunteers alike join together in a unique one-day event reminiscent of the barn-raising tradition of America’s past. Since 1990, the year of our first Rebuilding Day, the Baltimore affiliate of Rebuilding Together has organized the work of more than 18,000 volunteers, who have repaired and revitalized more than 975 local homes and completed dozens of community improvement projects. The estimated market value of this work exceeds 5 million dollars. The April 2013 Rebuilding Day will focus on the Govans neighborhood next to Loyola, along with one other Baltimore neighborhood. There are 2 types of one-time service projects available on Rebuilding Day, the last Saturday in April: 1) Working on a Community Beautification Project: One full day of work. Be prepared to be outside all day. Projects include: restoring empty lots, landscaping, painting or improving community centers, and community clean-ups. Lunch provided. 2) Volunteering at a Neighborhood Headquarters: One full day of work. Assist Headquarters chief with managing logistics. Be a part of a team providing support to 500 volunteers working on community projects. Be willing and able to juggle several tasks at once. Lunch provided Contact: Sign up online on the website (http://www.rtbaltimore.org/sign_up.html). Return to top.
The Reservoir Hill Improvement Council (RHIC) is an umbrella association whose roots date from the late 1970’s. The Council is dedicated to the equitable revitalization of the communities south of the Druid Hill Park in northwest Baltimore City. These communities have suffered for decades from lack of investment, but contain a rich history and many resources. There are plenty of volunteer opportunities through RHIC including painting murals, tree plantings, vacant lot clean-ups, and assisting in community garden and farming projects. Contact: Teddy Krolik (Environmental & Sanitation Programs Director), 410-225-7547, tkrolik@reservoirhill.net. Return to top. Sarah’s Hope, Mount Street provides 24-hour emergency shelter, case management and other support services for homeless women and children in the Sandtown-Winchester area of Baltimore, Maryland. On-site services include: intensive case management, meals, service linkage, life skills training, parenting classes, employment readiness classes, health screenings, public school enrollment, and child and youth activities. Sarah’s Hope, Mount Street services provide immediate stabilization to homeless families, strive to preserve the family unit, help families quickly regain permanent housing, and enable them to achieve long-term self-sufficiency. Groups are needed to make casseroles for dinner or make bagged lunches, snack bags, and welcome kits. Contact: Danielle Rankin 410-580-9958 or danielle.rankin@vincentbaltimore.org Return to top. The St. Frances Community Center is a program of the St. Frances Academy, a high school for students in Baltimore, which seeks to distinguish itself in the city as a forward-thinking, challenging, embracing, and holistic place of service. The community center takes seriously their responsibility and privilege to educate, edify, empower, and entertain our God-given neighbors of every race, age, religion, and economic background. The Martin Luther King Day of Self-Help and Service has been held at St. Frances Academy Community Center since January 2003. It is an event designed to offer support and services to those who are seeking employment, in keeping with Dr. King’s call for an end to poverty through employment. Volunteers are welcome at anytime of that day by participating in either one or more of these service opportunities, which are mainly to help those who are battling joblessness: find fair employers who are ready to hire, reach job-readiness skills, serve a meal, create mentoring relationships, offer legal advice, etc. Hours: After-school program for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders: Monday through Thursday from 2:30pm-6:00pm. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day from 6:00am-4:00pm. Contacts: Ralph Moore, Jr., 410-539-5794, x30, Ralph.moore@sfacademy.org. Return to top. The “See More B-More” Scavenger Hunt is an opportunity for a group of 15-25 students to get out in the city. Students split into 4 groups to go into Fells Point, Govans, Center City, and West Baltimore. They are asked to visit one community agency and to find several places and observe general things about the neighborhoods. Students are asked to capture their findings on film that outlines fun aspects of the city as well as social injustices and neighborhood disparities. Please contact our staff to arrange for this opportunity. Contact: Megan Linz Dickinson, x2638, mlinz@loyola.edu. Return to top. | 
