Serve Local
Homelessness
Downtown Rescue Mission is a shelter with emergency services for the homeless and also a one-year recovery program. There are lots of volunteer opportunities at Downtown Rescue Mission, and they are always looking for donations of all kinds at their thrift stores.
- Ask people who are homeless if they know about Downtown Rescue Mission and if you can give them a ride there or call them an Uber
- Serve the breakfast, lunch, or dinner that is cooked by residents
- Serve at one-off events like fundraisers, graduations, and holidays
- Teach or mentor in their recovery program*
- Sort donated clothes at their main site
- Donate items to Downtown Rescue Mission thrift stores
- Serve in their pop-up medical clinic*
- Work for Downtown Rescue Mission*
- Donate to fund DRM
Community of Hope is building a tiny home community for the chronically homeless to live, work, and find healing in community. They have a program called Restoration Works which pays people who are homeless to make handcrafted goods and earn a dignified income, and it takes place monthly inside Downtown Rescue Mission.
- Help at the Restoration Works monthly event– checking people in and out, helping residents make the craft and talking with them, providing quality control checks, logistics, and forming relationships.
- Fund Restoration Works by purchasing a subscription jewelry box
- Lend your professional services to Community of Hope, if it is something that they currently need
- Spread the word about Community of Hope to get more people on board!
- Donate to fund the creation of Community of Hope
Poverty
Lincoln Village is a holistic community development in the area around Lincoln Mill. They offer an affordable housing program, a Christian private school, and a lot more. They have a workday every Saturday refurbishing dilapidated homes into affordable housing, and a variety of ways to serve at the school and in their various programs.
- Demolition, painting, landscaping, or skilled projects on their houses
- Help single moms in their program with basic maintenance and furniture assembly
- Volunteer in after school programs
- Deep clean houses (new construction or in between residents)
- Serve at fundraising events: setup, marketing, or greeting
- Prayer team (in person or remote)
- Mentor moms, dads, or couples in their program or teens in the school
- Provide childcare for a bible study or Parent’s Night Out
- Provide meals for a variety of different needs
- Substitute teach or work at Lincoln Academy*
- Work for Lincoln Village as a Neighborhood Coordinator*
- Donate to fund Lincoln Village
Friends of 400 comes alongside families living in public housing downtown, specifically in the Searcy neighborhood. Some opportunities are to mentor kids through cub scouts and girls’ nights. This ministry is very relational and is spearheaded by one MC, but they are looking for more MCs to join in and introduce them to families at Searcy. There is a Searcy Serve Day once a month that is an easy way to check it out.
- Mentor kids through cub scouts, boy scouts, or girls’ nights weekly
- Read to and tutor kids in reading
- Help with field trips
- Teach a skill like tennis, astronomy, woodworking, map and compass skills, etc
- Share with the kids about your career field to expose them to potential careers they may not know about
- Serve quarterly at Searcy Serve Day
- Help start a bible study in the Searcy community
- Donate to Friends of 400 directly, our school supply collection for them each August, or buy presents for Searcy kids each Christmas
Manna House is a food pantry downtown that provides meals for anyone in need as well as kids in schools across Madison County. They pack and serve food and other supplies three nights a week, and it’s an easy way for all ages to join in and be exposed to people from all walks of life.
- Distribute food any Monday, Wednesday or Thursday night
- Help those who are receiving food load up their car, ask how they’re doing, and look for opportunities to pray for them
- Manage inventory, move food, and stock supplies like hygiene and baby care items for distribution
- Attend, serve, lead worship, or preach at their Saturday church services, and look for gospel opportunities in conversation at the meal afterwards
- Pack food into backpacks for school kids in need to take home over the weekend
- Work with Manna House to organize a weekend food distribution program at your own local school, if there isn’t one already
- Intern or serve at their hydroponics gardening facility to grow food for Manna House
- Collect food or donate financially to fund and supply Manna House
CJC provides job training for adults, as well as life skills trainings and help finding internships. You can mentor a student, teach a class, or offer an internship at your company.
- Mentor a student in their classes*
- Teach computer, finance, bible study, or career skills classes
- Tell people who are unemployed about CJC
- Provide lunch for classes
- Teach women to change tires and oil (once per semester)
- Administrative help (occasional need)
- Organize clothes in their professional clothes closet
- Offer an internship or hire a graduate, if you have a say in that at your company
- Donate to Christian Job Corp
- Work for Christian Job Corp*
CornerStone comes alongside people who are trapped in material poverty and address socioeconomic and racial inequities through healthy relationships formed in financial literacy and jobs readiness classes. They are some of the best in the city at ‘helping without hurting.’ Their classes provide an opportunity for the materially poor and those cheering them on as their ‘allies’ to begin relationships where both are transformed into greater flourishing, all centered around Jesus and his transforming work.
- Serve as an ally in their Jobs for Life or Faith & Finance classes*
- Provide meals for their classes
- Pray weekly for the participants’ prayer requests sent out in an email list
- If you know people who are unemployed, underemployed, or who weren’t taught financial literacy, invite them to CornerStone’s classes
- Conduct mock interviews for participants in their classes
- Offer an internship to or hire a graduate, if you have a say in that at your company
- Occassional administrative support, or help organize and execute either of their two annual fundraising events or graduation ceremonies
- Serve their organization as a board member*
- Donate to fund CornerStone Initiative’s work, or sponsor things like cyber and security training certifications for participants
Orphan Care/
Advocating for Life
HPRC advocates for life through free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, along with parenting classes and walking people through unexpected pregnancies.
- Provide meals to parenting class
- Serve at their front desk (administration and welcoming people), organizing the baby boutique, or landscaping around their office
- Serve as a Client Advocate* and meet with each person who comes in*
- Volunteer your time as a Registered Nurse, sonographer, or doctor in their clinic*
- Serve as a mentor for their parenting classes or as a fatherhood coach*
- Knit or crochet newborn hats
- Gather and donate new parent baby gift bags (we recommend adding a Jesus Storybook bible to each bag)
- Work for HPRC*
- Join their prayer team
- Donate to HPRC
Fostering Hope exists to pray, love, and serve families involved with DHR within North Alabama. This is done by seeing our church body rise up to holistically serve and pray for our community – including those within our church body directly serving in the foster system and our local caseworkers and volunteers.
- Emotionally and practically care for any foster families in your Missional Community
- Regularly pray for our foster families on the Fostering Hope monthly email
- Bring meals to Summit foster families when they get new placements
- Serve as a Parent Advocate in Families Count class, a Lifeline curriculum
- Provide meals for Families Count class
- Write encouraging notes and serve breakfast to DHR caseworkers monthly
- Foster a child who doesn’t have a parent who is able to care for them*
- Teach foster parent classes to prospective foster families*
- Volunteer as a Court Appointed Juvenile Advocate to represent foster kids’ best interests in their cases with DHR*
- Work as a caseworker for DHR or a private agency like Lifeline*
- Donate to our Fostering Hope fund
Lifeline offers foster care classes and guidance throughout the entire fostering or adoption process. They are a great resource for anyone considering fostering or adopting domestically or internationally.
- Encourage Lifeline caseworkers through notes or helping around their office
- Serve at fundraisers and other events throughout the year
- Adopt a kid who doesn’t have a parent who is able to care for them (domestically or internationally)*
- Foster a child who doesn’t have a parent who is able to care for them*
- Work as a caseworker or counselor for Lifeline*
- Teach foster parent classes to prospective foster families*
- Donate to anyone in your MC who is adopting, to Lifeline, or sponsor the care of a child through their Global Orphan Care program
Student
Evangelism
FCA goes into schools and has weekly meetings and camps to reach students with the gospel.
- Serve in your school’s FCA chapter (students, teachers)
- Serve as summer FCA interns (students)
- Serve with FCA summer camps (students, coaches)
- Donate to FCA
Disaster
Response
PAR is a disaster relief organization with tools and equipment to enable volunteers to serve our neighbors after tornadoes or storms.
- Serve with local disaster relief
- Minister to disaster relief victims and follow up with them
- Deploy on regional disaster relief trips
- Maintain equipment
- Help with administration, communications, hospitality, or marketing for fundraisers
- Donate to PAR