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Groups perform service at agencies and
organizations in Urban Cincinnati that deal with poverty and
homelessness issues directly. Through service work,
participants have personal experiences with issues and gain
knowledge. Agencies and opportunities include:
Our Daily Bread: In the tradition of Christian hospitality, Our Daily Bread
provides residents of Over-the-Rhine with a safe space and a
warm, solid meal. Programs include basic meal service, Kid's
Cafe, Lunch on Legs, and several specialized outreach programs.
Volunteer opportunities include meal preparation and service,
socializing with guests, delivering meals to shut-ins (via Lunch
on Legs), food pick up or delivery, handyman/ building
maintenance assistance, working in Kid's Cafe and collecting
personal hygiene donations.
Welcome House: Welcome House, established in 1982 in Northern Kentucky, seeks
to provide services for individuals experiencing homelessness as
well as those who are at risk of becoming homeless. This
organization provides emergency housing and assistance,
individual family case management, and community outreach
programs in order to abolish homelessness, create justice in
society, and promote stability. Volunteers are asked to perform
activities such as answering phones/serving as a receptionist,
interacting with clients, assisting in the development of
programs, interacting with clients, and any specialized services
which the individual is able to provide (haircutting, medical
assistance, etc.)
Drop Inn Center: The Drop Inn
Center is a grassroots programs aimed at ending homelessness,
upholding human dignity, promoting positive systemic change, and
providing service to homeless individuals. Prominent among these
programs is their emergency shelter, which can house between two
hundred and three hundred people per night. The Drop Inn Center
also provides lockers for belongings, towels, clothes,
toiletries, blankets, and medical assistance to homeless
clients, as well as pursuing social advocacy for homeless
individuals. Following a brief orientation program, volunteer
opportunities include answering phones, surveying residents,
tutoring GED students, sorting clothes, and collecting food or
hygiene items for the shelter.
Freestore
Foodbank: The Freestore
Foodbank provides basic services in order to ensure that basic
survival needs are met, and to additionally encourage
self-reliance and independence. The goal of this organization is
to ensure that families are not forced to choose between buying
food and paying rent/paying medical bills by providing evening
meals and distributing food to families in need. Volunteer
opportunities include working directly with clients, sorting
donations of food and clothing, and hosting canned food drives
and other special events.
Mary Magdelen
House: The Mary Magdelen House provides free showers to homeless
individuals. While clients are showering, Mary Magdelen House
provides laundering services and clean clothes. Through these
services, this organization meets the needs of many experiencing
homelessness by providing a basic (but often overlooked) service
which promotes self-respect and healthy personal hygiene.
Volunteers perform tasks including laundering clothes, sorting
clothing and donations, work with computers, artistic
decoration, and working at the reception desk.
Tender Mercies: Tender Mercies provides housing and similar services to homeless
individuals who have a history of mental or emotional
disability. While providing opportunities for independent
living, residents are still strongly integrated in community in
a way that enables them to maintain personal dignity and
establish financial and social security. Tender Mercies also
provides additional services for and advocates the rights of
residents. Volunteer opportunities include meal preparation,
socializing with residents, participation in special events,
outreach activities, and cleaning or ãfixing upä some resident
housing
Over-the-Rhine
Soup Kitchen: The
Over-the-Rhine Soup Kitchen provides meals for homeless and low
income individuals in order to prevent and eliminate hunger.
This organization also provides for and encourages socialization
among members of the Over-the-Rhine community. Volunteer
opportunities primarily include food service.
Contact Center: Located in
Over-the-Rhine, the Contact Center is a non-profit grassroots organization aimed at ending
and eliminating poverty. As a member organization of low and
moderate income individuals, the Contact Center aims to empower
its members through leadership in education and advocating for
social and economic justice. This specifically includes
attention to neighborhood issues which include but are not
limited to welfare issues, housing/tenant rights, resident
safety concerns, and change in government policy. Volunteers
perform tasks including door-to-door voting registration,
newsletter assistance, donation sorting, and speaking to
legislators about issues such as welfare reform and Medicaid.
PWC: PWC, or People
Working Cooperatively, is a non-profit organization which
provides critical home repairs for elderly, disabled, low
income, and other qualifying households in Southern Ohio and
Northern Kentucky. Repairs and services include but are
certainly not limited to building ramps, installing heat,
providing hot and/or running water, mending serious roof leaks,
and weatherization. Volunteers work on-site during various
specialized events to provide repair services for qualifying
houses.
Project Connect: As part of Cincinnati City Schools, Project Connect serves and
defends homeless children to ensure that they receive the
education to which they are entitled. In doing so, Project
Connect provides services such as transportation, accessibility
to the free lunch program, after school tutoring/educational
programs, and works to ensure that children and parents do not
face obstacles in enrollment and school attendance. This
organization also distributes backpacks, school supplies, and
uniforms or other necessary school clothing. Volunteers are
asked to tutor children, assist with events, collect, organize,
or distribute supplies, and interact with Spanish speaking
families if possible.
OTRCH: Over-the-Rhine Community Housing provides low-income members of
the community with adequate housing. Affiliated and member
organizations include the Drop Inn Center, Peaslee Neighborhood
Center, and the Housing Network. Volunteer opportunities
primarily include repairing and rehabilitating Over-the-Rhine
housing in order to provide safe and clean housing opportunities
for neighborhood residents.
St. Francis-St. Joseph Catholic Worker House: St. Francis-St.
Joseph Catholic Worker House provides emergency shelter for men
in the Greater Cincinnati Area as well as a soup kitchen and
sandwich distribution. The soup kitchen and sandwich
distribution are on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 11
AM until 1 PM, which is primarily where volunteers would be
needed.
Bethany House: Bethany House addresses the needs of and provides housing,
education, and assistance programs to homeless, displaced, and
disadvantaged women and children in the Greater Cincinnati area.
This organization collaborates with other programs in the city,
and focuses both on direct service as well as promoting
initiative for systemic change. Striving to help families get
back on their feet, Bethany House provides emergency,
transitional, and permanent housing, as well as programs aimed
at community building, obtaining financial independence, and job
assistance. Possible volunteer opportunities range from
childcare, meal preparation, and answering phones to landscaping
and cleaning.
City Gospel Mission: City Gospel
Mission aims to unite local churches with the homeless by
addressing both the spiritual and physical needs of the homeless
and hurting. This faith-based organization provides a menâs
overnight shelter, meal service for breakfast and dinner, a
clothing ministry, and emergency food baskets. After volunteer
training, opportunities include meal service, sorting clothing
donations, coordinating services, and helping to plan special
events. |
