Last Thanksgiving I challenged myself (and the team) to make volunteer days routine, not a “blow off” benefit no one uses. Here are seven DMV team building activities we’re doing in 2020:
Mary’s Center
Mary’s Center offers medical, dental, and behavioral health services for the entire family, along with social services and family literacy services – all under one roof. In 2018 they served 55,000 participants in Washington, DC.
How you can help: Skip the same-old happy hour and take your team to Taste of Adams Morgan.
Building Families for Children
Building Families for Children was founded in 1920 to ensure children were cared for in families, not orphanages. Today they provide trauma-informed care and a safe, nurturing family for every child.
How you can help: Get competitive over a backpack-stuffing relay instead of Topgolf.
Blessings in a Backpack
Blessings in a Backpack provides food for elementary school children who may not have food to eat on weekends during the school year. It costs just $100 to feed a single child for an entire 38-week school year.
How you can help: Walk/run in the Frederick Summer Solstice 8k in June 2020.
Together We Bake
Together We Bake is a job training program to help DC-area women in the criminal justice system, facing long-term unemployment, and/or experiencing homelessness. They help women gain self-confidence, transferable workforce skills, and hands-on work experience.
How you can help: send Together We Bake cookies for customer thank yous, holiday gifts, and direct mail treats. (Or just stock the company kitchen!)
Reach Out and Read
Reach Out and Read piggybacks on well-child visits to build home libraries for children. Pediatricians “prescribe reading,” coach parents to read to their children every evening, and give away children’s books, often to homes without a single kid’s book.
How you can help: host a digital book drive or revamp a clinic’s waiting room.
Stray from the Heart
Stray from the Heart rescues, rehabilitates and finds loving homes for homeless, abused or neglected dogs, including strays and international dogs.
How you can help: Get a BarkBox for the office pets and use Stray from the Heart’s promo link.
Food Rescue US
Food Rescue US is the Uber for prepared food – an app pairs food donors and food rescuers to deliver leftovers to local hunger relief agencies.
How you can help: All those DMV team building activities create a lot of leftovers. Can you donate them?
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