80 Ways to Get Involved with SVdP for our 80 Year Anniversary

As we celebrate 80 years of service throughout Alameda County we are excited to be able to offer 80 ways to volunteer and get involved with St. Vincent de Paul.
If you are interested in doing one or more of these activities please reach out to Katie Troy, Volunteer Coordinator, at 510-877-9252 or at volunteer@svdp-alameda.org, or visit our website at www.svdp-alameda.org.

Media, Networking, and Community  

• How close can you get to 80? - Volunteer 80 times throughout the year in any of our volunteer activities and receive a prize at the end of the year.  Look for opportunities throughout this list. 
  
• Boar interest – Serve as part of our Board of Directors. 
• Approach your local business and ask them to support SVdP by making either an in-kind donation or a gift to SVdP. 
  
• Connect four- Connect us to 4 people in your circle who may be an avenue for a new partnership. 
• Extra, extra! -- Have connections with a local newspaper? Assist us in sharing a press release with them to get the word out about SVdP happenings.   
• Share your story! - Share your history with our organization as we celebrate our 80th anniversary. It might just be featured in our monthly newsletter.  
• Family recipe - Share with us a family cooking recipe for our Kitchen of Champions trainees to learn. 
• Tell your friends – Share what you know about SVdP with your friends, family, and colleagues with the hope of getting more people involved in our mission. 
• Lights, Camera, Action! - Volunteer your talents and create a video that commemorates the 80 years of service of St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County. 
• Calling filmmakers – Need practice filming to build your portfolio? Capture staff, volunteer, and guests' stories at our downtown campus and thrift stores. 
• Become a blogger – Work with the Development Department to plan unique stories to be featured on the SVdP blog. 
• Leave a review – Share your experience with SVdP on websites like Yelp and Google for others to see. 
• Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SVdPalameda), follow us on Instagram (@svdpac), and check out our blog (www.svdp-alameda.org/blog). 
• Tag us – Post a photo (tag @svdpac on Instagram!) or ask for support for SVdP through your social media accounts. 
• Pray for us – Set an intention based on our mission and pray for it as much as you can. We appreciate all who think of us and our guests. 
  

Direct Services 

• Everybody clean up- Get together a group to organize and clean out our downtown campus storage rooms. 
  
• DIY Center refurbishments- Help with general maintenance, painting, and repair of facility. 
• Remodel the Clothing Closet-Get together a group, bring the supplies, and come “refashion” our clothing closet-from painting to reorganizing to building new drawers and racks for storage. 
• Got a green thumb?- Help us begin and/or maintain above ground veggie garden and planters. 
• Serve 500 meals-Volunteer in our Free Dining Room and help us serve a hot and healthy meal to our guests, from 9am-1pm, open Tuesday through Saturday. 
• Volunteer in our Men’s Guidance Center where we offer a safe space for men during the day to shower, do laundry, stay warm. 
• Volunteer in our Women’s Visitation Center where we offer a safe space for women and children during the day to shower, do laundry, and stay warm. 
• Be a shopping partner- Volunteer in our Clothing Closet and help people pick out free clothing. 
• 80th Anniversary- Volunteer in the Development Department. Help us prepare for our 80th Anniversary celebration and fundraising events. 
• Lions, tigers, and BOOKS, oh my! - Volunteer to sort books in our thrift stores. Our thrift stores are full of interesting books that need to be sorted so we can effectively re-sell them. 
• Do what you do best- Have HR experience, an MBA, photography skills, carpentry, etc.? Lend your professional expertise to SVdP. 
• Phone Center – Volunteer in our downtown campus phone center and gain a glimpse into the life of an everyday SVdP employee.  
• Interview - Participate as an interviewer during our mock interviews for our Kitchen of Champions trainees. 
• Volunteer in our Livermore Thrift Store, Monday through Sunday 10-5pm. Tasks include sorting and organizing merchandise. 
• Teach - Provide a professional development or computer skills workshop for our Kitchen of Champions students 
• Share a hobby- Have a hobby you can’t wait to share with others? Share it with our guests in our drop-in centers. 
• It’s my party!- Volunteer to work with the Development team to put together a small gathering of friends, family, work colleagues, fellow church goers to raise funds.  It’s easy we’ll help. 
• Volunteer in our Fremont Thrift Store, Monday - Sunday 10am -5pm. 
• Volunteer in the Development Department - Identify/research potential partners and/or resources for collaboration. 
• Hablas Español – Lead English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to our clients. 
• Personal development workshops – Provide personal development workshops (e.g. body image, anger management, parenting) in either of our Drop-in centers. 
• Conference support- Volunteer through one of our 37 affiliated parishes throughout Alameda County. 
• Volunteer in our Food Locker; sort our products for easier delivery. 
• Volunteer in the Dish Room – Make sure that our dining room has clean dishes for service in our dish room, open Tuesday-Saturday, 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM. 
• Winter Shelter – Donate your time to volunteer in the North County Winter Shelter, open every day from 6:00 PM – 8:00 AM until June 11. 
• Movie night – Get your friends together and host a movie night and dinner in the Winter Shelter. 
• Data entry – Love clerical work? Assist our team in entering data into the ETO system to track our services. 
• Open house volunteer – Volunteer at one of our community open houses, either for Back to School, Christmas, or Easter. 
• Volunteer substitute – Want to volunteer but can't commit consistently? Sign up to be a volunteer substitute, and we will call you if a regular volunteer cancels. 
  

Donations 

• Make it official- Provide ServSafe Certification Prep and tests for 4 Kitchen of Champions culinary training students- $500. 
  
• Help us feed 80 children for a month- More than 31 million children received a free or reduced lunch at school. Help us organize a fundraiser to raise $6,864 to feed 80 children for one month over the summer. 
• “Sharing is caring”- share/ donate time share, season tickets, rewards points, miles for us to raise funds for the organization. 
• Change It – Start a competition between classes, families or individuals by giving them each a coin jar to collect change for a designated amount of time. The one with the most collected wins a prize, and donate all that is collected to SVdP. 
• Skip a Meal – Join with your peers to commit to giving up a meal together and give the money saved to St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County. 
• Provide course materials and supplies for 3 students- $250. 
  
• Birthday Pledge – Ask for donations to SVdP instead of birthday gifts. 
• Give it Up – Commit to give up a regular activity, e.g. buying a latte at Starbucks, or a bagel from Noah’s for a month, and donate the money you save to SVdP.  
• Donate your gently-used furniture or household goods to any of our thrift stores. 
• Hygiene kit drive- Collect hygiene kits or raise funds to purchase hygiene products for our drop in centers include: shampoo, conditioner, lotion, toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant etc. 
• Men’s Center Drive- Hold a drive for our Men’s drop-in center and include: socks, white t-shirts, underwear, sweat pants, etc. and make it a goal to collect at least 80 items. 
• Women’s Center Drive- Hold a drive for our Women’s drop-in center and include: socks, shirts, pants, underwear, sweat pants, etc. Make it a goal to collect at least 80 items. 
• Provide bus passes for 2 Kitchen of Champions trainees for 1 week - $100. 
• Sponsor a student - Provide a scholarship for our one of our Kitchen of Champions culinary trainees - $450. 
• Children’s Room Drive- Hold a drive for our children’s center and include: diapers, socks, shirts, pants, sweat pants, etc. and make it a goal to collect at least 80 items. 
• Laundry supply drive- Last year our drop-in centers offered over 3,000 laundry services. This year help us provide more by organizing a drive for laundry supplies, like high efficiency liquid detergent, fresh towels, and laundry bags. 
• Knife set-Provide starter chef knife rolls for 10 students- $1,000. 
• Bake sale- Hold a bake sale at your school and donate the proceeds to SVdP. 
• Read-a-thon – organize a read-a-thon at your school. Have each person collect donations for books they complete and donate the proceeds to SVdP. 
• Take on a fundraising goal - as an individual or with a group, organize your own fundraising committee to raise $800 for one of our homeless service programs. 
• Wages for a trainee - Provide wages for 5 of our Transitional Employees for a week- $1000. 
• Top Chef- Provide a Chef Coat for 1 student- $50. 
• Bike-a-thon- Organize a bike-a-thon and have each person collect donations for each lap they complete. Donate the proceeds to SVdP. 
• Canned food drive- Collect canned goods in your school and make it a goal to collect at least 80 cans. 
• Flash drive-Collect new or used flash drives for our trainees to use in job search. 
• Support SVdP socials - Buy a ticket to at least one fundraising event. 
• Happy feet- Donate a new pair of shoes or raise money to purchase new shoes to be given out at our podiatry clinic every month. Our goal is to collect 80 pairs of shoes. 
• Help a trainee find a job- Donate or help us raise money for a job search tool kit, to include: resume paper, folders, pens, portfolio’s etc. 
• Provide interview outfit for graduating trainee- Organize a professional clothing drive, work with friends, neighbors, family and provide for our trainees’ job search. 
• Backpack school supplies – Ensure a child is prepared to go to school ready to learn.  Hold a school supply drive or raise funds to purchase school supplies for our annual back-to-school giveaway on August 4. 
• Coat drive – Help keep our clients warm.  Organize a coat drive and donate to SVdP. 
• Does your company match? - Check into your company’s matching program when you donate to potentially double your donation. 
• Hold an e-waste drive- Over 2 million tons of electronics are dumped each year and only about 25% of those electronics are recycled.  Hold a drive and help us divert electronics from landfills. 
• Layette set drive – Donate a layette set or raise funds to purchase layette sets for children in the Women’s Visitation Center. 
• Toy drive – Help put a smile on a child’s face during the holidays!  Donate a new toy or help raise funds to purchase toys for our annual Christmas give-away. 
• Diaper Drive – Host a diaper drive and bring the donations to SVdP. Our Women’s Center is always in need of wipes, baby powder, and diapers, especially in sizes 4, 5, and 6.