On Thanksgiving Day, a feast was prepared by All Saints Church to share with over 55 of our youth.  It was delicious!

During the week, we had many groups prepare and share a meal with our youth.  This is one of the most rewarding and welcome volunteer opportunities we have at Covenant House Georgia.  The individuals or groups who prepare the meal usually stay and eat with the youth and participate in other social activities before or after the meal.  In return, our youth get home cooked meals from their extended “family” members, which are always appreciated!  Often, there are important bonds formed and many return to continue to volunteer with our youth in other ways.

To learn more about volunteering, contact Jessica Parks, jparks@covenanthouse.org.

Thank you for visiting our site and we look forward to having you get involved!

Jessica likes doing traditional “girl” stuff, but on the weekends, you can usually find her rooting for the Eagles, fishing, and going to the dirt track races.

Jessica is truly the “Coupon Queen”! Every week, we hear stories of $300 worth of groceries purchased for $30. How does she do that?

In the short month Jessica has been a part of our team, she has created several volunteer opportunities to help our youth. Our Prepare and Share a Meal Program has increased in the number of days scheduled, our Christmas/Holiday Wish List is being circulated, activities are being planned, and our House is busier than ever.

Jessica has Volunteer Orientation days scheduled for the first Tuesday and second Thursday of each month. Please take a look under the Volunteer Tab for a 2011-2012 schedule.

There are volunteer opportunities to fit anyone’s schedule. Review the list and see what might be the best fit for you and your schedule and plan to attend one of her orientation meetings.

One of the easiest ways to volunteer, and one which helps the House raise money, is to volunteer for our Angles in Action Program.

Our new Development Manager, Jenna Stafford, is working with Jessica on this program.

It is incredibly easy. Basically, you start your own page, which is linked to your Facebook page, and ask people to donate any amount they choose to help us raise $30,000, which is the cost of running our shelter for one month. Anyone wishing to donate just clicks on your link.

Please contact Jessica, jparks@covenanthouse.org, or Jenna, jstafford@covenanthouse.org, to learn about how you can get involved!

On this past Thursday, however, we added volunteering to our list of activities. Instead of asking for volunteers to help our youth, our youth were the ones doing the volunteering.

In partnership with Piedmont Park Conservancy, our youth spent a couple of hours helping with the Park’s landscaping duties. The day went so well that our youth elected to do this on a regular basis. The Conservancy is going to add our youth to their list of partners.

We will be looking for opportunities for additional partnerships. If you know of an organization in need of volunteer help, give me a call, (404) 589-0163.

Giving back in-kind – very proud of our youth for doing so!

Todd Wilcher, Residential Services Director and Street Outreach
TWilcher@CovenantHouse.Org

Last Friday, we revealed 4 new apartments, which also kicked-off our newest program, Moms and Babes. We have 4 new mothers, or mothers-to-be, who will be moving into these apartments. Carter’s generously supplied traditional “baby shower” supplies for the babies and labor to assemble new furniture, paint the apartments, and help with whatever else we needed to make these apartments welcoming to our new mothers and their babies. As the mother of 2 young children, I have certainly been well acquainted with Carter’s products, and we all thank them for their help and the support they showed our new mothers.

This week, Post Properties, www.postproperties.com, has been busy at the House helping us spruce up our landscaping, including a new garden plot for our organic garden, replace worn out washers and dryers, and complete our new basketball court with new goals. The youth have really been enjoying the new court. They also brought lunch for all of their volunteers and our staff and youth! I know their volunteers, and our youth, will be really tired after such a long day, but we are so fortunate to have them here.

Check out our Facebook Fan Page, Covenant House Georgia Non-Profit, for all of the pictures from these 2 events.

If you think your company would like to volunteer, please call Jessica Parks,
(404) 589-0163, and let her know.

As the executive director of a non-profit, I know firsthand how important our partnerships are and we appreciate every one we have. Thank you!

Allison

I would like to extend a very special thank you to Carter’s as we could not have welcomed our latest “additions” without their help.

As the weather turns colder, I hope and pray we will be able to meet the needs of the homeless youth in our city. Our shelter is overflowing and we always have a waiting list.

Please consider helping a youth transition from our shelter to Rights of Passage and into a life of self-sufficiency. If you would like to get involved, donate, volunteer, please visit the pages on this site and give us a call. We would love to have you help with our next “reveal,” sharing a meal with our youth, or participating in our Angels in Action program.

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
Ralph Walso Emerson

Allison

We are always busy at Covenant House, but as we head towards Fall and the Holiday Seasons, we seem to need even more than the allotted 24 hours in a day.

On Tuesday, September 20, we are thrilled to be kicking-off The Covey, our newest volunteer guild and one which will be the most challenging for our volunteers as they will be doing everything from fundraising to various House projects with our youth.  The Steering Committee, chaired by Jane Ridall, has been working hard to kick-off this group.  We will be serving delicious barbecue courtesy of Carlyle’s Catering and providing tours of our shelter.  If interested in being a part of the volunteer group in Atlanta, please contact Leslee Purpura, (404) 589-0163 or Lpurpura@covenanthouse.org.

On the same day we kick-off our latest volunteer group, The Covey, we are debuting what will often be referred to as the best non-profit website around.  Our address is still the same, www.CovenantHouseGA.org, but the look and feel will be drastically different.  If you have not already, take a tour of the new site.  Please encourage your Friends on Facebook to like our New Fan Page, too, @Covenant House Georgia Non-Profit Organization, as we will be updating a lot of what we do using the website and Facebook pages.  And, if you Tweet, you know we do, too @CovenantHouseGA.

With school back in session, our youth are working hard and we have had a great response to our “Send our Youth back to School” drive.  As we all have experienced that new school year feel of new clothes and new school supplies, so have our youth.  Please keep our youth in mind next time you are out shopping as we are always in need of basic school supplies.  You can check out our current Wish List on the new website for ideas on what the youth need.

Angels in Action Steering Committee will kick-off October 13 with a fun organizational meeting and the campaign will run November 27-December 8 – our theme is The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Anyone wanting to get involved with this Committee, please call Jenna Stafford, (404) 589-0163, or jstafford@covenanthouse.org.  This promises to be a great event.  The theme coincides with the Season and will help ensure our youth have a happy, happy one.  Stay tuned to our Facebook and website for further details.

On November 17, we will hold our annual Candlelight Vigil.  Please check with our website for further details.  We will be holding an event at the House or you can participate virtually.  Check back for the details.

Thanksgiving is truly a time of thanks at the House.  We have so much to be thankful for – great supporters, dedicated volunteers, and a hard working staff, who don’t receive nearly enough credit for what they are able to accomplish with the resources we have.  Each year, we have groups come in and bring more food than you can imagine to help our youth celebrate on this day.  If you are interested in coordinating a Thanksgiving meal for our youth, please contact Leslee Purpura, (404) 589-0163 or Lpurpura@covenanthouse.org.

During this time, our development team is incredibly busy, putting on events, coordinating campaigns, and writing grants.  Many foundations’ deadlines are at the end of the year or the beginning of the year.  So in between everything else, our team is writing the grants which play a vital role in our fundraising goals.  If you have a relationship with a foundation – either public or private – which makes helping homeless youth a priority, please let them know about Covenant House Georgia and contact me, (404) 589-0163 or aashe@covenanthouse.org and let me know about them.

I cannot believe I am going to mention Christmas this soon as we have so much going on at the House and just makes me realize I have to start thinking about Christmas shopping for my own family and friends, but as I do, I remember that I need to include our youth in my shopping trips as well.  Christmas is such a time of joy with family.  Our youth’s family is all of us.  We will be putting together a Christmas Wish list for our youth on the new website, so check back from time to time, and whenever you choose to start your Christmas shopping for your friends and family, consider making an extra purchase for one of your Covenant House family members.

End of the year.  Phew.  As you can see, we are working hard at Covenant House.  As we head towards the end of 2011, and reflect, we are pleased with where we will be when the year concludes.  We have a new, energized development team, working hard to raise the necessary funds to continue to provide the programming and services our youth need to become independent, young adults.  As my personal last ask for the year, you will be getting a letter asking if you are looking for a tax deductible opportunity for 2011, and if you are, please consider Covenant House Georgia.  We are doing a lot of good work with the dollars you so generously donate.

Thank you so much for what you have done and what you will be doing to help our youth – and for visiting our new website!  I look forward to working with you on any or all of the projects above.

“Faith in something greater than ourselves enables us to do what we have said we’ll do, to press forward when we are tired or hurt or afraid, to keep going when the challenge seems overwhelming and the course is entirely uncertain.”

Allison