Opportunities From: Volunteers United

Host a Move-In Kit Drive at your workplace, place of worship, or school and help families moving from homelessness to housing. A Move-In Kit can include:

However, there is no wrong recipe for a Move-In Kit. All household items are welcome and help families establish a fresh start. Please note that Hope House cannot accept furniture or large appliances due to limited capacity.

Why Your Drive Matters

At 6 years old, a significant portion of Brielle’s experience included being homeless. Brielle’s family had been without housing for a year, doubling up with family and friends and when that was no longer an option, staying in emergency shelters before being connected with Hope House and moving into an apartment. Shortly after Brielle’s family moved into the apartment, their Case Manager, Leslie, visited with a move-in kit of household items and cleaning supplies. Something case managers at Hope House can do with the support of your donations.

Brielle excitedly greeted Leslie, gave her a big hug, and as her family went through the supplies, she found the dish detergent and said excitedly, “and now we get to wash our own dishes!” Brielle’s excitement for a task many take for granted is a reminder of the power of your support - providing stability, dignity, and the comfort of home to families.

How to Host a Drive

Hosting a drive is easy and you know your community best. We suggest having solid start and end dates for taking collections, sharing stories like the one above, and leaning into the strengths of your workplace, place of worship, or community. Hope House can provide signs and speak to your group (when available). We do ask that donations be dropped off at Hope House (209 W. Orchard St., Milwaukee, WI) at the end of the drive as we have limited capacity for pick-ups. Schedule drop off in advance and we'll be happy to give you a tour and share more of the amazing work being done together!

UCC Schools aims to encourage a love of reading and literacy among students of all ages. To do this, we need ample books available for children's home libraries as well as our classroom libraries. You can help by donating gently used books for ages 2-14.

We kindly ask that all books be in good condition and divided by age levels:

Most books indicate what grades or ages it can be used for, or this information could be accessible via Amazon or preferred retailer. For ease of shopping, feel free to browse our Amazon Wish List. 

Please email Kiara Rosado at krosado@unitedcc.org to coordinate a book drive and schedule a drop-off. Thank you!

We would love some support to supply more Bruce-Guadalupe Community School students will school uniforms!

This would be a tremendous help for our students, families and staff to have on hand. Our uniforms are white polo shirts and navy-blue pants and sweaters. You can purchase these uniform items at Walmart or Target. 

Girls’ Uniform Needs (all sizes):

Boys’ Uniform Needs (all sizes):

Please note: we are only able to accept new clothes with tags*

Gender Neutral Needs:

 For ease in shopping, feel free to see our Amazon Wish List. 

If you have any questions or are ready to organize a drop off of new donated uniforms, please contact Kiara Rosado, Volunteer and Events coordinator, at krosado@unitedcc.org. Thank you!

Kids go through supplies like you wouldn't believe and many of our family's struggle with the financial challenge of keeping their children fully supplied and ready to learn. If you can help provide supplies, we will make sure that every child has the supplies they need to be ready to learn. Supplies that we need include: 2 pocket folders w/ prong, Notebooks, Loose Leap Paper, Copy Ream Paper, pencils, markers, crayons, colored pencils, pink erasers, glue sticks, earbuds or headphones, index cards with lines, highlighters, dry erase markers.

The Women's Shelter is always in need of school supplies. The children at the shelter normally stay for about 30 days. We want them to be able to take their school supplies with them when they leave the Shelter. This means that every day new children are arriving at the shelter while others are leaving. We are in a constant need of school supplies. We are looking for backpacks for boys and girls as well as basic school supplies. We are in need of rulers, pens, pencils, erasers,etc.  We want each child to be able to attend school with the proper supplies. Even though school starts in September we need supplies all year long.  The school supplies should cover from toddler to high school.  We always need backpacks for all ages as well.

 Contact jkavanaugh@communityadvocates.net or 414-270-2984

With the cold weather in the winter season, our schools have an increased need for clothes and accessories to keep students warm. Help keep our students safe by donating the following high-need items: 

For ease in shopping, see our Amazon Wish List. 

If you have any questions or are ready to organize a drop off, please contact Kiara Rosado, Volunteer and Events coordinator, krosado@unitedcc.org.

Our Early Childhood & School programs strongly believe in the need to play outside and get fresh air. However, many of our families struggle to provide appropriate outdoor clothing during our cold winter months. 

We are seeking donations of hats, mittens, boots, snow pants and winter jackets.

Sizes needed for boots: Children's Size 3-11.

Sizes need for Snow pants & Jackets: 2T - Adult M.

Sizes needed for Hats & Mittens - 2T - Adult M.

Contact Kim Schubring, kschubring@sjamilwaukee.org or (414) 645-5337 ext. 247 for more information.

Help start the new school year on the right foot for children in Milwaukee by hosting a school supply drive. We are in need of over 400 backpacks and school supply sets for students throughout Milwaukee. 

Items of greatest need are backpacks, notebooks, loose leaf paper, composition notebooks, pencils, pens, and folders. Items will given to young people who participant in our youth develop, community violence prevention and Muskego Way Forward Programs. 

Need an opportunity for your employees in the comfort of the workplace? Pack healthy snacks for Club members at your office location. This option will help us provide our members with healthy snacks to have after school or take home. We request a monetary or in-kind donation to cover the cost of snacks. 

Thank you for your interest in helping us to solve hunger! We have a wide variety of volunteer opportunities at our Milwaukee food bank. We welcome individuals, families, corporate and social groups. 

Volunteers participate in sorting, packaging, labeling, and cleaning projects. This could range from labeling canned goods to be shipped to food pantries, sorting meat products to provide meal programs with real protein, boxing fresh produce to send to homeless shelters, or packing bulk product into family friendly sized portions. Our staff will give you specific information about your task and assist you through your shift. Please note this volunteer activity takes place in a warehouse facility. For safety concerns, volunteers who are 10-13 years old must be accompanied by an adult for the duration of the volunteer activity.

Surfaces, equipment and tools are sanitized after each volunteer shift. We may ask our volunteers to assist us with the process.

Volunteer Requirements & Information

Due to the nature of working with mostly donated foods, volunteer projects are not always guaranteed to come in on time or at all. Volunteer shifts may need to be shortened or rescheduled if projects are completed or unavailable. We will make every effort to provide a two-week notice if volunteer shifts will need to be rescheduled.

Please register to participate through the volunteer portal on the Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin website: https://feedingamericawi.org/get-involved/volunteer/in-milwaukee/.

Volunteer Sessions

Monday - Friday: 9:00 am - 11:30 am, 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm

If you have any questions, please reach out to Adam Koebel, Volunteer Engagement Coordinator. Email or call Adam at akoebel@feedingamericawi.org or 414-831-6326.

The Silver Spring Neighborhood Center has a need for the following school supplies for roughly 300 youth ages 4-19:

Thank you for your interest in learning more about the Robyn’s Nest volunteer opportunity.  We appreciate your interest to volunteer to help us toward our goal to strengthen families and to promote overall health and well-being of children. Our agency is the state’s largest, not-for-profit provider of child welfare services.   Our primary mission at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin Community Services is to work with families to ensure the safety and well-being of children. 

Our organization hosts a basic needs repository called the Robyn’s Nest that strictly operates through the ongoing assistance of volunteers who help organize and sort incoming donations and help us ran annual drives to ensure needy families receive back to school supplies and Christmas gifts.  The Robyn’s Nest houses new and gently used clothing, hygiene products, infant items, toys, books and other household goods.  Robyn’s Nest provides these items free to the families within our foster care system as well as those identified to have unmet needs through Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.

Host a “Drive” for the the Robyn’s Nest our onsite basic needs repository. Please contact Lona Long Velasco at 414-231-4820 to learn what items the Robyn's Nest is most in need as it varies from time to time for a variety of reasons.

For the Season of Caring our greatest needs are highlighted in blue. 

The Volunteer Respite Care Program is part of Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin- Community Services. The main goal of the program is to provide community based respite events for families with children with special needs and their siblings to help reduce instances of child abuse and neglect. The program offers respite care to special needs children and their siblings, ages 0-21, in a supervised, safe, and supportive day camp-like setting.  Approximately 65 children attend each event, with each child being matched with a community volunteer, totally 150 attendees.

At each event a snack and lunch are provided to the children and volunteers that join us for the day.  The sponsorship of an event meal would have a significantly positive impact on the program.  This sponsorship could come in various forms- i.e. grocery store gift card, restaurant gift card, coordination and purchasing of the meal from a local restaurant to be delivered to an event site, etc.  If this opportunity is of interest to you, please respond to this post and a program coordinator will be in contact to explore further.

Upcoming Event Dates and Locations:

9/28/19- Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee, WI

10/26/19- MSOE, Milwaukee, WI

11/9/19- Whitnall High School, Greenfield, WI

12/7/19- Wauwatosa East High School, Wauwatosa, WI

1/11/2020- Divine Savior Holy Angels High School, Milwaukee, WI