Grateful Gatherings: Help a local family transition from homelessness to a home
December 12, 2017 •
Photo courtesy of Grateful Gatherings
We at UCOP have been given the opportunity to help local families transitioning out of homelessness by working in partnership with the Bay Area non-profit organization Grateful Gatherings.
Consider what it would be like to find yourself without a home, especially if you have a family to care for. Yet with the cost of housing soaring, more and more people in the Bay Area have found themselves in that situation due to evictions, medical bills or loss of employment. Just making it through each day becomes an ordeal, especially for those with children. Securing safe shelter is a life-changing event that enables people to take other steps to improve their situation.
Grateful Gatherings helps local families achieve this step by providing quality donated furniture and household goods to those transitioning out of homelessness and poverty. In an effort being led by our Business Resource Center (BRC), we at UCOP will be working with Grateful Gatherings to help two families in the Bay Area who will be moving into their new home. All UCOP staff can help by donating goods or funds, and/or being part of hands-on help to deliver items and set up the new home. Any help you can provide is welcomed!
How it works
After visiting with the family, the Grateful Gatherings team makes a wish list of needs, and sends it out to their list of donors (currently totaling 600). Donors sign up to donate gently used items they already own or purchase new ones to fulfill the list.
On the day of the Gathering event, volunteers collect, sort, box and label all donations. Everything is loaded in a rental truck and delivered to the family’s home that day. Volunteers then unpack the donations and help set up key locations such as the kitchen, ensuring that the family feels welcomed in their new home and cared for by their community.
How you can help
If you would like to volunteer with your UCOP colleagues to help our selected families, you can sign up at: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0f4eafa62fa5f85-volunteer.
If you would like to donate to this cause, you can do so at https://gratefulgatherings.org/donate/
If you have any questions or want more information, please contact Jenia Sevillano at Jenia.Sevillano@ucop.edu or 510-987-0382.
More:
In just two years, Grateful Gatherings has served over 375 people in Oakland, Lafayette and San Bruno. Their goal is to spread this simple but powerful model across the greater Bay Area so that more households can be served. Find out more about this organization at their website: https://gratefulgatherings.org.
This is a great way to help fulfill our mission of public service. This organization let’s you help a family get off of the street and back into a home by donating time, furniture and/or cash donations.