Exploring the net impact of simple, helpful gestures.
I attended my first Project Helping volunteer event recently at Urban Peak. We prepped, cooked, and served breakfast to over 50 homeless youth. The impact of providing hot, nutritious meals to homeless youth is apparent to the volunteers. While we discussed the incredible feelings volunteering provided we also discovered how our simple act of service created impact. The impact trickled even beyond the teens enjoying pancakes, eggs, and fruit.
Jake, who works at Urban Peak performing social work, told us how much he appreciated our help. Our volunteers freed him to do outreach, case management, and to connect the kids to housing and employment opportunities. With limited staff and resources, Jake is often hedged in by providing a hot meal OR social services. When volunteers contribute their time in the kitchen teens get the benefit of BOTH. Jake has time to sit with the kids and help meet their needs. This double bottom line achievement was huge for us.
Upon our arrival Jake opens the doors, shows our volunteer group to the kitchen, thanks us in advance, and then goes straight to work on far more valuable uses of his time, talents, and passion-filled expertise. From start to finish, breakfast becomes a Project Helping-led event. Furthermore, since Project Helping provides the groceries our groups use to prepares and serve, even that simple donation means Urban Peak stretches its budgets just a bit further to feed more teens in need in the future.
Now our group begins to realize how the impact of cooking and serving breakfast starts hitting triple bottom lines.
Drop a stone in a pond and watch the ripples expand—it’s the perfect picture of our volunteer event impact, and the number one reason I love working here.