We're barely into the holiday season, and already charities are reporting up to a 30% increase in assistance requests. And while a lot of charities go the traditional route of offering food drives, soup kitchens and the like, there are a lot of outlets that are looking at doing more targeted approaches to helping the homeless this year.
For example, the New York City Rescue Mission is holding a coat drive, an annual event that takes place through November and December wherein residents are encouraged to donate their old winter coats to people who need them most.
And it seems their coat drive has caught fire elsewhere in the nation.
In Gainesville, a coat giveaway sponsored by Alpha Kappa Alpha at Mount Carmel Baptist Church Family Life Center saw 500 coats distributed to homeless folk in need, along with other pieces of clothing to help keep people warm during the winter months. In addition to community supporters, the drive was also supported by the Haven Hospice, Dominos, Target Copy, CH2MHill and the Alachua County School Board.
Pensacola is also holding their own holiday coat drive, having done so since 1992. The first year of the coat drive's action saw 100 donations. This year's goal? 500 coats. The organization in charge of the drive says they're focusing on families this year, and are encouraging donations for children and adults to make sure they have every base covered.
And then there's Atheists Helping The Homeless, who did a good, old-fashioned drive for basic needs and distributed them to homeless throughout Austin - and uploaded a YouTube video of their efforts.
Before you find your donation spot of choice, make sure to do your research to ensure your donation is actually going where it's supposed to. Sites like Charity Navigator are a great place to start. And if you're stumped for how to find a charity in your area that's handling donations of all kinds, check out Twitter. A lot of charities are tweeting these days (take Dallas Help The Homeless, for example.)
Now go clean out that closet and see what you can give to someone in need. They'll be forever grateful, and you'll do someone a lot of good!
