UNION MISSION MINISTRIES - SERVICE PROJECT

 

accomplishments

 

A more thorough break-down of everything that this project accomplished, and what donations were received by the Union Mission Ministries:

 

• For this project, I contacted a few different organizations within my church so that I could collect donations for a homeless shelter in Norfolk, Virginia. This shelter is called the Union Mission Ministries and they provide food, shelter, clothing, and many other things for people who are down on their luck, and have nowhere to live. I informed a co-op and a youth group, who are both based out of my church, about what I was doing for my project, and asked them to help me. They were very happy to oblige, and over a few weeks, I collected boxes of items in which the shelter is in desperate need. After washing the clothes and organizing the items, I dropped them off at the shelter in Norfolk.

• Accomplishments

  • Collected 460 individual donations

  • Informed people within my community about homelessness, and how they can help and/or get involved

  • Successfully completed a semester-long project (this is the first one that I’ve had to do, so far)

  • Researched a lot about the ethical considerations of homelessness in reference to my own life, and what I was learning in class

• Skills

  • Time management

  • Public speaking

  • Thinking critically and ethically

  • Sticking to a schedule

• Experiences

  • Seeing how willing people are to give to those in need

  • How it feels to do something for others (I have done things for people before, but never on this scale)

  • Actually pulling off a project of this magnitude

• Difficulties

  • Getting people to respond

  • Actually getting started

  • Staying on track for the goals that I created

• Shortcomings

  • I wish I could’ve had more contact with the people I was helping

  • I was hoping that some of the people who donated could’ve had the opportunity to volunteer to help with the project more, but because it was a smaller project, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for that to happen

• Different approaches

  • I could have gone to UMM in the beginning to meet some of the people

  • I had more time, or a bigger group to contact, like my church, then I could’ve had more people really involved with the project.

• Further steps

  • I could make the project more wide-scaled

  • I could regularly take any donations that I have in my own home to UMM

  • I could do a small lecture about homelessness, like the statistics of homelessness in my community, what it’s like, etc.

 

 

 

Donations: (481 items)

 

• Clothing items:

  • 33 adult

  • 32 boys

  • 110 girls

  • 25 infant

  • 28 hats, gloves, and socks

  • 25 pairs of shoes

• Food:

  • 29 items of non-perishable foods

• Toiletries:

• • 46 diapers

  • 46 toothbrushes

  • 49 tubes of toothpaste

  • 37 soaps and shampoos

• Miscellaneous:

  • 15 toys and games

  • 6 books

• $50 in monetary donations (which will provide over 20 different meals)