Finally, an inclusive and modern youth charity program
Unlike other more traditional youth charity organizations, we have built our program to be flexible, inclusive, and modern.
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Open to all: moms, dads, guardians, and kids of any gender identity
Traditional youth charity leagues are all grounded in rigid identity models of “Mothers and daughters” or “Mothers and sons”. We’re open to anyone as long as the child has an accompanying adult guardian (18+).
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An inclusive not exclusive membership
We think that if you want to do good, you shouldn’t be put on a long wait list or excluded because you don’t ‘fit the mold’ or haven’t been ‘invited in’. Everyone is welcome to become a member as long as they pass some very basic background checks and requirements.
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4 non-profit volunteer opportunities per year
We partner with known and vetted local non-profits in the area that can really use the assistance of our members—whether it be in volunteer time, donations, or other donations in kind. We’ll be targeting 4 non-profits each year for any given Chapter, but we may add additional events based on the community need.
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Youth not parent led
Leadership doesn’t come from just following someone else’s instructions; it comes from making your own decisions and charting your own path. Our youth will be given tremendous leeway to make key decisions and run the local Chapters in a way that best meets their needs and the needs of the local community.
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Purposeful not fancy events
Although we believe that legacy and tradition can have a place for certain things, we don’t want to spend even an iota of our energy or limited resources on it. So there won’t be any fancy balls or tea-times here. But there will be many fun and productive events, focused on helping others.
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Yearly vs. multi-year commitments
Although we’d love a given Chapter to stay together for years, we also know the world changes and priorities change. So we offer a lot more flexibility in term of joining or leaving a Chapter.
Some organizations we supported in 2024
We are actively in the process of identifying non-profits we will be supporting in 2024. The actual Chapter members will decide on which additional charities to support as the year progresses.
Dignity Moves
DignityMoves works to end unsheltered street homelessness in our communities by building Interim Supportive Housing with rapid, cost-effective, scalable solutions. Building more permanent housing is ultimately the way to end our housing crisis. Yet permanent housing is expensive, and takes many years to build. In California, our emphasis on building permanent housing has resulted in 72% of people experiencing homelessness being literally unsheltered.
Samaritan House
www.samaritanhousesanmateo.org
As one of San Mateo’s leading nonprofits, Samaritan House-San Mateo is the largest food distribution agency in the county and is recognized as a role model in the community. Their free service offerings include shelter and housing assistance; medical and dental clinics; clothes for children; personalized case management and much more. Each year, they provide services and resources to more than 14,000 low-income and homeless San Mateo County residents in need, including families with children, seniors and individuals living with a disability, veterans and homeless adults.
LifeMoves.org
LifeMoves Mountain View is a welcoming, dignified, and safe interim housing community that offers a private unit for each household – whether a family, a couple, a single adult experiencing homelessness – while providing intensive case management and support services designed to return people to stability.
With 100 units and ADA-compliant buildings for case management, educational workshops, dining, recreation, laundry, and even a pet area, LifeMoves Mountain View is a modern, comfortable place to temporarily call home.
San Francisco-Marin Food Bank.org
Before the pandemic, one in five neighbors was at risk of hunger. Now, we know the need is even greater. We address hunger head-on – from our food pantry network and home-delivered groceries to CalFresh (food stamp) enrollment. Every week, over 53,000 households count on us for food assistance. 60% of what we distribute to them is fresh fruit and vegetables.
… and many more to come
Common Questions
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To join us, simply fill out the registration form under the ‘Join-Us’ section of the site. Each member of your family will need to fill out one form. Or, if you have questions please use the ‘Questions?’ area of the form to give us a holler and we’ll get right back to you.
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Membership is super simple. There is a $50 per year fee for any household member, regardless of age, pro-rated depending on when during the year you join.
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There is no hours requirement because we strongly believe that volunteering should be voluntary! We want you to want to volunteer. We plan to have four organized chapter-wide volunteer events a year and our members can join all the ones they can.
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Of course. The program has been designed to be flexible.
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This is also great. The only requirement we have is that all children must be accompanied by an adult for any activity or meeting.
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For some of the philanthropic projects we may be asking contributors to purchase materials, prepare and deliver meals, etc. This will vary by the non-profit and will always be optional. And we’ll always strive to find community projects that don’t require any additional spending on your part.
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Our goal is to open up this program to any child over 8 years old. However for our very first starting Chapter, we will be restricting it to 12 years and older. Any child under 18 needs to be accompanied to the events by at least one adult.
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We believe that in-person meetings are the best in terms of relationship building, community building, and more and will strive to have most of our meetings and events in person. That being said, we may use virtual meetings for planning sporadically when convenient or if the need arises.
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The chapter-wide meetings will take place during our organized volunteer events that we plan to have four times a year. We will use these meetings to share any upcoming events and solicit ideas and suggestions for planning. We also want members to meet and get to know each other better, which we believe is important to build a community.
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Unlike other non-profits that might keep your full membership, if you have to leave us for whatever reason and would like to get membership credit, we will prorate your membership fees based on the month that you leave.
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In the future when we open up additional Chapters, our vision will be that you can rotate into any chapter for whatever reason.
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Of course, if you want to join us part-way through a membership year, we will prorate your membership based on your starting month.
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If you are interested in starting up a Chapter in your area, we’d love to speak with you in more depth. Please fill out the relevant form on the ‘Join Us’ page and we’ll be sure to get back to you.
