Holiday Adoption Program

Years ago before I was working for Alternative House when I was in another career I had the fun job of doing community outreach for my company. I often worked with nonprofit organizations helping them with fundraising events. But there was one thing I always looked forward to. Each year during the Holidays my company would adopt a family or some children and purchase gifts for them. I got to do the shopping. I selected gifts from a list that was given to me by the nonprofit organization representing them. I did this for years. It became a tradition that I truly enjoyed.

For many of the young people in Alternative House programs the only Holiday gifts they will receive are those donated by people like you and me. If you, your office, faith group or family would like to adopt one or more of our young people for the Holidays we will supply you with a Wish List that each client has filled out. Then you can select the gifts and deliver them to us by December 8. We will even do the gift wrapping for you. Each of our clients has selected three gifts under $30 each. We will give size information and favorite colors. I hope you will consider adopting one of our young people this Holiday Season. This is especially fun if you have children. Let them help with the shopping and selection process. This could be the start of a new tradition in your family.

For more information on this program please contact me at gcocomello@gmail.com

Volunteers Help Alternative House

Alternative House could not serve the youth and their families in our area without the tremendous support of its volunteers. Last year alone we had 561 volunteers donating over 8,450 hours of their time. These volunteers helped the staff in our programs, prepared meals, sorted donations, held donation drives, helped us maintain our facilities, assisted with special events, and anything else that we needed help with. Our volunteers represent a wide variety of people. We have both undergraduate and graduate level interns who are working with us to meet school requirements or to gain experience in the field. We have a core of corporate and religious groups who come to the Emergency Shelter for Teens and to the Assisting Young Mother’s Program on a weekly basis to prepare meals as well as many different groups who came to our programs to do projects that help us maintain and beautify our facilities. There are individuals who volunteer faithfully on a weekly basis in our programs; working directly with the youth and impacting their lives. We also have individuals who come to our programs just once or twice to do “handyman” type of task, yard work, and donation sorting. If you would like to join our team of hard working and dedicated volunteers who give us a helping hand, then please contact us.