There are opportunities all around to get involved with your local community, but you may sometimes struggle to find them. If you live in or around the Denver area, here are three organizations working to build community and help others in the process.
Denver Children’s Home works with traumatized children and families to restore hope and health to their lives. They do this by offering a comprehensive array of services, including therapeutic, educational and community-based. The organization is a pioneer in using trauma-informed care and brain-based research.
How to get involved
You can support Denver Children’s Home by volunteering with a group or as an individual. Groups can volunteer to cook meals, cleaning the home, planning an event or outing, maintaining the garden or more. Individuals can volunteer to maintain the onsite library, serve as a reading buddy or tutor, do administrative work, and more.
Art for the Nations helps to provide children around the world with art supplies. Creating art is a large part of child development, and many children have no access to it. Since their start in 2004, they’ve given out over 23,000 bags filled with art supplies, which is enough for over 1 million children to create their own artwork.
How to get involved
There are a few ways to support the mission of Art for the Nations. You can visit their boutique, where all proceeds are used to purchase art supplies. You can work painting canvas bags and filling them with art supplies, either by yourself or with a group of people. If you belong to a mission or service team, you can take a bag and give it to children in need to let them experience the joy of creating their own art.
Denver Urban Gardens provides neighborhoods with necessary resources for starting a community garden and helps with securing sustainable land, designing and building the garden, and supporting garden organization, outreach, leadership and maintenance. They currently operate more than 170 community gardens in Metro Denver. The gardens provide food for local communities in addition to forming community bonds.
How to get involved
Denver Urban Gardens offers various volunteer opportunities for anyone looking to get involved. You can volunteer to perform maintenance and general upkeep on one of the gardens throughout the city, with a group of up to 20 people. If you’re really passionate about the cause, you can enroll in a 10-week course to become a Master Composter or an 11-week course to become a Master Community Gardener. After receiving training for either of these courses, participants then share their knowledge with other volunteers.