Helping Our Partners

Continue to support our partners outside of Generation SERVE activities.

Register your family to join our list to be notified about our Family Volunteering activities and programs.

REGISTER HERE

Help Local Food Pantries and Food Banks

• Cleaning out your closets while your family is home from school? Make t-shirt bags for Travis County Food Pantries using this YouTube tutorial. Bring the completed t-shirt bags to the Generation SERVE offices when we re-open or to your next Generation SERVE activity and we will donate them for you.
• Host a virtual food drive for Central Texas Food Bank! You can find instructions on their website here.

Create Cards & Wallets for Those In Need

• Create cards for children with chronic illness - please use positive messages such as "Stay Strong", "You Are Awesome", "You Rock", "Never forget how amazing you are", "I hope you have a great day", or "Be Brave". Bring completed cards to the Generation SERVE offices when we re-open or to your next Generation SERVE activity. We will be sure to follow CDC guidelines and wait 10 days before handling or sending the cards to Cards for Hospitalized Kids.
• Make cards and duct tape wallets for people experiencing homelessness served by Front Steps. You can find instructions here. Bring completed cards and wallets to the Generation SERVE offices when we re-open or to your next Generation SERVE activity and we will be sure to donate them for you.
• Make birthday cards for Pop-Up Birthday for children and teens in foster care - The cards can be simple or embellished. Write a small message inside and when you're finished, mail them to Pop-Up Birthday at 101 Westlake Dr. Ste. 210, Austin, TX 78746.

Helping People Experiencing Homelessness

• Make Covid-19 hygiene kits or snack bags for clients of Caritas of Austin! To make the Covid-19 hygiene kits you will need: Plastic bags (like ziplock bags); Cloth mask or bandana; Water bottle; Disposable gloves; Bar of soap; Vitamin C packets; and a Handmade cheerful card to include in each bag! (It's okay if you don't have all of these items.) To make the snack kits you will need: Plastic bags (like ziplock bags); Variety of easy to carry snacks such as: Boxes of raisins; Granola bars; Nuts; Slim jims; Crackers; Pretzels; Water bottles; Vitamin C packets; and a Handmade cheerful card to include in each bag! (These should all be pre-packaged snacks. Just 3-4 items is fine!)
• When you are finished with your kits you can drop off at: Caritas of Austin, 611 Neches St., Austin, TX 78701.
  
• ​Drop-Off Instructions: Please call 512-479-4610 the day you plan to drop off so our staff is ready to collect your donation. For our staff’s safety, as well as yours, we are asking that all donations be dropped off at our loading dock on the side of the building – directly across the street from the ARCH on 7th, there is a brown garage door. Ring the doorbell and our Pantry Aide will collect the donations.

Social Solidarity

​​As the community self-isolates, please consider ways you can provide social solidarity to others - reach out by phone, text, email, Skype, or FaceTime, or letter to community members you may not usually visit in this way.

• Marbridge Foundation offers safe residential care for adults with cognitive disabilities. The residents typically have very active day-to-day lives and frequent visitors, but they have had to shelter in place without visitors recently. Please write up-lifting cards, filled with jokes and pictures, and send them to the residents of Marbridge, c/o Becca McPherson, PO Box 2250, Manchaca, TX 78652. 
• Share resources for families who will struggle with their kids' time away from school - Austin Independent School District and Round Rock Independent School District are offering curbside meals to students 19 and under. Visit the AISD website or the RRISD website for information.
• If you are fluent in at least one language other than your native language, check with Translators without Borders to help translate medical texts or translate for crisis response. You can find the Translator Application Form here.
• Do you know how to sew or want to learn? This Facebook page is organizing people to create mask covers to prolong the usability of the masks worn by healthcare workers.

Learning and Serving in Nature

• Check out eBird, the world's largest biodiversity-related science project. Contribute your bird sightings through their website here and learn about the more than 100 million bird sightings they have already catalogued.
• Zooniverse gives people of all ages and backgrounds the chance to participate in real research with over 50 active online citizen science projects. Check out available projects that you might be able to contribute to here.
• Help Pease Park Conservancy with social distancing litter removal and ragweed removal! Check out the Pease Park website for information about locations and what ragweed looks like and tips for removal. Register as a volunteer so Pease Park can keep track of volunteer hours! If the park is crowded or busy, please try to find another park or come back another time. Alternatively, pick up litter in your own neighborhood or nearby park!

Drives & Online Fundraisers

• Consider supporting Foster Angels by making a donation to provide a family with access to groceries or to cover the rent for a young adult who may not be able to work right now.
• Organize an online fundraiser for Operation Warm. Use your time in these weeks to gather gently-used coats to donate.

Serving Animals

• Support Austin Humane Society by buying food and supplies for pets waiting for their forever home. You can send supplies to the shelter at 124 W. Anderson Lane.
• Support Austin Humane Society by making toys for the animals! Here's how to make dog toys, and here's how to make cat toys. You can either mail the toys or drop them off in the donation bin at the Austin Humane Society in the front of the shelter at 124 W. Anderson Lane, Austin, TX 78752.​
• Austin Animal Center announced via a Facebook post that they are not currently taking any pets brought to the facility. The community should facilitate bringing lost pets back to their owners. Here is how to reunite lost animals with their family.
  • Submit a Found Animal Report by calling 311 or using the Austin 311 app.
  • Take the animal to any Austin fire station or recreation center, a veterinarian, emergency animal hospital, or pet store to have the pet scanned for a microchip.
  • Post the pet as found on sites like Nextdoor, Craigslist, and Austin Lost and Found Pets.
  • Hang flyers where the pet was found as most pets are found less than 1,000 feet from their home.

Be a Good Neighbor

• Decorate your driveway with sidewalk chalk with inspiring messages and pictures for people to enjoy while on walks!
• "Going On a Bear Hunt" - encourage your neighbors through NextDoor or social media to put teddy bears in their windows so families on walks can try to find all of the bears in the neighborhood.
• Virtually organize a neighborhood scavenger hunt!