Mother's Day

With Mother's Day coming up a great gift for any mother that has EVERYTHING is to donate to a charity in her name. Women's charities are always nice on Mother's Day but really anything works. I know my family will be donating to the Humane Society for my grandma. Also, N Street Village, an organization I worked at last summer, is a great organization that provides services for homeless women.

Let me know if you have any favorite organizations you will be donating to in honor or memory of your mother or grandmother this holiday.

Hyaets

As I mentioned before, the first organization I interned with was called Hyaets. Hyaets is made up of three couples who met in seminary and decided to take a different route with their ministry by creating a community that "inspired, enriched, and embodied community". For various reasons they decided to start this community in Charlotte, NC. After doing some research, and asking people where they would NOT want to live, they settled on Enderly Park, a high-risk, low-income neighborhood that most people would steer clear of when moving to the city.

Initially when moving to the city, two of the couples moved into one house that would provide a place for them to live and eat while providing a place for the community to

gather. Since moving in, the two resident couples have made some additions to their families and have moved from one house into two. Their first addition was Jamar, a young man who had grown up in the neighborhood, and after his family stayed in the Hyaets house for a while he and the Hyaets couples decided to invite him to be a part of the Hyaets family. Jamar currently lives with Jason and Joanie and their two daughters Joy Kate and Nora. In the other house Helms and Greg live with their two boys John Tyson and Zeb. Moving from one house to two not only allowed for the growth of their families but also allows them to host community meals twice a month, provide daily children's activities, and host other short term visitors that need a place to stay.

A normal day living in a Hyaets house starts early with morning prayers,

and is usually interrupted or quickly followed up by a neighbor knocking on the door. The knock could mean anything from simply a quick morning visit to news of happenings from the night before, or even a request for a bus pass to get to work. While I said a "normal" day, there is really no "normal" day at Hyaets. Activities could range from a field trip with kids to a mothers day in. Or, on a "quiet" day could mean the opportunity to finally get around to the things that the rest of us do, like clean the house. However, these houses usually have had about 20 or more people in and out the day before so everyday cleaning isn't really what you and I think of. With all of the visitors and community members constantly stopping by I think the most interesting time of day at the Hyaets houses is meal time. Meals are always open for visitors and could end up being just the two couples and their families (now each with two kids) or could have 10 or more kids and adults alike stopping in to share a meal. The amazing part is that no matter how many people stop by, there always seems to be enough to go around. It really is a miracle.

With both couples spend a majority of their time working on Hyaets related events or activities they are all either unpaid or paid very little for the work. Most members have part time jobs on top of their work at Hyaets to pay the bills. Right now Helms and Greg are pastoring a church in South Charlotte and Joanie is the music director at Christ United Methodist Church. Jason is currently a paid member of Hyaets and is working on fundraising and development efforts.

With so much going on around the houses Hyaets not only provides services for their neighbors, but also provides the opportunity for local churches and other groups to participate in the community and create mutually

beneficial relationships. It also allows visitors to learn alongside neighbors and connect with the ministries of Hyaets. Each summer, interns join the Hyaets team to help manage the increase in work with children (then out of school) and groups coming to volunteer. Interns are welcomed into the Hyaets houses and live and work in the neighborhood for the summer, planning activities, helping out around the house, and working on all of the other things that the Hyaets members do year round.

Not only does the summer bring interns but it also provides the opportunity for retreats and mission trips. Each year Hyaets' youth have the chance to earn their way on a family spring beach trip, a summer mission trip, or to a summer camp. By participating in activities and helping out around the houses, these trips are provided free of cost to the participants and funded by completely by donations.

By becoming part of the community the Hyaets members have created a unique opportunity to impact the area while at the same time learning and experiencing things for themselves. While this is just a quick summary of exactly what Hyaets does, this article goes into a little more detail and Hyaets has a website and Facebook page that provide even more information. However, you can't beat the experience. If you're ever in the Charlotte area call the house and stop by!

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day so I feel like I should post something. My big Earth Day kick is going to be re-usable bags and bottles! So here it goes.

According to this website over 1 million bags are used every minute! There are tons of other mind blowing facts on the site if you're interested. So, in order to reduce our impact, try getting some re-usable bags. These Envirosax are my favorite. They fold up really small and are lightweight. I like to keep one in my purse and the rest in my car so I don't have to remember to grab then when I go to the store.

As for water bottles, the same website has equally interesting facts about bottle usage. So if you don't already have one, go to the store and celebrate Earth Day by buying yourself a new water bottle! There are countless kinds but this Nalgene is my favorite while my sister prefers this Camelbak. If you're currently buying water bottles, you're going to save money and at the same time support the environment. If you're living in, or visiting DC I just recently learned of an organization called Tap It that gets restaurants to refill people's water bottles free of charge. So when you're walking around the city look out for their sign and refill!

Twitter

For those of you who love their social media follow me on Twitter. I try to "retweet" articles that I find interesting. Or, if you're interested in keeping up with some Non-profits or just the Non-profit world in general check out these Twitter pages: DC Central Kitchen, N Street Village, Bread for the City, and Philanthropy.

Most of these are in DC but many Non-profits have Twitter pages now days. If you have a favorite be sure to follow them and let me know so I can add them to my list!

Obama's Donated 14% of Their Income to Charity in 2010

According this article, President Obama and his wife donated $245,075 to 36 charities last year. While most of us aren't making $1.7 million a year, if everyone donated 14% of their income to charities we would certainly start seeing some big changes.

Welcome

As my first post I'll tell you a little bit more about myself and why I decided to write this blog. If you don't care or this gets to be too much information feel free to skip parts.

As my profile says, I am a senior at Clemson University finishing up my last few weeks of undergrad. Throughout my life I have volunteered for many great organizations but over the past few years I have interned with three different Non-profits from DC to right here in South Carolina. The summer after my freshman year I interned with a small Non-profit in Charlotte, North Carolina, called Hyaets. Hyaets is "a faith based, non-profit organization covenanting to inspire, enrich, & embody community". The members include three couples, two of which live in a low-income, high risk neighborhood called Enderly Park providing services and activities for their neighbors. The second organization I interned with was N Street Village in Washington, DC. N Street Village provides services for homeless women including a day center, night shelter, wellness center, addiction recovery programs, and education and employment assistance. While at The Village I worked in the development department helping to organize and prepare for events and do everyday development activities. Lastly, this semester I have been working with Habitat for Humanity Oconee County. This organization is completely volunteer run and I had the opportunity to work in all areas including the resale store, construction, and public awareness.

I will go into more detail about each of these organizations in later posts. For now you have a brief history of my experience working in Non-profit organizations and an idea of where I'm coming from.

With this blog I hope to share with you interesting organizations I come across, including information about how they spend their money and how you can donate if you feel so inclined. I will also share interesting philanthropy and other Non-profit information I come across.

I hope you will find something that is of interest to you and would love the opportunity to hear from you about you're favorite organizations and what makes them great!