United Way of Larimer County is here to help you manage a project that best suits you and helps the community.
We’ve put together a few resources below to get you started with your project. Please continue reading and review the Frequently Asked Questions dropdown for more information.
Service To Go projects are ongoing, fun DIY projects that can be completed anywhere, anytime. They can be created at your business, school, faith-based group, or home, and they provide meaningful resources for individuals, families, and children in need. United Way of Larimer County works with local nonprofits to identify ongoing needs in the community. Projects range from “thinking of you” cards for homebound citizens, to first aid kits and non-perishable food packs for homeless individuals, to books and activity kits for children staying at a local shelter. Your contribution makes a powerful impact!
Education is the foundation for a child’s future stability and success. Young children cannot afford to miss out on the fundamentals of education at a crucial age due to stress or transitions at home. These projects are a way to help further children's basic learning abilities and improve individual cognition through interactive learning:
Basic needs are vital to individuals with chronic conditions and for individuals and families in crisis needing temporary support. When individuals are unable to meet their immediate needs, it becomes more difficult to focus on long-term goals such as employment, sustainable housing, or education. These projects provide essential items and help ensure basic needs are met:
Poverty creates a vicious cycle of economic uncertainty, and many people in our community are walking a financial tightrope. We must address the financial stability of individuals and families in our community to break the cycle of poverty and broaden the financial tightrope into a sustainable path. These projects help provide a little something extra, so families can free up funds for other important items:
United Way of Larimer County can support you with:
Consider the interests and skills of you or your group.
Consider your group size and the time you have to dedicate to the project.
Consider your budget.
Several of the projects require materials that you may have on hand, such as markers, paper, and glue. Read through the list of projects and choose one that is lower cost or requires these “on-hand” materials.
You may also consider the following options:
Refer to the Service to Go Time Breakdown. Understand that these times are approximate, and your group may likely move quicker than you planned. Be prepared for this situation.
Each project toolkit listed has its own set of materials needed and instructions. If you’re completing the project with a group, consider making one on your own first so you can show an example to your group and share tips.
Be sure to also consider how you will transport the completed projects. Plan to have boxes or containers for the finished products and appropriate transportation to get them to United Way.
Each project listed has been identified as an ongoing need in our community. That means our nonprofit partner recipients will gladly take any number, any time!
Reflection helps to answer the “what, so what, now what” questions of volunteering, allowing you to think critically and more deeply understand your role and the project’s importance. Reflection also allows for dialogue around what was challenging about the project, what was unexpected, and other insights or lessons learned. Reflection can also bring about a call to action, challenging you to apply what you learned to further benefit the community. Without reflection, volunteering can seem episodic or unintentional, and the importance of it can easily be missed or forgotten. Reflection helps you to address important questions and helps you to share your experience with others.
It is up to you! Some groups prefer to go through the reflection together as a conversation, and others are able to reflect on their experience better individually.
You may even choose to reflect together first as a group, and then have each person fill out their own reflection page.
However you choose to do it, we still like to capture the volunteer information. If you choose to reflect as a group, please provide the information at the top of the reflection page for the group as a whole, and include the individual names and emails, and submit to United Way of Larimer County.
Each project toolkit has a reflection page attached. Please fill out the reflection page individually or with your group, and submit the page(s) with your project to United Way of Larimer County or your group contact. United Way collects this information so we can recognize the hard work of each volunteer.
Maybe. Please contact your probation office for their policy and process around Service-to-Go projects. United Way of Larimer County is not in a position to facilitate, oversee, or authorize Service-to-Go projects for any court-ordered individual, though we will happily accept and distribute the completed projects.
To drop off a project you must make an appointment by emailing s2g@uwaylc.org. We are located at 525 West Oak Street, Suite 101, Fort Collins, CO 80521.
If you are part of a group and you are not the group lead, please give your completed project to your group contact, so he or she can drop off the group’s projects altogether.
United Way of Larimer County partners with over 200 nonprofit organizations in Larimer County. We assess the needs of our partners as we receive the projects, and we distribute the items accordingly.
Service-to-Go projects provide meaningful basic needs and resources for individuals, families, and children in need in Larimer County.
While United Way and our partners work to move those in poverty into prosperity, these projects are much-needed gifts from the community, serving as a reminder of how much the community cares. Each project toolkit explains the purpose and impact of the project depending on the population receiving the items.
FOR MORE ASSISTANCE, PLEASE EMAIL S2G@UWAYLC.ORG.
525 West Oak Street, Suite 101
Fort Collins, CO 80521
970.407.7000
(fax) 970.407.7009
office@uwaylc.org
Copyright 2015 United Way of Larimer County