Gathering Humanity
In the spring of 2016, a resettlement agency contacted a Chandler resident, asking if she could help collect needed items for an arriving refugee family.
The woman joined a Facebook group for Chandler residents and invited others to donate items. The response was so overwhelmingly positive, a number of arriving refugee families received needed assistance, and a warehouse was used to store surplus items.
This experience led to the creation of Gathering Humanity, a volunteer-run nonprofit organization. Since its inception, thousands of people from across the Valley have helped to welcome thousands of refugees.
Gathering Humanity helps to provide household goods for four local resettlement agencies. While the primary focus remains refugees, Gathering Humanity also collects and distributes basic household goods for other vulnerable populations, including those timing out of foster care, families coming out of homelessness, and those impacted by violence and trafficking.
People who would like to help Gathering Humanity can volunteer at one of its two locations, by donating items, or participating in the biannual baby shower. They can also “adopt” a refugee family or donate filled stockings for the Gathering Humanity Christmas program. The organization is also qualified for Arizona's state tax credit program.
GatheringHumanity.org
Armer Foundation For Kids
Jennifer Armer founded Armer Foundation For Kids at the beginning of 2019 with one key mission in mind: to support children with extreme medical needs.
Armer, who co-owns Armer Air along with her husband Matt, noticed that as their Ahwatukee HVAC business grew and she got to know more people in the local community, she met a number of families with children facing extreme medical conditions and struggling to find ways to pay their medical bills.
To help these families, she volunteered to organize yard sales, blood drives, and other fundraising efforts. Around the same time, Matt suggested that she start her own nonprofit organization.
“We believe a family's main focus should be on the welfare and health of their child, not on medical bills or other financial burdens,” Armer says.
To support Armer Foundation For Kids, attend one of the organization’s events or a DIY workshop; details are on the website. There is also a Ways to Help page on the organization’s website, which lists options such as taking part in a blood donation, sponsoring an event, donating to the Arizona Tax Credit, or linking the nonprofit to a Fry’s account.
CeCe’s Hope Center
Founded in 2017, CeCe’s Hope Center’s mission is to improve the lives and futures of women ages 18 to 24 who are at risk for, or victims of, sexual trauma and human trafficking. The organization achieves this by bridging the gap in critical services and support.
Lea Benson, former CEO of StreetLightUSA, and former Vice-Mayor Rene Lopez of Chandler were inspired to start the nonprofit organization after observing that survivors who had aged out of the foster care system often struggled to support themselves and stay on a positive path.
CeCe’s Hope Center provides transitional housing, case management, and wraparound support services. It serves a particularly vulnerable population that intersects girls who have aged out of foster care, homelessness, and sharing the commonality of being victims of a heinous crime.
To help CeCe’s Hope Center, people can donate needed items. The organization posts a regularly updated Wish List on its website. People may also attend the annual Night of Light event.
CeCe’s Hope Center is a qualified tax credit organization, which means contributions from Arizona tax payers qualify for a dollar-for-dollar tax credit.
Packages from Home
Packages From Home was founded as a response to the events of 9/11. The day after witnessing the fall of the Twin Towers in New York City, Christian Lewis enlisted in the U.S. Army infantry. During his deployment to Iraq in 2004, Christian’s mother, Kathleen Lewis, regularly sent him care packages.
According to Chrisitan, the packages not only contained needed and familiar items, they also reminded him of the support and appreciation from those back home. After learning that Christian was the only one in his squad who received them, Lewis and her friends “adopted” the others and sent care packages to all of them. This was the inception of Packages From Home.
The organization’s mission is to serve active duty U.S. military members stationed or deployed overseas, including military working dogs and K9 teams. They also assist homeless, transitioning, and at-risk veterans by providing them with requested food, hygiene, and entertainment items.
Supporting Packages From Home through monetary donations is always appreciated, as is donating items. Interested groups can also host Packing Party events.
St. Vincent de Paul
St. Vincent de Paul feeds, clothes, houses, and heals the vulnerable across the Valley, including the Chandler community. Vincentian volunteers have been serving the Chandler area since 1987, after forming a local presence out of St. Mary’s Parish.
The nonprofit organization operates a network of more than 80 neighborhood food pantries, five charity dining rooms, transitional shelters, a resource center for the homeless, bill assistance and homelessness prevention programming, as well as a charity clinic with medical, dental and wellness care for the uninsured.
In 2023, St. Vincent de Paul increased its daily meal production from 4,500 meals to 7,000 meals. As SVdP Associate Chief Operations Officer Danielle McMahon notes, having volunteers across all of the food assistance areas is now especially critical.
“We hope the community will consider serving in our charity dining rooms, sorting donations in our central food bank, and prepping meals alongside our kitchen staff,” Saldivar says.
“We even have a new opportunity to directly help support the increase in shelter meals. Volunteers can serve in our ‘shelter plating’ opportunity, helping us dish up meals in to-go containers to truck out to the different shelters in our community.”
Kid in the Corner
Francine Sumner founded the nonprofit organization Kid in the Corner three months after her youngest son, Zach, took his life at the age of 16.
“Our mission is to shatter the stigma that surrounds mental illness and to support the ‘Kid in the Corner,’ whoever that may be,” Sumner says.
The nonprofit helps to educate and spread awareness about mental illness; teach kids the importance of reaching out to others who are struggling; promote “contagious kindness,” which encourages them to be kind to each other and themselves; and connect the community to needed resources.
Kid in the Corner’s educational program is called Penny Pledge. Designed for students in grades 4 through 12, it strives to eliminate the stigma around mental health. Kids wear pennies around their necks, on keychains, or on backpacks as a physical reminder to reach out to others and be kind.
So far, more than 30,000 kids have taken the penny pledge, Sumner says.
Kid in the Corner welcomes donations through its website, and those interested can advocate to have Kid in the Corner programming added to their child’s school.