The ABC's of Getting Started in your High School

Our community service program is unique because:

• We’ve created a simple to follow program for teens to implement in their school. With little startup time you can begin to make a difference in your community quickly and easily.
• Simply collaborate with your high school administration, teen support centers in your community and you’re ready to start.

Below in 5 Easy Steps learn how to set up, operate and create results for your own community outreach program at your school.

Before you begin, brainstorm who the recipients will be. – Identify any nonprofit organizations that are helping teens in your community.

Throughout the nation, there are many organizations that are dedicated to helping impoverished youth. Here are just a few that you can contact to deliver any clothing that you’ve collected from your Threads Of Care Clothing Drive. In Nashville, TN, the TOC team works with the Oasis Center, Soles4Souls, Room in the Inn and Franklin Special School District.  If you do not have either of these organizations in your local area, try contacting one of the organizations below!

Covenant House: http://www.covenanthouse.org/
H.E.L.P. USA: http://www.helpusa.org/
Janus Youth Programs: http://www.janusyouth.org/
Larkin Street Youth Services: http://www.larkinstreetyouth.org/
Maslow Project: http://www.maslowproject.com/
National Alliance to End Homelessness:http://www.endhomelessness.org/
National Runaway Switchboard: http://www.1800runaway.org/

Call an organization to determine what their needs are, how many teens does it serve, etc. To discover the organization’s needs, contact the local director of corporate engagement, and establish a meeting. If you find that the organization needs help, tell the director that you are an Ambassador of Threads of Care and would like provide his or her organization with clothing/shoes/socks/etc.

1. Once you’ve found your community recipient, think about how you will advertise your drive at your school (using flyers, school newspapers, school broadcasting programs, morning announcements, etc.)

2. Next, have a conversation with your school’s administration about getting your Threads Of Care (TOC) clothing drive approved. (A formal project proposal will be provided for you in our TOC Tool Kit) Once the clothing drive is approved, decide where you will collect the clothing and you will distribute it.

3. Build your Threads of Care clothing drive collection boxes. Typically, you should build around 2 to 3 large boxes for your drive. Feel free to decorate them in any way you’d like! Once the boxes are built, make sure that you place the “Threads of Care” logo, provided in our TOC Tool Kit, on the outside of the box. We require that you do this so that we can give you full credit for doing the clothing drive on our website. 

4. Let the clothing come in! Keep promoting your Threads of Care clothing drive throughout the time your hosting the drive. The more clothing that you collect, the better! 

5. Finally, gather up all of the clothing, and drop it off.  Once the clothing drive is over, bag up the clothing, and take it to the organization that you’ve been working with. Make sure to take pictures! We’d love to post them on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram profiles. Also, please send in the name(s) of anyone that helped you with the clothing drive so that we can also give them the recognition they deserve! Good Luck!