Needs From: United Way of South Hampton Roads

Join Teens With a Purpose for a meaningful Day of Caring as we come together to care for the heart of our neighborhood —  Purpose Park Community Garden, Rain Garden, Teen Center and Community Fridge. Volunteers will help breathe new life into these vital creative, green and food equity spaces by:

✅ Painting & Beautifying Raised Garden Beds

✅ Freshening Up the Community Fridge with a Colorful, Uplifting Design

✅ Weeding, Mulching & Maintaining the Community & Rain Gardens

✅ Building Community & Spreading Joy

✅ Organizing Supplies & clothing

This project supports our year round creative youth development programs, local food access, green space preservation, and community pride. Our community fridge serves neighbors in need, and our garden spaces are used for youth learning, healing, and gathering. Let’s come together to plant hope, paint purpose, and grow care, one volunteer at a time.

Whether you're a green thumb, an artist, or simply someone who wants to make a difference, there's a job for everyone!

Support Homeless Older Adults & Homebound Clients

Join us in making a meaningful impact in the lives of older adults served by Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia. By donating essential care items, you’ll help ensure that every senior in our care receives the dignity, comfort, and support they deserve.

Many older adults in our region struggle to maintain their health, independence, and quality of life due to limited access to basic necessities. Without hygiene products, nutritional support, weather-appropriate clothing, or first aid supplies, homebound and homeless seniors are especially vulnerable to illness, isolation, and hardship.

Your donation helps meet these critical needs—empowering older adults to age safely and with dignity.  Our goal: 100 care bags, 100 chances to make a difference—will you help us get there?!

How You Can Help

We are collecting new, individually packaged, small or travel-size items in the following categories:

Personal Hygiene

Clothing & Weather Protection

Food & Nutrition

First Aid & Safety

Packaging & Convenience

These items can be found at most local retailers, including Target, Walmart, Dollar Tree, and similar stores.

Together, we can bring comfort, care, and connection to some of our community’s most vulnerable seniors.

Every day, children and families in our community face unexpected crises—and in those moments, the smallest act of support can bring the greatest relief.

The Up Center is collecting gift cards to meet the urgent, immediate needs of those we serve. From a child entering foster care overnight who needs clothing, shoes, and a safe place to sleep, to a mentee in our Team Up Mentoring program who needs school supplies and personal items, or a family facing financial hardship who needs meals or transportation—a gift card provides timely, flexible support when it’s needed most.

Crises don’t wait, and neither can we. Because storage is limited and needs often arise without warning, gift cards allow our team to respond quickly and compassionately—easing stress, removing barriers, and helping families focus on healing and stability during life’s most difficult moments.

Your gift is more than a card—it’s a lifeline. 

Gift cards to places like Walmart, Target, grocery stores, or restaurants are immediately put to use by our team to bring comfort, dignity, and practical support to those in need.

Join us in bringing hope and relief to children and families in crisis. Please use the following link to support The Up Center's Day of Caring Gift Card Drive. Thank you for your support. 

Drop-offs can be designated to:
580 E. Main Street, Ste 400. Norfolk, VA 23510

222 W 19th St. Norfolk, VA 23517

At ForKids, art is a great way for families and children to process trauma. Having a creative outlet enables them to decompress and hopefully focus on taking the necessary steps to stable housing. Being surrounded by art is a great way to be inspired, a great way to escape day-to-day stress AND art is one of the ways that ForKids raises funds to support programs. Last year’s annual Art Auction raised just under 1.8 million dollars (IN ONE EVENT). Your team can support an art session with shelter families. We will provide the artist, you supply the snacks and extra adult hands. Your team can also construct art kits for our art class participants. Art kits will also be shared with our shelter team so children in shelter can be provided with a way to express themselves. Lastly, time dependent, we have a 30-foot section of fence that needs to be repainted with a pollinator themed mural.

Wish list for Day of Caring (Supplies for 100 art kits and snacks for art session)

100 Drawstring backpacks

100 packs of colored pencils

100 packs of colored markers

100 Pink erasers

100 pencil sharpeners

100 pairs of children’s scissors

200 glue sticks

200 mini sketchbooks (4 inches by 4 inches)

200 pencils

Snacks/drinks for 25 people

We have a patient who is very excited to have her room painted! We need a small team of volunteers to cover furniture, move small belongs, and paint the walls.

We have a family in need of some volunteers to fortify or replace their fence!

We need help delivering fresh meals, as well as shelf-stable meals for winter weather closures, to our homebound older and disabled neighbors! Our volunteers report that delivering meals, performing safety checks, and connecting with seniors in our community is a rewarding and fulfilling experience. Nearly 40% of MOW Chesapeake participants would see no one for a week or more if it weren't for their delivery volunteer, and 97% look forward to seeing their volunteer each day.

Come and deliver lunch, dinner, shelf-stable meals, social connection, and safety checks to our wonderful and worthy participants!

Every volunteer gets a swag bag with a t-shirt, lanyard, some program literature, and a lunch for the road.

Please dress appropriately for the weather. You will need to drive your own car or ride with someone in your group. Every volunteer is expected to fill out a volunteer application, release of liability waiver, non-solicitation policy, and photo release (attached here).

Note for teams and groups: when registering for this opportunity, only register your team once, and only register your *drivers*. For example, if you are a small team of 3 and would like to ride together, only register 1 volunteer. If you are a large team of 30 and would like to ride in groups of 3, only register 10 volunteers.

When MOWC staff reaches out to you to confirm registration, they will ask for the total number of volunteers, and confirm that the number of drivers is the same as you registered on Galaxy Digital. If you are unsure of how to register, reach out to megan.mann@mealsonwheelschesapeake.com or call 757-312-6458 for further assistance.

Some of the seniors we serve need help with yard work on this Day of Caring! Please come and help us mow and weed some yards for the people we serve. They will be so thankful!

Every volunteer gets a swag bag with a t-shirt, lanyard, some program literature, and lunch, sponsored by a local restaurant like Taste or Chick-fil-a, for the road.

Please dress appropriately for the weather and the work. You will need to drive your own car or ride with someone in your group. Every volunteer is expected to fill out a volunteer application, release of liability waiver, and photo release.

Our volunteers report that delivering meals, performing safety checks, and connecting with older homebound adults in our community is a rewarding and fulfilling experience. Nearly 40% of MOW Chesapeake participants would see no one for a week or more if it weren't for their delivery volunteer, and 97% look forward to seeing their volunteer each day. 

Please note: most participants do not have mowers. You/your team will need to bring a mower and other implements for yard work. We will reach out in advance to coordinate.

We need 4-5 small 14 passenger buses washed exterior and interior

Get your hands dirty on the Elizabeth River Trail! Join us Friday, September 26, from 9 AM to 11 AM to help with trail beautification. We'll weed, pick up litter, and paint some fun stencils on the trail. No previous gardening experience needed! We'll be working with Norfolk Master Gardeners to identify the invasive plants that need to be removed and the beneficial plants to leave. 

Some weeding tools and garden gloves will be provided, but bring your own if you have them. Don't forget your water, bug spray, and sun protection. Closed-toed shoes are required and long pants, versus shorts, along with long sleeves, are recommended. The ERT will have some water and snacks available as well. 

We will meet at the trailhead shelter at Plum Point Park. Type "Parking for Plum Point Park" in your maps app. Limited parking is available at the park, but there is a parking garage at 301 Riverview Ave.

We will be organizing and packing up items to move to the new campus buildings. There will be indoor and outdoor volunteer work