September Beyond Belief Network Roundup!
By GO HumanityWe just finished rounding up reports of what teams in our volunteer network did for their communities in September!
Recognitions
Please welcome new team Haitian Freethinkers! We partnered with this organization for our response to the Haiti earthquake disaster in August, which raised over $10,000 for impacted communities.
Team of the Month goes to Humanist Community of Central Ohio (HCCO). Four volunteers from HCCO (along with volunteers from fellow BBN team Central Ohio United Non-Theists) picked up trash for eight hours along their strip of adopted highway!
Picture of the Month (above) goes to Austin Atheists Helping the Homeless from their 12th anniversary giveaway event! It shows off some of the 263 month-long bus passes they were able to distribute to unsheltered people. Clients described these bus passes as game-changers in light of the city’s ongoing crackdown on unsheltered people.
Food Security Project
Five teams receiving support through FBB’s Food Security Project donated 297.50 volunteer hours in September, directly impacting 767 beneficiaries!
Here’s how that broke down:
Atheists Community of Polk County (ACPC)
This powerhouse team:
- Met twice for their Street Warriors program, which hands out food directly to unsheltered people
- Met three times for their Weekends Without Hunger program, which provides weekend food supplies to food-insecure elementary school students
- Met twice for a cleanup of their adopted highway, removing 19 bags of litter altogether
Austin Texas Humanists at Work (ATXHAW)
This team shifted their big monthly giveaways north as the City of Austin continues clearing out urban camps. They’ve also started partnering with a church that has an established connection with the homeless community. The team reports this endeavor is off to a great start and they’re looking forward to continued growth.
Austin Atheists Helping the Homeless (AHH)
In addition to the bus passes mentioned above, 19 volunteers distributed 213 bags of food, clothing, and other essentials! The team reported that those they served were emotionally overwhelmed, telling volunteers how the much help these items would be.
Atheist United (AU)
At their big monthly giveaway, this team gave out 75 46-pound grocery kits, serving 264 household members altogether!
As usual, AU volunteers also made time to record readings of print ads for visually impaired people, which air on a podcast by Audio Information Network of Colorado.
Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix (HSGP)
HSGP has been joining with Project Roots Gardening, a Phoenix nonprofit that teaches community members how to grow their own food. They also feed those with food insecurities from local community gardens and a mobile kitchen service! HSGP helped harvest vegetables from garden boxes and clear the beds for new crops.
HSGP also had 12 people show up for their crocheting club, which knits sleeping mats for unsheltered people from plarn — a durable, comfortable material made from plastic bags. This program has been attracting new volunteers each month!
BBN At Large
Kenya Humanist Alliance
This eastern Africa team ran their Orphanage and Rescue Centre: a project through which they educate their community on the importance of agriculture and the need to share food resources with vulnerable people.
This month’s project benefitted 45 people in need — 26 of which are orphans and rescued girls adopted by the organization. The remaining 19 people are elderly or people living with disabilities.
Southeastern Virginia Atheists, Skeptics, & Humanists (SEVASH)
This team has an ongoing partnership with other local organizations and community members to maintain a freestanding food pantry in the town of Newport News. SEVASH contributed approximately 108 pounds of food to the box in September!
Central Ohio United Non-theists (COUNT)
Three COUNT volunteers worked in the kitchen of a local shelter preparing and serving food for a total of 7.5 hours!
Later, they ran their monthly blood donation meetup at an area Red Cross, then helped adaptive athletes kayak through Adaptive Sports Connection.
Central Florida Freethought Community (CFFC)
This volunteer team removed debris at a local six-acre park and tidied up about 2 miles of adopted highway. The team reports that everything went great… other than having to deal with the usual Florida heat!
We thank all these teams for their hard work and can’t wait to see what they get up to next.
