At Giving On Another Level, our scope of outreach requires significant resources to assist homeless, hungry, abused and addicted men, women and children. Donation drives for much-needed items help supplement our resources and help stretch our budget. We have a variety of donation drive opportunities for items like food, toiletries, clothing, school supplies, water and much more. Our needs change from month to month based on what our partner organizations’ needs.
Giving On Another Level found their purpose by initially providing a meal to the local unsheltered community. This opened their eyes to a true need in their backyard and ignited their passion and desire to do more for their neighbors in need. While they have branched out into other service projects, ensuring people have the resources to quality and healthy food is always a priority.
G.O.A.L. recognizes that if someone is physically hungry, they are less likely to be successful in whatever they do. Hunger makes it difficult for a child to concentrate at school, which can effect many other areas such as their social and physical development.
G.O.A.L. continues to provide a warm meal every month in the Manassas area to a large unsheltered camp. Additionally, G.O.A.L. conducts and assists with local food drives to ensure local emergency food pantries are stocked throughout the year.
It is hard for many of us – adults or children – to imagine celebrating a child’s birthday without a party or presents. However, for many of the families we serve finding the extra money to afford a child’s birthday celebration can be a struggle.
G.O.A.L.s Birthday In A Backpack project helps these families by providing a small (8-12 place settings) “party in a book-bag” for a child in need. This project gives other children the opportunity to learn empathy by helping other children, and is relatable since every child loves a magical birthday.
Every day most people go about their daily lives doing grocery shopping, planning and preparing a meal, organizing a home or planning a budget. Each of these tasks is a life skill. Life skills that many people take for granted, but they are essential to living independently. Some homeless people do not have some or all of these essential life skills, whether they never acquired them growing up or the skills have been lost during periods of homelessness. Helping homeless or near homeless people acquire these life skills can assist them to move forward from homelessness and rejoin the community as a contributing member of society.
Life skills training differs from the other forms of support sponsored by G.O.A.L. Our intention, in teaching life skills, is to promote self-sufficiency. There are three broad categories of life skills;