GFWC/Ohio
Federation of Women's Clubs
Home Life Community
Service Program Collaborative & Partnership
Collaborative
Chairman: Renee Maiorca Partnership
Chairman: Peggy Boyd
District
Chairmen:
Northeast Margaret Petrosky
Northwest Pat McElroy
Southeast Pam Legg
Southwest Kathy Combs
Objective: To help create a better Quality of Life
for all those in our Communities by providing opportunities and resources to
help meet their needs, as well as to introduce club members and communities to
“partner organizations” and other resources that help improve the lives of
those in need.
Goal: Educate - - - Inform - - - Create Change
through Action
Educate your Community to services
available to them. Set up “Help Links”
to outside local, national or international organizations on your club web-site
and have information available on financial matters, health and social issues
which might include; retirement investing for women, how credit effects a
woman’s life, surviving the death of a spouse and wills and other legal
documents.
Hold mini seminars on issues relevant
to your Community and let others know about resources available to
them through your State Treasurer’s
Office, Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, civic leaders,
and the Social Security
Administration as well as financial web-sites and identity theft centers. Make
this
project even BIGGER by linking
together with other OFWC clubs. Contact
local newspapers and ask if you
may submit information on these
subjects to a column read by women. Find
Partners in these areas on the
GFWC website.
Goal: Hunger, Housing and Homelessness
Volunteer at local soup kitchens,
food pantries or missions.
Hold canned food and clothing drives
for those in need. Donate tomato, pepper
and other edible plants to
mission or shelter residents. Teach them to care for the plants and how to
can them in the fall.
Help a local family in need get
through some tough times due to health issues, unemployment, loss of a loved
one or just the trials of everyday
living.
Work with a local women’s
shelter. Organize “Soap for Hope” Drive,
collecting laundry, dish and body soaps
& package them for those in
need. Learn and partner with Habitat for
Humanity. What can you do? Do they
need tools? Do they help the elderly re-vamp a home so
that they can remain in it?
Goal: Be aware of the Health and Welfare
issues of others.
Enhance the lives of the elderly or
disabled in your community. Volunteer at
your local nursing home.
Develop and implement programs for
disabled children and adults to help provide them with social activities
in which they would not otherwise be
able to participate.
Provide information regarding health
related issues such as; heart health, breast, cervical and other cancers,
shingles and preparing for the flu.
Hold a
Publish “healthy” recipes in your
monthly club newsletter.
Start an exercise program or “fitness
challenge” for your club members and invite others to join.
Partner with the March of Dimes and
organize a “March for Babies” walk in the month of March. Have
club members fill baby bottles with dimes
for your club to donate to the March of Dimes.
Hold a “Bone China Tea” for mothers
and daughters to raise awareness about Osteoporosis. Have a mini
Health Fair for Osteoporosis
awareness, with bone density tests, exercises, nutrition information and,
include
pharmacists and physicians as
speakers. Partner with Easter Seals,
tour a nearby facility and raise funds
for “Cartridges for Kids Recycling”,
an Easter seal recycling program.
Goal:
Plan projects around and celebrate monthly GFWC Home Life Community Service
Programs
January: National Poverty in
February: American Heart Month, National Wear Red Day
(2/4/11 & 2/3/12), and “
March: American Red Cross Month, National Consumer
Protection Week/ Internet and Identity theft
April: Cancer Control Month, World Health Day
(4/7/11 & 4/7/12) & National Financial Literacy Month
May:
Older Americans Month, National Arthritis and Stroke Month
July:
National Retirement Planning Month
August: National Immunization Month
September: National Savings Week, World Alzheimer’s Day
October: National Mammography Day (3rd Friday)
November: National Alzheimer’s Disease Month
The Home Life GFWC
Partnerships emphasized thus far for this administration are:
Alzheimer’s Association www.ALZ.org
Canine Companions For
Independence www.CCI.org
Easter Seals www.EasterSeals.com
Habitat for Humanity
International www.Habitat.org
March of Dimes Birth
Foundation www.MarchOfDimes.com
National Heart Lung and
Blood Institute www.NHLBI.NIH.gov
National Osteoporosis
Foundation www.NOF.org
Women’s Institute for a
Secure Retirement www.WiserWomen.org
Check the GFWC Manual for
additional Home Life related dates to celebrate.
Clubs are encouraged to
continue working with the GFWC Resource Organizations from previous
administrations, as they have longstanding national relationships with the
General Federation of Women’s Clubs (not only GFWC/
| Information on other GFWC/Ohio Community Service Programs and Committees | Return to the OFWC home page. |