Gateway Community Services - Volunteering
 Are you looking for a fun and rewarding way to volunteer?
Well, volunteering with Gateway Community Services will provide you with a rewarding and life-changing opportunity to work with youth in our programs.
Gateway Community Services provides a variety of services to homeless, troubled, and/or displaced youth. Some of these services include transitional living and emergency shelter, otherwise known as the Crossroads Program and Higher Ground.
In the Crossroads and Higher Ground programs, our volunteers have the opportunity to work directly with youth between the ages of 13-21. The Crossroads program is structured to help youth transition from dependency to total independent living. Our volunteers are able to work with the youth teaching them basic living skills that will allow them to become independent and ready to transition out into their community and the real world. The Higher Ground program offers emergency shelter for runaway and homeless youth and crisis intervention. Both program offer counseling for the youth and their parents.
Our volunteers gain intrinsic rewards for their time. They are able to reap the benefits of being able to change lives in our programs. They are able to be a support system to the youth. They are able to show the youth the basic ropes of how to go out into the community and survive. They listen to the youth. They talk to the youth. They help tutor the youth, find resources, laugh together, cook together, and other important skills that will benefit the youth in our program.
As a volunteer, you will work alongside with our Direct Care Staff and Clinical team in order to understand the daily activities of what is involved in caring for the youth. We treat our volunteers as staff and our youth look up to our volunteers as positive role models.
We are looking for volunteers that will be consistent. A youth comes from a home or a place that was considered inconsistent, and looks for consistency within our program and with our staff. We have many ways that you can volunteer within the Crossroads and Higher Ground programs. We also have other programs that provides Education and Employment services to youth, teaching youth about Violence Prevention, and seeking helpless youth through the Street Outreach Program.
Here's how you can help:
Research homeless issues with your friends and family and help your friends and neighbors understand the problem as it relates to your community
Let struggling young people know about Gateway’s programs and services and help them connect with us through our Administrative Office @ 517-351-4000, or any time after hours and on weekends @ 517-882-7217
Assist as a co-instructor in the VIPP classroom and help prepare projects for artistic expression
Share a skill or hobby with youth in shelter. Come in and teach them how to sew, how to change a tire, how to care for a garden, etc
Be a mentor to youth who lack positive, supportive adult role models
Collect clothing, hygiene supplies, blankets, first aid supplies, children’s toys, baby items, etc. to give to our youth on the street and in shelter
Come into the shelter and work with youth on cooking and nutrition
Hold a non-perishable food drive in your neighborhood or community
Help tutor youth who are struggling in school or needing to improve their reading and math skills
Teach computer or other job building skills to youth
Grow a vegetable garden and donate some of the food to the shelter
Hold a winter coat drive and collect coats, boots, hats, gloves, and scarves for teens
Gather art and school supplies from your friends, neighbors, and local grocers
Put together hygiene baskets full of toiletries and linens
Sponsor a homeless youth for their birthday or during the holiday season
Have a meal or other benefit to raise money for runaway, homeless, and struggling youth
Bring your whole family to the shelter to help with yard work (raking, weeding, planting flowers)
Prepare a meal or some baked goods and drop them off at the shelter
Help out in the administrative office by answering phones, filing, sorting mail, preparing spreadsheets, and other office tasks
Hold a back pack drive in your community and help homeless teens return to school prepared
Join the Street Outreach Team as a volunteer and talk to homeless youth on the street, helping them transition from the street to shelter
Sponsor a youth for a hair cut or some free passes to the gym
Donate your gift certificates
Help baby-sit so teen parents can attend important counseling and case management appointments
OR, bring us your idea of a way to help.
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If you are interested in volunteering, please contact our Residential Program Manager, Tatanisha Worthey:
E-mail: tworthey@gatewayservices.org
Tel: 517-882-7217
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