Needs From: Konza United Way

Prepping to paint and painting areas in the shelter. The inside of the shelter sees a lot of wear and tear. We have several spots that need to be touched up. When the shelter looks taken care of, it's easier to get clients to maintain that level of care.

Volunteers will be given a dollar amount to buy food from the grocery store and restock the blessing boxes around town. Plus organizing kitchen restore!

Weeding flower boxes and barrels that we grow vegetables in, spreading rubber mulch on playground to cover the mat underneath, leaf clean up, putting screens on windows, and raking our turf. More outdoor clean up projects might be added, but they would be along these lines!

The Way Early Learning Center seeks to empower children in poverty to achieve their full potential. Many behind-the-scenes details are needed to keep our organization running excellently, such as the projects listed, but they are difficult to do on our own as we are busy working with the children, so it would be so helpful to have a few individuals come help us out with these behind-the-scenes projects so we can keep moving towards fulfilling our mission with the children.

Scraping and painting the exterior of the 4-H popstand. This project would provide the popstand a facelift. The popstand serves as a fundraising hub for 4-H and community groups year-round at CiCo park.

Includes making food boxes and hygiene bags that are the backbone of our operation. We serve over 200 families just out of our Manhattan office alone.

In/outside could use a good spring cleaning and revitalization of our spaces before the start of our busiest time of year - summer! This includes painting, grounds clean up, interior deep cleaning, etc. We focus on the children and programs first, which means things like deep cleaning, raking, and painting get bumped to the bottom of the list. We want the community to see how magical Wonder Workshop is, and first impressions matter!

Prepping bags of food for the Stamp Out Hunger event. There are 35k bags to prepare, so anything helps!

Volunteers are an essential part of our agency.  The Crisis Center, Inc. volunteers can assist staff with daily routines, lending a hand in the offices, performing small handy work, organizing donations, yard work, interacting with clients, playing with children, providing transportation, staffing outreach booths, answering hotlines, and could become a Police Response Advocate.  No matter what you are interested in, we will find the right fit for you! If you are a student, you can use your volunteer time for school hours if needed.

All volunteers must go through online training is done through the KCSDV, Kansas Coalition against Sexual and Domestic Violence, website on the Coalition Manager. 

To find all information regarding the application, please visit The Crisis Center, Inc. website at https://www.thecrisiscenterinc.org/volunteering.cfm. 

We have a changeable letter sign for our early learning center that we would love help changing on a monthly basis. We have the equipment needed and would have the message and letters ready to go. This would be easier for someone who has a lift but we do have a letter changer pole that can be used instead (just more time consuming). This does not need to be done on a specific date or time, but we would coordinate the timing of fulfilling this task each month.

We need helpers to be at the pantry when people come to shop for food. Greet and check people in, help them select food items, answer questions, and overall, be a welcome presence to let them know we care. The pantry is open Sundays and Tuesdays, 2-4pm and Mondays and Thursdays, 5-7pm. Volunteers come about 15 minutes before the pantry opens and stay a few minutes after it closes to clean up. Work as many shifts a month as you want for these "shopping shifts". Email peacefullpantry@gmail.com for details.  Helpers are also needed to unpack food Tuesday and Friday mornings, from around 9-10:30am. These needs are ongoing and you can help any Tuesday or Friday you are able to. If you commit to helping with an actual shopping shift, we'll need you to keep that commitment or let us help find a substitute. Thank you!!

Thank you for volunteering to help our community's charities take advantage of donated truckloads of books, cleaning supplies, household items, and other non-perishables, graciously provided to our community. 

Through this partnership, Konza United Way is proud to coordinate volunteers to oversee the distribution of these items from the warehouse at the former Ag Press building.

Thank you for volunteering to welcome and assist our social service community members in securing donated items to support our community.

Day-of-Event Instructions for Volunteers:

1. Welcome staff from our local social service community who are looking for items available.

2. To enter, please see the lock box on the back south door...7454 is the lock box code # to get the key.

3. You are not expected to assist with moving or loading items.

4. Parking is located on the south side of the Ag Press Building. Please do not block the loading dock so the agency representatives have access.

5. Have fun!