It’s easy to get caught up in the holiday fever that often consumes us when stores begin hawking their holiday wares in July and radio stations start streaming non-stop variations of “Carol of the Bells“ when sandals are still on our feet. This year, Cityview recommends that you make time in your busy schedule to give back to local organizations that spend every day of the year—not just the holiday season—working to improve the community and the lives of others. So stop channeling Scrooge and take a page from Tiny Tim’s book—it’s the perfect time of year to help others.
Become a leader to many at Tribe One
Since 1991, when Tribe One was founded by late former councilman Danny Mayfield and current councilman Chris Woodhull, the organization has operated as a haven for under-served children and young adults looking to become more well-rounded citizens through leadership development, education, and entrepreneurship. And while the mission hasn’t changed since it was conceptualized, what has changed is the age of those benefitting from Tribe One’s activities.
“We’ve not changed the DNA of the program or the organization at all,” says Stephanie Davis, Tribe One’s Executive Director. “The mission is still the same, the vision is still the same, but as far as who we serve, that’s changed a little bit and through what programs.”
Now primarily serving kids in third through eighth grades, Tribe One offers programs like the six-week summer Freedom School, where dozens of area students read novels and participate in discussions. The program operates under the umbrella of the Children’s Defense Fund, and is one of only 150 Freedom Schools in the United States. “The really cool thing about this program is that it’s rooted in literacy,” says Davis. “It cultivates a love of learning and reading by exposing kids to books that are relevant to them, their community and family, and who they are.”
Students can also take advantage of Tribe One’s after-school program where they are encouraged to read, work on homework, and enhance knowledge through different activities. “We started a structured after- school program—not just a hang-out spot—to enhance what’s happening in public schools, like trying to help kids pass TCAPS,” says Davis. “We just want to be another resource, another tool in the community to make sure all the kids are getting the skills, resources, and knowledge they need to be successful.” A girls’ mentoring program, Harambee, offers young women the chance to interact each week to discuss educational and professional goals, as well as develop relationships with adults and peers.
Go to Tribe One’s website at www.tribeone.com or visit their office at 2112 E. Magnolia Ave. to learn more about how to become a volunteer.
Donate time to help those who are helping themselves at InterFaith Health Clinic
In the historic Fourth and Gill community near downtown Knoxville, InterFaith Health Clinic has cemented itself as a beacon for those who are working hard and simply need a little extra help when it comes to health insurance.
“We’re here to provide health care for the working uninsured,” says Ally Ketron, Outreach Coordinator at InterFaith. “We provide primary medical care and dental care for our existing patients, and we also do mental health care and provide prescription medications for our patients, too. These are people who work really hard to do their part in the community and they just are unfortunate enough to not have health insurance. It’s just really nice to know that there’s an organization working to help out the people who are themselves working to help the community.”
The clinic, which has about 350 patient encounters each week, strives to help those in a special bracket who do not have enough income to see a private physician, but make more than those who are able to go to the health department. “We’re trying to reserve our resources for people who really can’t get it any other way,” says Ketron.
InterFaith is currently accepting new patients, and it’s easy for someone to find out if they can take advantage of the organization’s resources. “Patients can get an appointment set up or check to see if they’re qualified by calling the front office,” says Ketron. “We don’t accept walk-ins, because it really clogs up the system, but anyone in the front office can walk you through to see if you qualify.”
Check out InterFaith’s website at www.interfaithhealthclinic.org for additional information about volunteer opportunities and donation information.
Use your musical chops to train aspiring musicians at The Joy of Music School
When James Dick founded The Joy of Music School in 1998 with the goal of providing free music lessons to underprivileged children in Knoxville, little did he know that his idea would one day grow to be featured on the March 6, 2011, episode of the ABC show, Secret Millionaire.
JOM serves more than 150 students each week and provides instruments to practice on, both at the school and at home.
“We feel very strongly that helping a child learn an instrument is going to help them in school, in their future, and in their career, because you have to learn discipline in order to achieve success with your interest,” says Jackie Travis, Manager of Volunteer Resources. And for these students, whose instruments of choice include piano (the most popular at JOM), guitar, cello, and saxophone among others, increasing their musical aptitude happens only with the help of volunteers.
“We have 65 volunteer teachers now, and we have a goal to have 100 by the end of December,” says Travis. “We’ve been fortunate over the last year to have a lot of media attention, but the need is still very great.”
The multi-talented volunteers range in age and lifestyle, from UT music professors to computer programmers to high school students, but they share the common goal of wanting to pass on music to those who are unable to get it otherwise. “It’s not a requirement that someone be a professional musician or be trained in college,” says Travis.
Visit The Joy of Music School’s website at www.joyofmusicschool.org to fill out the volunteer form and learn more about the organization.
Help create a home from the ground up with Habitat for Humanity
Times have changed since pioneer days, and no longer does the head of the household start chopping down trees to build a log cabin for his family. But luckily for many in the area, Knoxville Habitat for Humanity is more than willing to create homes from the foundation up for deserving families.
“We’ve built almost 450 houses in Knox County alone,” says Dan Hurst, Director of Communication. “There’s a lot of work being done to eliminate poverty housing.”
For more than 25 years, the Knoxville chapter of the national organization has worked with many volunteers and groups in the area to create simple and affordable homes for those who need them most. And, according to Hurst, being a piece of the building puzzle is an invaluable experience—especially when a new homeowner receives their house keys at the home dedication ceremony.
“There’s absolutely nothing like seeing the satisfaction from the homeowner when they receive their keys and mortgage coupons, because they work for a couple of years to get to this point to become a homeowner—it’s not a handout, it’s a lifetime dream of theirs,” says Hurst. “And the volunteers know they’ve helped this person’s dream come true. It’s very touching to see the culmination of all that hard work that everybody puts together come to fruition.”
Visit Knoxville Habitat for Humanity’s website at www.khfh.com or call their office at 523-3539 to speak with the volunteer coordinator about year round volunteer positions.
Help others learn to be bookworms at Friends of Literacy
Reading is a skill that people often take for granted. But for many citizens in the Knoxville community, it’s something that was once thought to be an unattainable goal, and for 20 years, Friends of Literacy has worked to help those who have struggled with reading improve themselves.
“One in six adults in Knox County lacks a GED or high school diploma and one in ten adults cannot read or write above a sixth grade level,” says Melissa Nance, Executive Director of Friends of Literacy. “We offer free classes for those students.”
Friends of Literacy offers several programs, including the New Readers class, which offers instruction for beginning adult learners and is held twice a week at historic Knoxville High, and the Learn Now class, which allows adult learners to receive the help they need at several different locations in Knoxville, including Montgomery Village Apartments, Fountain City United Methodist Church, and Pond Gap Elementary School.
“Our New Readers class is the only class in Knoxville for adults who want to learn to read,” says Nance. “It’s nice to be able to feel like you’ve changed a person’s life, and even though I’m not the teacher, I can feel like the work I’m doing plays a part in helping those students turn around their lives. We helped approximately 570 people get their GEDs last year, and we served 2,500 students. I meet a lot of great, like-minded people who want to make a difference in the world and I feel like, one person at a time, we are changing lives.”
Check out Friends of Literacy’s website at www.friendsofliteracy.org for more information on how to start volunteering or how to make a donation.
Join other globetrotters as they prepare to travel to events with Remote Area Medical
Who says you have to stay close to home to be a do-gooder? Remote Area Medical, the nationally recognized organization that has donated countless hours providing free medical care at more than 650 events across the country, is always in search of volunteers in the Knoxville area to do weekly prep work as well as travel with the team to different locations, says Stan Brock, the founder of RAM.
“We are the biggest provider of this type of all-volunteer, free medical and veterinary care in the United States,” says Brock. “In our decades long history, we’ve had over 65,000 volunteers in the field, but the vast majority of the volunteers we’ve had aren’t from Knoxville—they’re from various parts of the country where we take our services. We have a tremendous shortage of volunteers here in the Knoxville area.”
Brock and his team at Remote Area Medical commit many hours each week preparing for massive travel events, where they pack up boxes of supplies and medical equipment into RAM’s fleet of trucks and planes. And Brock is quick to point out that volunteers don’t need any sort of prior medical training—they simply need to be ready to serve in a variety of possible roles, from truck driver to eye exam chair assembler.
“We need volunteers of all descriptions—young, middle-aged, and senior citizens,” he says. “We need doctors and dentists and veterinarians obviously, but the people that get there ahead of the doctors or dentists or veterinarians are people like me whose only skill is knowing how to put together the portable dental chairs.
You don’t have to be a dentist or an eye doctor to know howto do that.”
Check out Remote Area Medical’s website at www.ramusa.org to learn more about the organization and how you can help those need get the services they require.
