Outreach is our newest philanthropic program, launched during the Covid-19 pandemic in keeping with our vision to serve emergency needs that pose extreme hardship and do not fit with existing Assistance League programs. Hurricanes, fires, flooding, sudden loss of income, homelessness, eviction, refugee resettlement, and more lie on the horizon and we are seeking referring partner agencies to assist in addressing unmet community needs on a one-time-only basis.

Each year during February in honor of our national founder’s birthday, we choose an urgent community need for ACTION week initiatives at chapters across the country. For 2021, our Outreach program joined with the AL Action Week committee to create a highly successful Food Drive that netted 5,716 lbs of food and $2,200 monetary donation which resulted in 15,763 meals for our community!

The Outreach Program was established because there were needs in women, children, and families in Wake, Durham, and Orange counties that did not fall under the guidelines of the original six philanthropic programs.

Special situations promoted hardship conditions in the community and specific assistance was required to help with the hardships.

In early 2021, when the pandemic began and businesses had to close, there were many individuals who could no longer work and lost their income. Quickly this became a big problem for individuals and families. With this thought in mind, it became apparent that these people needed help in procuring the food they needed to help them to survive.
At the time that this problem was identified by the Outreach Program committee, the AL Action Week committee also realized that help needed to be offered and a food drive was initiated.

Both committees joined together in this effort, and the Outreach Program accepted the responsibility of transporting food donations to the Raleigh Food Bank and Durham Food Bank.

In 2022 we again joined with our customers at the Assistance League of the Triangle Thrift Shop to collect money for the local food banks.

Future actions of program participants will depend on community needs.