Create a Better Charlotte
Create a Better Charlotte – ENGAGE NOW
100 Gardens
Providing hands-on learning opportunities by implementing aquaponics programs in schools, institutions, and in communities of need.
A Child’s Place
A Child’s Place works to erase the impact of homelessness on children and their education.
https://www.achildsplace.org/help-for-homeless-kids/about-a-childs-place/
A Sign of the Times of the Carolina’s
A Sign of the Times shares Black History through performing arts with the community by exploring contributions of Africans and African-Americans in the history of the world.
https://www.asignofthetimes.org/
Alexander Youth Network
Alexander Youth Network provides quality professional treatment to children with serious emotional and behavioral problems through a variety of individualized treatments.
http://www.alexanderyouthnetwork.org/
Allegro Foundation
Allegro Foundation combines movement instruction with educational and medical expertise, creating new techniques to teach children with disabilities and enhance their quality of life.
http://www.allegrofoundation.net/home0.aspx
Arts+
Arts+ provides outstanding arts education to students of all backgrounds and ages who then carry what they learn throughout their lives, using the skills they develop to create a more vibrant world around them.
Assist M.E.
Assist M.E. takes in gently used medical equipment to gift to low income, uninsured patients in our community who lose their mobility to injury or illness maximizing their ability to regain both mobility and independence.
Assistance League of Charlotte Operation Check Hunger
Assistance League of Charlotte Operation Check Hunger provides backpacks of food to children in need in CMS schools.
https://www.assistanceleague.org/charlotte/philanthropic-programs/operation-check-hunger/
Assistance League of Charlotte Operation School Bell
Assistance League of Charlotte Operation School Bell provides new clothing, mid-year school supplies and hygiene kits for children in need in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS).
https://www.assistanceleague.org/charlotte/operation-school-bell/
Assistance League of Charlotte Teen Court Program
Assistance League of Charlotte Teen Court Program provides provide juveniles with no previous convictions a second chance when they admit their guilt, agree to be tried by a jury of their peers, and take responsibility for their actions, thus avoiding a permanent criminal record.
https://www.assistanceleague.org/charlotte/philanthropic-programs/mecklenburg-county-teen-court/
The Assistance League of Charlotte Scholarship Fund
Assistance League of Charlotte Scholarship Fund provides scholarships for camps and classes for needy children including college based on community service, academic performance and financial need.
https://www.assistanceleague.org/charlotte/philanthropic-programs/scholarships/
Augustine Literacy Project
The Augustine Literacy Project-Charlotte works to improve the reading, spelling and writing skills of low income children who struggle with literacy by recruiting, training and supporting volunteer tutors who provide free, long-term, one-on-one instruction using research-based methodology.
Baby Bundles
Baby Bundles provides baby essentials to families in financial need in the Charlotte area, helping them get a positive start with their baby.
Bechtler Museum Jail Arts Initiative
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art Jail Arts Initiative partners with the Mecklenburg Co. Sheriff’s Office to provide hands-on art-making workshops with both youth offenders and adult inmates at Jail Central and Jail North.
http://www.bechtler.org/Education/Jail-arts-initiative
Being There
Being There distributes food, and cooks for those in need while facilitating interfaith dialogue. The group began with Muslim volunteers and expanded to include members of the Charlotte Interfaith Young Adult Council as well as several congregations of different faiths.
http://www.uri.org/who-we-are/cooperation-circle/being-there
Boys and Girls Clubs of America
The Boys and Girls Clubs of America strive to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.
Brave Step
Brave Step strengthens adults impacted by sexual abuse by providing meaningful steps on their healing journey. Personalized care plans offer inspiration, education and connection for survivors and their loved ones.
Bright Blessings
Bright Blessings brings joy, care and hope to children in need by mobilizing community volunteers of all ages who provide services including birthday celebrations for children, newborn essentials, books, school supplies, and snacks.
https://www.brightblessingsusa.org/
Camino Community Center
Camino Community Center provides comprehensive and multicultural health and wellness services to low-income families.
http://caminocommunitycenter.org/
Camp Blue Skies
Camp Blue Skies offers camps to adults with developmental disabilities, enhancing their lives through recreation, socialization and life skills education.
https://www.campblueskies.org/ourstory
Care Ring
Care Ring provides health services for the uninsured, underinsured or those lacking access to affordable, high-quality preventive health care.
Carolina Family Connection
Carolina Family Connection recruits, trains, and supervises family foster care homes providing the best care possible for children who need out-of-home care.
https://www.carolinafamilyconnections.com/
Carolina Refugee Resettlement Agency
Carolina Refugee Resettlement Agency assists with the local integration process including finding housing, applying for social benefits, finding employment and moving toward self-sufficiency within a short window of time.
The Center for Community Transitions
The Center for Community Transitions helps individuals and families affected by incarceration to obtain stability and happiness.
http://centerforcommunitytransitions.org/
Changed Choices
Changed Choices provides mental, emotional, physical and spiritual assistance to highly motivated women both during their incarceration and as they transition back into society with the goal of self-sufficiency.
http://www.changedchoices.org/
Charlotte Bilingual Preschool
Charlotte Bilingual Preschool provides dual-language early childhood education as well as family support through parenting, life skills and English-language classes.
https://www.bilingualpreschool.org
Charlotte Emergency Housing
Charlotte Emergency Housing works to solve family homelessness by empowering families to achieve life-long self-sufficiency through shelter, housing, supportive services, and advocacy.
https://charlottefamilyhousing.org/
Charlotte Rescue Mission
Charlotte Rescue Mission provides free, high-quality substance abuse recovery programs to members of our community who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford such services.
https://charlotterescuemission.org/
Charlotte Symphony Music for All
Music for all welcomes community members with EBT cards to attend any Charlotte Symphony concert for per ticket, best-available seating, beginning 1 hour prior to any performance.
http://www.charlottesymphony.org/music-for-all/
Charlotte Symphony Healing Hands
Charlotte Symphony’s Healing Hands program sends orchestra musicians into area hospitals, senior care centers, and community centers, to enrich the lives of patients and residents.
http://www.charlottesymphony.org/engagement/healing-hands/
Charlotte Symphony Project Harmony
Charlotte Symphony Project Harmony is an afterschool youth program focused on Charlotte communities with the fewest resources through music and leadership aimed at providing social transformation.
http://www.charlottesymphony.org/project-harmony
Children’s Scholarship Fund
Children’s Scholarship Fund provides partial tuition assistance to economically disadvantaged children so that they may attend participating partner independent schools which most effectively address their academic, emotional, physical and/or spiritual needs.
Children’s Theater Kindness Project
The Kindness Project is an initiative from Children’s Theatre of Charlotte to develop and commission original plays for young audiences that are grounded in actively displaying kindness toward others.
Christ Episcopal Church Outreach Programs
Christ Episcopal Church Outreach Programs have the goal of reaching out and serving the world globally by assisting with building childcare centers in Costa Rica and locally working with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Crisis Assistance Ministry, and Charlotte Family Housing.
http://www.christchurchcharlotte.org/outreach/
Circle de Luz
Circle de Luz empowers young Latinas by supporting their transformation through extensive mentoring, holistic programming and scholarship funds for further education.
Classroom Central
Classroom Central equips students in need to effectively learn by collecting and distributing free school supplies to their teachers.
https://www.classroomcentral.org/
ClayWorks
ClayWorks is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of ceramic arts, advancement of artists and students, and enrichment of the communities it serves including a mobile studio allowing ClayWorks to take ceramic arts to many underserved communities and children.
https://www.clayworksinc.org/mobileabout
Crisis Assistance Ministry
Crisis Assistance Ministry provides assistance and advocacy for people in financial crisis, helping them move toward self-sufficiency.
https://www.crisisassistance.org/
CrossRoads
CrossRoads works in cooperation with Myers Park Presbyterian Church to revitalize the Grier Heights neighborhood residentially and economically with a focus on justice.
https://crossroadscorporation.org
CrownKeepers
CrownKeepers provides art and trade-based education to those lacking creative opportunities and outlets, supporting all-level artists across communities.
Dress For Success
Dress for Success empowers women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.
https://charlotte.dressforsuccess.org/about-us/
The Echo Foundation
The Echo Foundation empowers the next generation with the knowledge and tools to create a better world. The Foundation believes in the power of education to inspire students to become the voices of conscience necessary to create a future built on human dignity, tolerance and justice.
http://www.echofoundation.org/
EmpowHerment
EmpowHerment cultivates a continuous network of girls and women to be leaders in their community through mentorship, talent development, and advocacy.
Fashion and Compassion
Fashion and Compassion helps women struggling with economic mobility by creating empowerment communities where vulnerable women connect with one another and resources as their lives are transformed through making income providing jewelry.
https://www.fashionandcompassion.com/pages/about-us-mission
First Book Charlotte
First Book Charlotte helps children from low-income families read and own their own books by providing brand new books to children at no cost.
http://www.firstbookcharlotte.org/
The First Tee of Greater Charlotte
The First Tee of Greater Charlotte helps shape the lives of young people from all walks of life by reinforcing values like integrity, respect and perseverance through the game of golf.
https://www.thefirstteegreatercharlotte.org
Florence Crittenton Services of NC
Florence Crittenton Services provides comprehensive health, education and social services for at-risk or pregnant adolescents.
Food Connection
Food Connection collects fresh, unserved, surplus meals from restaurants, caterers and institutions and delivers the meals to local nonprofits who feed the hungry in order to reduce food waste and ease hunger.
Freedom School Partners
Freedom School Partners promotes the long-term success of families and children who lack access to quality summer enrichment opportunities by preventing summer learning loss through igniting a passion for reading and inspiring a love of learning.
https://freedomschoolpartners.org/
Friendship Gardens
Friendship Gardens utilizes urban farms, gardens, and markets, to help those in need access daily nutritious meals, connect to the natural world, and learn to grow their own food.
http://friendship-gardens.org/
Friendship Trays
Friendship Trays delivers nutritious meals to elderly or infirm individuals in the Charlotte community who are unable to obtain or prepare their own meals while also providing human connection to the isolated and lonely and peace of mind to their families.
GenOne
GenOne partners with talented first-generation students who are disenfranchised and guides them to and through college.
The Good Fellows Club Charlotte
The Good Fellows Club utilizes 1,700 volunteer men to help needy working families in our community providing emergency assistance to families in need throughout the year.
Good Friends Charlotte
Good Friends Charlotte is a women’s organization supporting individuals and families with financial resources to improve lives and inspire hope.
https://goodfriendscharlotte.org/
Goodwill
Goodwill is an organization that provides job training, employment placement services, and other community-based programs for people who have barriers preventing them from otherwise obtaining a job.
GreenLight Fund
The GreenLight Fund helps transform the lives of children, youth and families in high-poverty urban areas by creating local infrastructure and a consistent annual process
https://greenlightfund.org/sites/charlotte/
HandsNFeet Foundation
Hands N Feed Foundation provides the means for the less fortunate to rise out of homelessness.
http://www.handsnfeetfoundation.org/
The Harvest Center
The Harvest Center of Charlotte serves men, women, and children in the Charlotte area who are impacted by poverty, unemployment, and homelessness by offering workshops, classes, opportunities, as well as one-on-one assistance.
The Harvey B. Gantt Center
The Harvey B. Gantt Center preserves and celebrates excellence in the art, history, and culture of African-Americans and people of African descent. Sign up as a Volunteer Ambassador and work directly with visitors and staff to add to the visitor’s experience as well as provide critical behind-the-scenes support
HeartBright Foundation
HeartBright is a care clinic and advocacy organization focusing on heart disease and its related illnesses in Charlotte’s underserved community.
Hiinga
Hiings is a Christian economic development organization that creates jobs by investing in African entrepreneurs so they can thrive by funding micro, small, and medium enterprise companies in East Africa.
Holy Angels
Holy Angels provides specialized, round-the-clock care for children and adults with intellectual developmental disabilities and delicate medical conditions.
Hope Match
Hope Match offers a wide range of programs and resources to provide a “hand up” to struggling families.
Hope Vibes
Hope Vibes brings awareness, hope and real solutions to the homeless epidemic by providing dignity through personal hygiene products and building social relationships.
Hospitality House of Charlotte
Hospitality House of Charlotte provides the comforts of home for families of seriously ill loved ones by offering affordable accommodations in the heart of Charlotte’s medical community.
https://www.hospitalityhouseofcharlotte.org/
InReach
InReach provides innovative housing, employment, and community services to support people with intellectual, developmental and other disabilities as well as their families.
International House
International House helps Charlotte’s foreign-born residents successfully integrate into our community through programs such as English classes, tutoring, and legal assistance.
Joe Martin ALS Foundation
To empower families as they face the challenge of living actively with ALS by providing free home care and other services at no cost.
https://joemartinalsfoundation.org
The Junior League of Charlotte
The Junior League of Charlotte, Inc. is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, to developing the potential of women and to improving the community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers.
Justice Initiative
Justice Initiative educates the community about the court system and advocates, supports and advances its needs and interests.
http://justiceinitiatives.org/
The King’s Kitchen
The Kings Kitchen and Bakery trains and equips men and women most consider to be unemployable. Leadership and life-skills training transform those once at risk into leaders in the Charlotte Community.
The Learning Collaborative
The Learning Collaborative provides a tuition free, high quality preschool education to at-risk families through a unique partnership with our children, families, parents, staff, and community.
Levine Museum of the New South
The Levine Museum of the New South builds a stronger, more equitable community by connecting people to Charlotte and to each other through history, culture, and celebration. Volunteer to support their efforts.
https://www.museumofthenewsouth.org
MeckMin
MeckMin promotes interfaith collaboration to foster understanding, compassion, and justice by promoting interfaith relationships, racial and ethnic understanding, and addressing social issues.
Metrolina Association for the Blind
Metrolina Association for the Blind provides services to people who are blind or visually impaired.
Myers Park High School Foundation
Myers Park High School Foundation’s many programs help at-risk students succeed in high school and beyond, provide professional development for teachers, and support campus improvements.
Myers Park Presbyterian Church
Myers Park Presbyterian Church and CrossRoads Corporation partner with Billingsville Elementary School to improve third-grade reading as well as provides students with learning experiences through sports.
https://myersparkpres.org/cross/
One Charlotte
One Charlotte supports and maximizes health and quality of life through a sustainable, collaborative process by aligning resources and improving access in excluded communities.
Opera Carolina – Opera Xpress
Opera Carolina – Opera Xpress brings to life performances for young learners using curriculum-linked educational materials that help teachers integrate the performance into the classroom for a lasting experience.
https://operacarolina.org/community/#opera-xpress
Opera Carolina pARTnership CMS
Opera Carolinas pARTnership CMS works with schools to identify key skills, content, and concepts to implement an arts-activated learning approach to explore curriculum in new, engaging ways alongside teaching artists.
https://operacarolina.org/community/#partnership-cms
our Bridge for Kids
our Bridge for Kids supports the refugee and immigrant communities by offering a one-of-a-kind enrichment program for newly arrived and 1st generation American children.
https://www.joinourbridge.org/
Playing for Others
Playing for Others provides a space for teens to explore and answer the questions, “Who Am I?” and “How will I give of that?” through programming in Personal Development, Service, and the Arts.
Project 658
Project 658 is a Christ-centered, holistic ministry providing services for at-risk families in Charlotte, moving them toward sustainability; with a key focus on the international and refugee communities.
Project Life Movement
Project Life Movement increases the potential pool of bone marrow and tissue donors by testing and registering college students with a simple cheek swab.
http://projectlifemovement.org/about/
Project L.I.F.T.
Project Leadership & Investment For Transformation (L.I.F.T.) is an action plan to tackle entrenched problems and attitudes and look at solutions from a fresh perspective in 29 CMS schools.
http://www.projectliftcharlotte.org/
QC Scores
QC Scores utilizes the game of soccer to promote health and character development to youth in our city; with a focus on underserved communities.
Queen City Trykes
Queen City Trykes, Charlotte’s chapter of AMBUCS, provides adapted bicycles to children and veterans with physical impairments.
Read a Book, Earn a Book
Read a Book, Earn a Book is a student-centered literacy program offering one-on-one support for second graders in the Charlotte area. Each child chooses a book from a set of pre-selected titles and “earns” it after completion.
The Relatives
The Relatives keeps kids safe, families together, and prepares youth and young adults to be healthy, productive, engaged members of the community through a youth crisis center to help children find resources and shelter.
Renaissance West Community Initiative
Renaissance West Community Initiative created the mixed income housing village, The Renaissance, and continues to provide mixed-income housing, educational opportunities, and health and wellness services.
Ronald McDonald House
Ronald McDonald House provides a safe, affordable and caring “home-away-from-home” for the families of children receiving treatment in Charlotte-area medical facilities.
https://www.rmhofcharlotte.org/
RunningWorks
RunningWorks uses sport to empower individuals and families to break cycles of abuse, abandonment, neglect, poverty, and homelessness one stride at a time.
Samaritan House
Samaritan House is a place of recuperative care for people who are homeless and in need of short term care following a hospital or emergency room stay.
https://charlottesamaritanhouse.org/
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte provides care and encouragement to people in need every day. Services include Christmas assistance, homeless services, senior citizen housing, boys & girls clubs, adult rehabilitation center, disaster services, Camp Walter Johnson and worship.
https://www.salvationarmycarolinas.org/charlotte/
Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina
Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina supplies food and grocery items to charitable agencies that assist people in need.
https://www.secondharvestmetrolina.org/
SHARE Charlotte
SHARE Charlotte is a local one-stop shop for the community to find ways to plug in and make an impact and increase the level of community engagement.
United Way’s Hands on Charlotte
United Way’s Hands on Charlotte offers flexible volunteer opportunities for companies, individuals, and families, connecting them with service projects that have a meaningful impact in and around Charlotte.
https://www.handsoncharlotte.org/
Urban Ministry Center
Urban Ministry Center serves hot, nutritious lunches 365 days a year welcoming anyone who is in need of a meal. UMC also provides showers, laundry, mail, I.D. assistance, and other essential services thus affirming the dignity of each homeless neighbor.
https://www.urbanministrycenter.org
Veterans Bridge Home
Veterans Bridge Home helps Charlotte-area Veterans successfully transition home after military service by identifying their education, employment, and healthcare needs and connecting them to available community, state and federal resources.
https://veteransbridgehome.org/
Zab’s Place
We are a nonprofit thrift boutique in the Charlotte area that supports training and employment opportunities to young adults with special (needs) talents.