Projects, programs, and 66 ways to help
From vaccination clinics to firefighter dinners to free job-search training — plus a long list of concrete things any neighbor can do this month.
What we have been doing
A selection of the work AMAN volunteers have delivered in and around Will County.
Free COVID-19 vaccination clinic
Working with local health partners, AMAN hosted free vaccination and testing clinics in Plainfield — open to every resident, insured or not.
Thank-you dinners for firefighters
AMAN volunteers prepare and deliver dinners and gift baskets to Plainfield and Naperville firefighters and police officers.
The Big Serve
AMAN teams join the regional Big Serve day of action, packing meals with Feed My Starving Children in Aurora and supporting local food drives.
Cultural competency training
Interfaith speaking and training sessions with congregations, public officials and first responders across Will County, delivered with GainPeace.
Free career and employment training
AMAN runs employment programs at no cost, open to anyone in the community. Recordings of past sessions are on our videos page.
Career Success Bootcamp
A full-day intensive covering resumes, applicant tracking systems, interviewing, and the first 90 days of a new job.
Executive Job Search Seminar
Targeted coaching for senior professionals navigating a career transition.
Resume & interview coaching
Help writing a resume that survives screening software, and practice for the interview that follows.
Organizing your job search
Structuring a search, tracking applications, and staying motivated through a long one.
66 things you can do for your neighbors
You do not need a title, a budget, or an invitation. Pick one and do it this month.
Promoting Community Enhancement
- Paint park benches
- Donate used books to your local library
- Become a tour guide at your local museum
- Repaint community fences
- Plant flowers in bare public areas
- Organize a campaign to raise money to buy and install new playground equipment for a park
- Participate in or help organize a community parade
- Clean up vacant lot
- Produce a neighborhood newspaper
- Campaign for more lighting along poorly lit streets
- Create a newcomers group in your neighborhood to help welcome new families
- Petition your town leaders to build more drinking fountains and public restrooms
- Volunteer to clean up trash at a community event
- Adopt a local highway or road and clean up trash along it
- Help fix or raise funds to repair a run-down playground
- Clean up after a natural disaster
Helping Senior Citizens
- Give a ride to a covid vaccination event
- Read to residents at a nursing home
- Deliver groceries and meals to elderly neighbors
- Teach computer skills to the elderly
- Drive seniors to doctor appointments
- Mow an elderly neighbor’s lawn
- Host a holiday meal for senior citizens
- Make birthday cards for the elderly
- Donate and decorate a Christmas tree at a nursing home
- Organize a family day for residents of a retirement home and relatives to play games together
- Ask residents of a retirement home to tell you about their lives
- Pick up medicine for an elderly neighbor
- Perform a concert or play at a senior center
- Help elderly neighbors clean their homes and organize their belongings
- Rake leaves, shovel snow, or wash windows for a senior citizen
- Deliver cookies to a homebound senior citizen
Helping Animals And The Environment
- Take care of cats and dogs at an animal shelterClean up a local park
- Raise money to provide a bulletproof vest for a police dog
- Plant a tree for Arbor Day
- Place a bird feeder and bird fountain in your backyard
- Start a butterfly garden in your community
- Sponsor a recycling contest
- Grow flowers in your backyard then give bouquets to hospital patients or people who are housebound
- Help create a new walking trail at a nature center or park
- Update the signs along a nature trail
- Adopt an acre of park district park land
- Help train service dogsParticipate in the cleanup of a local river, pond, or lake
- Foster animals that shelters don’t have space for
- Organize a spay and neuter your pet program
- Care for a neighbor’s pet while they are away
- Sponsor an animal at your local zoo
- Train your pet to be a therapy animal and bring it to hospitals or nursing homes
- Build and set up a bird house
- Organize a carpool to reduce car emissions
- Campaign for more bike lanes in your town
- Volunteer at a nature camp and teach kids about the environment
- Test the water quality of a lake or river near you
- Plant native flowers or plants along highways
Reducing Crime And Promoting Safety
- Volunteer at a police station or firehouse
- Become a certified lifeguard and volunteer at a local pool or beach
- Paint over graffiti in your neighborhood
- Organize a self-defense workshop
- Organize a drug-free campaign
- Sponsor a drug-free post-prom event
- Start or join a neighborhood watch program
- Create and distribute a list of hotlines for people who might need help
- Teach a home-alone safety class for children
- Create a TV or radio public service announcement against drug and alcohol use
- Become CPR certified
- Volunteer as a crossing guard for an elementary school
Bring us a project
If your congregation, school, or department has something that needs doing, tell us. Most of our work started with somebody asking.