The Season for Giving: 5 Local Non-Profits that Could Use Your Help!

December is here and with it comes the pressure to spend that money.  Consumerism is at an all-time high and Christmas time takes it up a few notches.

Every ad is telling you what the “best gift” is for him or her, businesses are having big promotional sales, and the message being sent is that spending your money is synonymous with holiday cheer. Although there is nothing wrong with buying gifts for loved ones, ’tis the season for giving back!

While there are many global and national charities to donate to, I’m a big fan of giving assistance to local organizations. Charity starts at home right? This is usually a tight financial time for most of us so consider teaming up with a group of friends, and pooling resources to make a donation or contacting the organization to find out what kind of non-cash donations they accept or what volunteering opportunities are available.

Here’s my list of five local organizations doing great work in Austin, Texas that could use our help!

Youth Rise Texas 
is an organization dedicated to uplifting the voices of young people harmed by criminalization and deportation so that they may heal, take action, and cultivate compassionate communities.Cultivate directly-impacted youth as long-term leaders for justice by facilitating creative change work around criminalization and deportation

Youth Rise Texas has three goals:

  1. Cultivate directly-impacted youth as long-term leaders for justice by facilitating  creative change work around criminalization and deportation
  2. Change public opinion about target issues and win local campaigns to make Texas a safer place for all families
  3. Facilitate space for community-building and transformational healing

Community Advocacy & Healing Project is a community focused organization working to provide inclusive and humanitarian spaces for people of the global majority, women, children, and elders to receive holistic aid to restore their communities effectively and sustainably. The goal is to build community through healing and human centered advocacy,events and programs. Education, mobilization, and organization and love are the cornerstones of this organization.

Boss Babes ATX is a Texas-based nonprofit that amplifies and connects women and nonbinary creatives, entrepreneurs and organizers. They create space to catalyze multi-industry coalitions, promote intersectionality across platforms, share our crafts, seek guidance and provide each other with practical and emotional resources. Boss Babes core tenets are diversity and inclusion, arts empowerment, personal and professional curiosity, collaboration on creative entrepreneurship.

Creative Action aims to empower and educate youth through the transformative power of creative expression, social and emotional learning and social justice education. Through a suite of in school, after school and community-based programs, they ensure that all central Texas youth have access to high-quality arts-based programming that equips them with critical life skills.  Every program uses arts learning to inspire young people as Creative Artists, Critical Thinkers, Courageous Allies, and Confident Leaders, to help them ultimately become successful adults who thrive in their careers and relationships and contribute to their communities.

Kuwa Kubwa Community School s an alternative education collaborative for Black and Brown children. The school began as a two-hour per day education program and was one of Black Sovereign Nation’s pilot initiatives. Now, Kuwa Kubwa exists as a full day program and year-round school serving grades Pre-K through 8th. At Kuwa Kubwa the belief is that community must cease to depend on institutions of white supremacy to educate our children. Black Sovereign Nation works with students and their families to provides in home and cooperative education alternatives for Black and Brown students (free of charge).

I’m Lily. A mother, entrepreneur, dancer/choreographer, foodie, fitness professional, and music lover who loves to experience the best of everything. Since moving to Austin 3 years ago I’ve made it a point to jump in and experience all that this city has to offer. You can find me eating chicken wings at the Rolling Rooster, practicing yoga with Grow your Lovespace, on the dancefloor at Body Rock or busting a sweat at Twerk N Burn among other places.

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