A 501(c) (3) Organization Addressing the Crisis of Family Homelessness
M.E.R.C.Y.
Communities, Inc.
108 E. Cook Street
Springfield, IL 62704
Phone: (217) 753-1358
FAX: (217) 753-1360
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Considerations • Mentor • Skills Sponsorship • Volunteer Stories
Considerations
M.E.R.C.Y. Communities offers comprehensive, multi-faceted services to at-risk families. Volunteers play a central role in all aspects of our programming. You may volunteer for a one time event, or on an on-going basis.
Family Services put volunteers in direct contact with family members to deliver care and support, to teach life skills classes, tutor, and help with family outings.
Support Services allow volunteers to aid the M.E.R.C.Y. staff in clerical work, raising funds, operating the furniture store, providing transportation, or doing handyman jobs.
Civic, Church and neighborhood groups may also help by sponsoring a family in the transitional living program, conducting a special drive to ensure needed resources or furnish a home.
Mentoring
Mentor an individual or family, providing care and support while walking side by side with a family on their way to becoming self-sufficient.
Share your skills by teaching a class, such as cooking/nutrition, sewing/crafts, fitness/wellness, art, writing, dancing, music appreciation, homemaking or housekeeping skills.
Tutor by sharing your knowledge of a particular subject with an individual or in a group setting (computer skills, budgeting, tax preparation, G.E.D. study, insurance literacy, etc.).
Organize an Outing by getting together with others and planning a special recreational, cultural or social outing for the families.
Skills
Support day-to-day operations by lending your clerical skills.
Help Raise Funds by joining one of the Development Subcommittees.
Assist at the furniture store.
Help Transport Families to appointments with other community providers.
Join our Handyman Team by volunteering to assemble furniture and household equipment, make minor repairs and maintain the playground and yard.
Sponsor a Family
Sponsor a Family by financially supporting a family's stay in the transitional living program.
Adopt-A-Home by committing resources to help a family furnish a permanent home when they leave the program.
Volunteer Stories
Elizabeth Sterr
The hugs that Elizabeth Sterr gets from the kids at the M.E.R.C.Y. Communities' childcare center make her time spent there worthwhile.
"The feeling that you know you're making a difference, it makes you feel better about yourself," said Elizabeth, an eighth-grader at Glenwood Middle School who has been volunteering at M.E.R.C.Y. faithfully every week for about a year.
M.E.R.C.Y. provides housing and life-skills education for homeless parents and their children seeking to make the transition into permanent housing and self-sufficiency.
Elizabeth's job is to baby-sit the children, infants to age 14, while their parents are taking parenting classes.
Elizabeth said the children living at M.E.R.C.Y. don't get to visit much with other kids, and some have emotional or behavioral problems. This makes the time they spend with volunteers such as Elizabeth invaluable.
"It made me appreciate my life a lot more," Elizabeth said.
When connecting with children of such different backgrounds, Elizabeth's strategy is to engage them in fun activities.
One girl at the center can't use her legs, so Elizabeth entertains her by playing games that involve her hands only, such as catch.
Elizabeth goes to M.E.R.C.Y. every Thursday for an hour or more. She volunteers on other days, too, if her help is needed.
"The look in the little kids' eyes, they're so desperate for love," said Elizabeth. "It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside."
— Nathan Atkinson
Appeared in the State Journal Register, Springfield IL, 9/7/04
Danielle Larson
Nominator: Vicky Moore
Danielle Larson doesn't think she is extraordinary.
She just wants to give back what people have given her.
As a former recipient of services provided by M.E.R.C.Y. Communities, a support center for at-risk families, Danielle currently is a passionate volunteer at the center.
The 16-year-old junior at Southeast High School volunteers there twice a week, baby-sitting for mothers attending life-skills classes.
Danielle does what she has to do to get to M.E.R.C.Y., often paying her own way by bus.
She said the children are what keep her coming back.
"It's fun and I like it ... You have to like it," she said. "If you don't like it, you won't want to keep doing it.
"They claim they need me (at M.E.R.C.Y.)," she laughed.
Vicky Moore, Danielle's Top Teen nominator and M.E.R.C.Y. volunteer coordinator, certainly thinks so.
"(Danielle) understands the challenges (families at M.E.R.C.Y.) face and wants to assist the families in any way she is able to. She loves children and wants to see them have a happy childhood," Moore wrote when nominating Danielle.
In the future, Danielle would like to work with troubled teenage girls, inspired by the work of her youth pastor.
Church is another major part of Danielle's life, and, just as her church has supported her, she helps support it through volunteering in the nursery and for events that need help.
She also is active in various school activities, such as Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Prevention Club.
Although her schedule is busy, Danielle said she enjoys being involved.
"I try to do whatever I can."
— Trisha Faulkner
Appeared in the State Journal Register, Springfield IL, 10/11/05