ASSISTANCE LEAGUE OF AMADOR VALLEY

Our mission statement is “Assistance League of Amador Valley is a nonprofit organization dedicated to hands on volunteerism, assisting those in need through unique service programs". In doing so, we feel it is important to include a focus on literacy.
The general needs of our community are two-fold: financial and social. Specifically we focus on education, nutrition, pre-school vision and the mental health of all age groups. Literacy is a core value for our chapter. All school age children are given books to take home and keep through the following programs: Clothing the Children, Foster Kids, Books of My Own, Book Buddies and Birthday Bags. A child owning a book encourages a sense of the importance of education and lays the groundwork for a lifetime of active learning.
We also strive to help reduce food insecurity in the Tri-Valley area with our long-time support of the Tri-Valley Haven Food Pantry.

Our formal strategic plan document covers our accomplishment goals for the upcoming 20 years. It is revised yearly using a membership survey. We adjust the plan according to our member's recommendations and the feasibility of our goals to serve the community needs.

To finance these goals we rely mainly on our fundraising activities. To supplement this we also receive support through grants from local businesses, local agencies and other community service groups.

We are an all-volunteer organization dedicated to improving the lives of our community residents in need. We are considered a small chapter of Assistance League; however with large impact. In 2020, we provided support to over 55,000 residents (children, families, and seniors); that includes 10,000 plus households served by our Food for Families program. at the Tri-Valley Haven Food Pantry. Our members constantly go above and beyond with their volunteering for many of our eight successful programs. Each program is lead by a chairman with a dedicated committee. We also encourage co-chairs to learn the program for a future chairman position.

Early in our development, we considered opening a thrift store to raise money for our programs, but our members felt that their volunteer hours should go directly to serving our community. Instead, our volunteers work directly with the residents in need. For example, with Operation School Bell: Clothing the Children, our volunteers shop with the students for school-appropriate clothing. With the COVID pandemic, we have proven our flexibility to serve our community by pivoting from shopping with the children. The first year, we provided noise-cancelling headsets with microphones to aid on-line learning. The second year, we obtains students sizes and purchased spirit wear sweatshirt and T-shirt as well as gift card to new shoes. Studies have shown that children who come to school inappropriately dressed are at a disadvantage and when appropriately dressed, they feel better about themselves. This can result in improved school attendance and classroom performance.
We have contacted the local foster children agencies and school district representatives to expand our support of foster children in the area. We recently provided study backpacks filled with college-appropriate school supplies and hygiene products to high school seniors aging out of the foster system and bound for college.
conduct fundraisers where the community is invited to participate in the event and learn about our programs as well as help us financially.