It takes an entire community to run a successful Furniture Bank! Team members from Restoring Dignity and The Furniture Project recently traveled to Minneapolis, MN, to tour a 33 year old Furniture Bank called Bridging.
The Furniture Project and Restoring Dignity touring Bridging!
At Bridging, there is a 10:1 ratio of volunteers to staff (300 volunteers, 33 staff) to keep their Furniture Bank operating at full capacity! Coming back to Omaha with a wealth of knowledge from Bridging, we are ready to take our new Furniture Bank to the next level! To do this, we need consistent volunteers in Omaha, so that we can effectively reach as many people as possible.
The Furniture Project and Restoring Dignity staff touring the Bridging Furniture Bank
We are looking for consistent volunteers who can:
- Make a 6 month commitment
- Volunteer at least one time per week or biweekly
Bridging volunteers packing items that families picked out into boxes
There are 6 volunteer areas where consistent volunteers can serve. We want to place people in their area of strength, and offer each volunteer the opportunity to choose the area they would like to work in. Volunteers may be cross trained in multiple areas:
- Warehouse Assistant: move donated furniture, bags and boxes. Load and unload vehicles. Accept donations. Lifting required (carts and dollies available).
- Family Shopper: assist families and sponsors who are coming to shop for items. Requires ability to work gracefully with individuals who have experienced high levels of lifetime trauma.
- Shopping Assistant: Fills out form and tags furniture for shopping families
- Furniture Cleaner: cleaning furniture using a shop vac, carpet cleaner, rag and wipes.
- Shelf Stocker: Sorting through donated items and putting them onto shelves.
- Linen Folder: measuring, folding and labeling donated bedding, linens and towels.
- Repair & woodworking support: helping to fix furniture and test electronic devices
- Office Support: entering data into spreadsheets, doing other office related tasks
Eh KaLu Htoo, from Restoring Dignity, assists Bridging volunteers with bagging items that families picked out during their shopping experience
Join us as a consistent volunteer! Please sign up via our volunteer form and we will be in touch with you about next steps.