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The Women's Home
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The mission of The Women's Home is to help women in crisis regain their self-esteem and dignity, empowering them to return to society as productive, self-sufficient individuals. The Women’s Home is a multi-ethnic, non-denominational, non-profit United Way agency.
Within the Life Learning Center, The Home’s clients participate in comprehensive clinical, vocational and chemical dependency programs. They also receive job training in the on-campus Cottage Thrift Shop and administrative offices. Years of research, professional collaboration and evidence-based practice are enabling The Women’s Home to become a nationally recognized model of excellence in residential rehabilitation.
The Zonta Club of Houston has been recognized by the Women's Home as a valued volunteer group. Club members provide seminars on mock interviews, communication skills, team building, time management, organizational skills, managing personal change, financial education, and other related topics. We also host one of their awards banquets to honor the achievements of the women and celebrate their successes in meeting various tasks and learning challenges.
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Bay Area Turning Point, Inc.
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Bay Area Turning Point, Inc. provides shelter and nonresidential crisis intervention and support services to victims of family violence, sexual assault, child abuse, elder abuse, and homelessness. It promotes education and awareness within the community, the Greater Bay Area of Southeast Harris County. Bay Area Turning Point is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and a United Way Affiliate Agency. Zonta members have participated in food drives for the shelter, have provided clothing for the Career Closet, staffed the resale shop, and assisted with funding repairs to the roof of their Crisis Intervention Center following Hurricane Ike. One of our members serves on the Board of Directors.
More information about BATP can be found at www.bayareaturningpoint.org
Please contact our Service Chairman, serviceopportunities@zontahouston.org for information on how to volunteer.
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Ten Thousand Villages Houston
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Ten Thousand Villages Houston is a non-profit 501(c)(3) retail gift store operated primarily by volunteers. Their mission is to provide vital and fair income to people in over 30 developing countries by selling their handicrafts and telling their stories. The store not only provides a marketplace for fairly traded handicrafts but promotes cross-cultural experiences and understanding. Through sales, our customers improve the economic life of artisans and their families by providing income for food, education, health care and housing.
Ten Thousand Villages Houston opened in the Rice Village in 2000. Ten Thousand Villages Houston is one in a network of over 100 Ten Thousand Villages fair trade retail outlets in North America.
TTV Houston knows each of their producer groups and know that they:
- do not use child labor
- provide employment in fair and safe working conditions and a fair wages
- use environmentally sustainable resources.
About 75% of the artisans are women and a sustainable income from purchases allows them do a better job of feeding and clothing their children and sending them to school. Zonta members volunteer as clerks, operate the store one Sunday each month, and one of our members serves on the Board of Directors. Zonta has funded an store intern scholarship to assist with hiring a young women with non-profit oriented career goals. This is our local "international" project.
More information can be found at houston.tenthousandvillages.com
Please contact our Service Chairman, serviceopportunities@zontahouston.org for information on how to volunteer.
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HRRC is a dedicated coalition of 100+ Greater Houston Area organizations, including the Zonta Club of Houston, whose mission is to unify the local community to combat the scourge of human trafficking and to improve victim identification and services through education, advocacy and community organizing. The intent of the Rescue & Restore campaign is to increase the number of identified trafficking victims and to help those victims receive the benefits and services needed to live safely in the U.S.
Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. Victims of human trafficking are young children, teenagers, men and women. Approximately 800,000 to 900,000 victims annually are trafficked across international borders world wide, and between 18,000 and 20,000 of those victims are trafficked into the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of State. Interstate 10 is one of the main routes used to trafficked victims. Because of this, Houston has one of the worst problems in the U.S. Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor.
Zonta International adopted the fight against human trafficking as one of its international service projects a number of years ago. In the United States we tend to think of the problem as existing in other countries. We have discovered that the US is principally a transit and destination country for trafficking in persons. Interstate 10 is a major corridor for this egregious activity. Thus the Zonta Club of Houston endorses the work of the Houston Rescue and Restore coalition in fighting this problem and helping the victims restore their lives. We have assisted by providing laptop computers to HRRC and we funded a Spanish language brochure to reach potential victims.
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Literacy Advance of Houston
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The mission of Literacy Advance of Houston is to teach adults to read, write, and communicate in English so they can achieve their full potential as parents, workers, citizens, and community members. Learners who have taken Literacy Advance classes have gone on to pursue higher education, obtain better jobs, and earn U.S. citizenship. Literacy Advance offers 4 primary programs: Adult Basic Education (ABE), English as a Second Language (ESL), Family Literacy, and Community Outreach at over 20 schools, community centers, churches, corporations, and small businesses throughout Greater Houston. Volunteers are the heart of Literacy Advance and we offer extensive Tutor Training & Enrichment programs to train and equip volunteers and give them the resources they need to be effective tutors and have a successful volunteer experience.
Literacy Advance programs are targeted to help adults seeking to improve basic reading and writing skills to help them overcome challenges in employment, health care access, education, housing, and transportation. Literacy Advance of Houston is an accredited affiliate of ProLiteracy America and received the prestigious TAPE Gold Award in Texas Community Partnership from the Texas Association of Partners in Education.
For more information: www.literacyadvancehouston.org
Please contact our Service Chairman, serviceopportunities@zontahouston.org for information on how to volunteer.
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The Community Cloth
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Around the world people are forced to flee their homes due to war, political violence, exclusion, and the competitionfor scarce resources in troubled states. Houston is one of the busiest resettlement cities in the US, and the thousands of refugees welcomed to our city each year face a number of barriers. Many arrive with little to no English proficiency and minimal education. Some lived upwards of 18-20 years in refugee camps, with no legal right to employment, and often faced dismal health and housing options.
The Community Cloth (established November 2009) is a microenterprise initiative empowering refugee women in Houston. It targets economic, educational and social goals through the provision of seed grants, training, and peer support, and by expanding market opportunities for refugee women artisans. The Cloth supports women who want to create and sell handmade, indigenous arts and crafts such as woven bags, knitted scarves, household items and more. Through producing and selling their wares, the women have an opportunity to express their culture and heritage, learn new skills that will assist them in transitioning to life in the US, and obtain much-needed supplemental income. 100% of the profits go directly to the artisans from Burma, Bhutan, Iraq, Sudan and Burundi.
For more information: www.thecommunitycloth.org
Please contact our Service Chairman, serviceopportunities@zontahouston.org for information on how to volunteer.
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