Reach Out Friday: Youth Villages

The third Friday of every month is Reach Out Friday! Learn about ways that you can use crochet to help others through special charities and groups. Today's featured charity is Youth Villages.

Overview
Youth Villages has an extensive list of services for children and families, providing adoption services, foster care, mentoring, crisis services and more. They are invested in reaching disadvantaged children, specifically those with emotional and behavioral issues, and families and helping them through their most challenging moments.

Mission Statement
"Youth Villages is a private nonprofit organization dedicated to helping emotionally and behaviorally troubled children and their families live successfully. We help more than 23,000 children and families each year from more than 20 states and Washington, D.C. Our Evidentiary Family Restoration™ approach involves intensive work with the child and family, a focus on measuring outcomes, keeping children in the community whenever safely possible, and providing accountability to families and funders. The EFR approach produces lasting success for children with success rates twice that of traditional services at one-third the cost of traditional care.

Our Mission: Youth Villages helps children and families live successfully."
Reach Out!
Are you reading to make a difference in the lives of children and families? Many Youth Village locations accept donations of clothing and household items, so your crochet items may be appreciated. Also, teaching a troubled young person to crochet would provide them with a creative outlet for difficult emotions. You could donated your time by teaching kids to crochet. Finally, for those centers with crafts programs already in place, a donation of yarn, hooks, and needles would allow them to continue to provide crochet activities to young people. So many ways to get involved! Why not reach out today?

Reach Out Friday: Teaching Crochet to Others

This Reach Out Friday I'm doing something a little bit different. I was recently inspired by a few posts on Crochet Concupiscence which mentioned teaching others to crochet. When you teach others to crochet it not only positively affects their life, it also affects the lives of those that the student crochets for. I've featured several different charities so far, all of which depend on the generosity of crocheters. I figure if each crocheter reading this takes the time to teach one other person to crochet this week then in the future there will be even more of us to support crochet charities. 

Here's my challenge to you: Reach out this week by teaching just one other person to crochet. You never know how much good will come from it in the future!

Reach Out Friday: Womensafe

The third Friday of every month is Reach Out Friday! Learn about ways that you can use crochet to help others through special charities and groups. Today's featured charity is Womensafe.

Overview
Womensafe provides shelter, food, and services to women and children who are survivors of domestic violence. They have a secure, modern facility and work to protect and empower those who are vulnerable and scared. Domestic violence is a huge problem affecting our nation with almost 5 million women experiencing violence perpetrated against them by an intimate partner each year. Also, though Womensafe focuses on women and children, I want to remind everyone that men experience domestic violence as well and account for about 15% of all survivors. Anything that can be done to help those affected, whatever their gender, is a step in the right direction. You can donate almost any crocheted item to the shelter and have an impact on someone's life.

Mission Statement
"WomenSafe’s mission is to provide emergency shelter and support services for survivors of domestic violence throughout Northeastern Ohio. WomenSafe responds to the needs of victims experiencing domestic violence and provides education in the community aimed at reducing the incidence of domestic violence and making the community aware of what help is available."

Special Considerations
Crochet blankets, clothes, toys, and baby items would all be well-received. Right now they have a particular need for washcloths which are simple to crochet and are very useful.

Reach Out
Women and children at the shelter are in need of many basic items that can be donated along with your crocheted item, so you might consider donating those things as well. If you're ready to help, you can find more information on their website.

Reach Out Friday: Operation Smile

The third Friday of every month is Reach Out Friday! Learn about ways that you can use crochet to help others through special charities and groups. Today's featured charity is Operation Smile.

Overview 
About 1 in every 700 children is born with a cleft lip or cleft palate, making it a relatively common birth defect. A cleft is a split in the lip and/or the palate. This is very visually recognizable and can be very stigmatizing for those affected. Other ramifications of the condition include difficulties in speech and in nutrition. The wonderful thing is that cleft lip/palate is relatively easy to fix through surgery, especially if it is fixed early in life. In first world countries the condition is fixed as a matter of course. However, in areas where there is widespread poverty and/or lack of modern medical care, individuals affected by this birth defect do not receive and any treatment and are left to deal with it on their own. That's where Operation Smile comes in. Read their mission statement below to see how this wonderfully group is improving the lives of children around the world.

As a crocheter, you can help! It's true. You don't have to be a medical professional to make a difference in the lives of these children. Among many other ways to get involved, Operation Smile accepts handmade blankets which they give to the children in the hospital. These blankets are a source of comfort in a scary yet life-changing moment. You can find more information on blanket donation here.

Mission Statement

"The goal of every medical mission and all our surgical programs is to heal children's smiles and transform lives across the globe.

Our unique and successful medical mission model is providing safe surgeries for children around the world while building a long-term sustainable solution.

We mobilize medical volunteers across the globe to treat children with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities, and leave a legacy of trained medical professionals, surgical equipment and professional partnerships to expand local medical infrastructures and create self-reliance in low and middle income countries."

Special Considerations
Please note that the blanket info page suggests specific sizes and materials for blanket making.

Reach Out
Are you ready to help? After taking a look at this link you can go ahead and start planning your blanket! Fill it with good thoughts as you crochet. When the blanket is ready to be sent to a child in need you can print out and fill out an accompanying blanket form. The complete package is to be sent to:

Operation Smile
Attn: WAREHOUSE/Service Project
3641 Faculty Boulevard
Virginia Beach, VA 23453 USA

Reach Out Friday: Snuggles Project

The third Friday of every month is Reach Out Friday! Learn about ways that you can use crochet to help others through special charities and groups. Today we'll take a look at Snuggles Project!

Overview
When homeless animals arrive in shelters they are often very frightened. It's hard enough being a little critter alone in a big world, and now there are so many new noises, smells, animals, and people to be worried about. That's where Snuggles Project comes in. They seek to provide shelter animals with "snuggles", or small blankets/mats for them to use as a comfort item. The animal can cuddle up to their snuggle and feel just a bit safer. Great cause, right? Nobody wants to think about all those sweet little animals being so frightened when they don't have to be.

Mission Statement
"The Snuggles Project is well-known as a multi-beneficial project. The first, and most important, benefit is to the animals. After being given a Snuggle, a frightened and/or difficult to handle animal is able to become calm. This calming effect gives the animal and the caregiver time to learn how to handle the situation. We believe that this calming effect has saved the lives of many newly-sheltered animals.

The next benefit is to the shelter. The Snuggles provide a more homey environment for shelter visitors and staff. Most animal shelters have an industrial feel to them. This does not present a comfortable atmosphere for shelter visitors to stay very long. By softening the edges and adding color, visitors stay longer and can take more time to find someone to adopt. It also helps shelter staff to feel more at home and increases the amount of time that they want to spend with the animals.

Another benefit is the good feeling that the Snuggle maker (aka Snuggler) receives when they create something using a skill that they know and love for someone who really needs their gift. This personal benefit also reaches beyond the individual when they talk about the project with their friends and associates, when they teach someone else a new handcraft skill, when they find that they still have value to give something of themselves to the world.

Please join us and partake of the benefits yourself in the Snuggles Project."

Special Considerations
My recommendations for crocheting for cats are particularly relevant here and are useful to know for dogs as well. Also, Snuggles Project requests that you fill out a form to submit along with your snuggle. 

Reach Out!
Are you ready to snuggle some critters? Visit the Snuggles Project website and they will hook you up with all of the information you'll need. If you'd like you can also make a monetary donation. As a final note, a big thank you goes out to all of you who have adopted a shelter animal, enriching both their life and yours. If you've never adopted a shelter animal and you're looking for a new pet, I highly recommend doing so. Just look at how it's turned out for me...

Reach Out Friday: Project Linus

The third Friday of every month is Reach Out Friday! Learn about ways that you can use crochet to help others through special charities and groups.

Overview
Today's featured charity is Project Linus. Project Linus provides security blankets to comfort children in need, often children who are struggling with illness or trauma. They have provided millions -yes millions- of blankets to deserving children. I think it's wonderful that they focus on handmade blankets. They think it's important to give these young ones blankets that have been imbued with the love and care only a handmade object can carry. The charity also accepts monetary donations. As an aside, don't you just love the use of Charles Schulz's Linus character in the logo?

Mission Statement
"First- Provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer 'blanketeers'.

Second- Provide a rewarding and fun service opportunity for interested individuals and groups in local communities, for the benefit of children."

Special Considerations
Blankets donated to Project Linus can be any size from infant to teen, though they do state that 40 inches by 60 inches is the size they most frequently receive. Take care that all blankets donated are handmade and washable. Also, blankets should be free of smells, hard embellishments, and other contaminants.

Reach Out!
Ready to help by making a blanket or donation? Find the Project Linus Chapter in your area to get started.

*Please note that the Project Linus logo is the property of Project Linus.*

New 2015 Friday Features

Hello, readers! We are here at the beginning of a whole new year. This blog has seen so much growth and development over the past year and my current Friday features, Remix Friday and Friday Focus, have enjoyed a lot of popularity. We've seen inspiring, bold projects remixed by everyday crocheters and learned about talented designers. My 2014 features were wonderful indeed but I am just itching to shake things up. Collaborating with others has left me with so much enthusiasm that I have decided to expand all of our horizons in 2015... with new blog features! You're going to love them and there's something for everyone. Read on to discover what you have to look forward to on Illuminate Crochet this coming year.

The first Friday of every month is Fiber Arts Friday! Join me as we expand our horizons beyond crochet to focus on other interesting fiber and needle arts. Enjoy the beautiful projects and learn something new along the way.

The second Friday of every month is Indie-Dye Friday! Feast your eyes on lovely yarn in gorgeous colorways developed by talented independent yarn dyers.

The third Friday of every month is Reach Out Friday! Learn about ways that you can use crochet to help others through special charities and groups.

The fourth Friday of every month is From the Source Friday! Show your appreciation to these dedicated fiber farmers as they teach you all about where your yarn comes from.

The fifth Friday of January, May, July, and October is Freebie Friday! Tune in to find out how to enter my exciting giveaways. You could win yarn, patterns, findings, and more!

So, there you have them! I hope you're as excited about my new Friday features as I am. Thanks for reading!