We are young professionals, small business owners, students, public accountants, graphics designers, truck drivers, electricians, plumbers, etc. We rehab homes and provide them as affordable family dwellings for refugees and others in the community. We repair walls, paint, do carpentry work, electrical repair, plumbing,

If you are a hands-on person and like to be active, please fill out a volunteer application and attend one of our two weekly work sessions: Thursdays 5 – 9 pm and Saturdays 8am – 1 pm. No matter what your skill level is, we have plenty of things for you to do! Current and past volunteers include college students, church groups, business groups, homebuyers, and community members. Typical activities include painting, scraping, sanding, flooring, debris clean-up, and putting up drywall.

If you have experience with housing rehab we could use your help right now. Skilled volunteers are instrumental to our work. The more skilled volunteers we have to lead and instruct others, the more homes we can rehab and provide home-ownership opportunities to more people.

If you would like to bring a large group to volunteer, send us a few possible dates and give us plenty of advanced notice so that we have time to prepare. (Donations for the purchase of work materials such as gloves, paint brushes, paint, goggles, buckets, etc. are helpful for large groups.)

If getting dirty isn’t to your liking, there are still ways you can help! We welcome monetary gifts to cover professional labor, supplies and home appliances. We also accept donations of building materials.

The fact is, rehab work isn’t cheap but small gifts can buy supplies used to put a fresh coat of paint on a wall or to apply a smooth coating of varnish to a door. A larger donation could be used to replace a boarded up window or to purchase a stove for a family to prepare its meals.

Your generous gift can instantly improve a home and help us in our efforts to help the community.

If you have ideas about how you can contribute to Westside Ministries and our mission to stabilize the West Side , we welcome your suggestions!

If you would like to stop by and see one of the houses we are working on or to get more information about our organization, please contact:

- Project Manager, Gary Overs, 716-604-2115

- Executive Director, Cornelia Dohse-Peck, director@westsideministries.org

- Community Liaison, Rachel Rotach, rachelrotach@gmail.com