What the work looks like
Photos from a Hearts In Hands ramp build.
The main way to help is to take one Saturday with us. Below that are standing programs run by other organizations around Birmingham that need hands all year.
See upcoming workdaysA workday is one morning. You arrive, a team leader gives you a job matched to what you can do, and you go home having finished something. No experience is needed and no tools are required — everything is provided.
This is the one to start with. See upcoming workdays.
Friends, family, a small group, coworkers, a team. One signup covers everyone you bring, and there are messages you can copy and send on the invite page.
If your company or church wants a workday built around its own team, that is a sponsored day.
Team leaders run the day: they check people in, match volunteers to jobs, and keep the work moving. If you have run a jobsite, a small group, or a shift, you can do this. Become a team leader.
Photos from a Hearts In Hands ramp build.
These are other organizations' standing programs. They run on their own schedules and you sign up with them directly.
Grace Klein Community runs a sewing program out of its Community Outreach Hall at 5271 Old Springville Road in Pinson. Volunteers take donated clothing, fabric, and retired hotel linens apart and sew them into goods that are given away: children's dresses and underwear, infant gowns and crib mats, menstruation kits for teen girls, and burial gowns in preemie through pre-teen sizes. In 2025 the program's six locations produced about $187,000 worth of items for 12,398 people across 15 countries.
Sewing experience is not required. The work splits into tracing, harvesting, cutting, ironing, sewing, organizing, sorting, and folding, and plenty of volunteers never touch a machine.
Sign up at gracekleincommunity.com/we-sew-love and list the tasks you can do. Meeting days and hours are not published, so call the office at 205-490-7516 to find out when they sew.
Serving You Ministries runs a storefront at 6523 1st Avenue North where families across greater Birmingham pick up groceries at no cost. Volunteers sort incoming food, pack it into boxes, and keep the shelves and stock room ready for the next appointment. No experience is needed, and the work is standing, lifting, and sorting. A second location, Grace Place, is at 1630 Powder Plant Road in Bessemer.
Sign up at servingyou.org/volunteer-1. To bring a group, email Lehua Lewis at [email protected] or call 205-777-3653, who sets the shift times.
Bundles of Hope supplies diapers to Birmingham families living below the poverty line. Volunteers meet the first Saturday of each month at The Changing Station, 1430 Reverend Abraham Woods Jr. Boulevard, to repackage bulk diapers into bundles of 25 and to fill the monthly orders placed by partner organizations. A family receives two bundles a month, which is about a week. The work is counting, sorting, and packing at a table, and children can come with an adult.
Sign up at givepul.se/ghf2mp or call 205-607-2112. A group that would rather collect diapers than pack them can request bins and materials at [email protected].
ELI Thrive, the East Lake Initiative, is running a three-hour workday on Saturday, October 3, from 9am to noon. The crew closes the East Lake Community Garden down for the winter, cleans up several neighboring properties, and works on the grounds of Barrett Elementary School. The jobs are gardening, painting, pressure washing, and cleaning. Everyone meets at the East Lake Community Garden, 110 76th Street South. There is work suited to every age, children included, and you can come and go inside the three hours.
Sign up at elithrive.com, or email Ashley at [email protected] to bring a group.
More is being lined up, including weekday work and jobs for people who would rather organize, drive, cook, or make calls than swing a hammer. To hear when those open, text (205) 538-1061 and a person will answer.