Pass It Along Fact Sheet
 

To awaken, validate, and nourish the innate desire to "give back" by mobilizing youth as community partners.

Through innovative partnerships, Pass It Along offers a multifaceted approach to help individuals identify their gifts and provides opportunities to pass them along. Promoting the benefits of sustained civic action, our program is designed to foster volunteerism, reflection, and self-exploration.

To be recognized, by the year 2012, as a world-class leader in developing youth who carry on a sustainable commitment to giving back.

Founded in December 2001, Pass It Along provides a way for individuals to make a difference in their community through meaningful volunteer service.  In 2002, PIA became a member of the national organization Hands On Network. 

Pass It Along serves three populations – volunteers, nonprofit community based organizations, and individuals that are in need of volunteer support. We offer well-managed, meaningful, and flexibly scheduled service projects in ten fields of interest:

• Children and Families in need
• Education
• Enrichment and Literacy
• Environmental Preservation
• Animal Care
• Hunger and Homelessness
• Elderly and Homebound Senior Care
• Youth in Action
• Living with Disabilities/Terminal Illness
• Renovation, Revitalization, and Repairs

Highlights of the past year:

• Over 200 service projects were completed through 34 different programs throughout the Sussex, Northern Morris, and Warren County area
• Introduced 9 new programs
• Over 3,500 volunteers gave their time to PIA last year
• Over 9,900 people were served by our programs and projects
• Over 10,600 volunteer hours were completed in 2007
• The dollar value of a volunteer in the state of New Jersey in 2005 was $21.88; this translates to our organization putting $231,100 back into our community
• For every hour PIA was open, we gave back over 5 hours of service to the community
• Mentored to hundreds of children through literacy enrichment, tutoring, and recreational programs
• 11,150 toys were given to 2950+ children in Sussex County and Newark NJ

Pass It Along creates, manages, and leads the area’s largest single day of hands-on service, the annual Serve-A-Thon. On this day, hundreds of individuals and businesses join together to complete large scale service projects that benefit local nonprofits as well as small scale service projects to help individuals such as senior citizens.

Season of Hope is another large scale program that Pass It Along created and manages each year. This program encompasses our Holiday Toy Shop, our Christmas Around the County (CAC) event and our Christmas in the City (CIC) event. It begins with the scheduling of volunteers to deliver Thanksgiving meals to homebound seniors and the collection and distribution of Thanksgiving baskets that provide families with a complete meal. Also included in our Season of Hope initiative is our Note in a Coat program, a gently used coat drive, and our annual toy drive, where new toys are collected for the Holiday Toy Shop. This Holiday Toy Shop provides a way to assist families in Sussex County with gifts and CIC is a program that brings new toys to children in need within the Newark Public School system.

Our Community Partners:

Pass It Along partners with social service organizations, schools (through our high school chapters), and churches in various ways throughout the year. Our staff works with each organization to identify its most pressing needs and then creates and manages a project or series of projects that allow Pass It Along volunteers to meet those needs. The projects are led by trained Pass It Along Project Leaders and are staffed by Pass It Along volunteers.

Our Funding:

As a 501(c)(3) organization, Pass It Along relies on donations from corporations and individuals as well as grants from foundations to continue making a difference in the community.