North Highlands Day of Giving Back

I am not one to blog about work, but I felt like I should share this. I work for a international professional consulting company called North Highland. I work for their Central Florida offices, Tampa (where I am based), Orlando and Jacksonville. Our VP asked me if I would take on becoming a coordinator for our three offices for our first ever global Day of Giving Back. On April 28th, all of the North Highland offices around the world spent time in their home locations to give back to the community with the theme "Investing in Human Potential".

I was honored to take on such a task and with the help of my peers, we had three very successful days of giving back in Central Florida.The stories below are for our three offices. It was amazing to see the entire organization of North Highland pull together on this one day. The photos were pouring in on the North Highland in the Community's facebook fan page.

The Tampa office volunteered at Metropolitan Ministries, The reason we selected this organization is because the per capita rate of homelessness in Tampa Bay is the Nation’s highest.  One new family each week reports sleeping in their car. This is a major problem and they are in dire need each day of volunteers to help in their kitchen. Prior to our Day of Giving Back, we hosted a food drive with the tenants of Towers at Westshore and collected 200 pounds of food! We spent the Day of Giving Back prepping zucchini, rolling silverware and assisting in their dish room. What got to me the most is when one of our team stated "what we are doing now is only enough to support one meal for one day". I urge anyone who has the time in Tampa to spend a few hours assisting at Metropolitan Ministries.

The Orlando office spent their Day of Giving Back at Harbor House of Central Florida. Harbor House provides safe shelter, a 24-hour crisis hotline, counseling, and emotional support, and legal advocacy for thousands of domestic violence survivors and their children each year. Prior to our Day of Giving Back, our team collected 5 bins of non-perishable foods for their pantry, created 50 binders of resume and interview guides, over a dozen old cell phones (to be converted to 911 phones) and 4 suitcases. On the actual Day of Giving Back, we deep cleaned and reorganized their play areas, painted, did maintenance work and spent time with the children that live at Harbor House

The Jacksonville office adopted a room at Community Connections a program which provides transitional housing and essential support services to help women, children and families become self-sufficient, move away from publi assistance and reach their full potential. The room we received was for a mother and her 7 year old daughter. When we got there, the room was bare bones. We painted the room, provided the family with the interior necessities and decorations. It was amazing seeing the before and after photos.