MLK Day—A National Day of Service

By: Bill Cates & Maria Galasso On Monday, January 15, 2024, we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day. MLK Day is also one of two national days of service each year. The other day is September 11. We encourage anyone with time off from work to serve other people in their communities on or [...]

By |2024-01-24T06:53:03-08:00January 23rd, 2024|News|Comments Off on MLK Day—A National Day of Service

American Family Housing

A few weeks ago I had an opportunity to tour American Family Housing in Midway City. Also, along for the tour was our CEO, Bill Cates and board member, Barbara Stewart. American Family Housing is doing great work. They offer low income and permanent housing for homeless, as well as special needs veterans. To quote [...]

By |2023-07-18T18:52:32-07:00July 18th, 2023|News|Comments Off on American Family Housing

Great Sock Give Away

On Saturday, April 15, we assembled three groups who visited parks, facilities, and shelters in Orange County to hand out Bombas socks and bottled water to people experiencing homelessness. One group pulled a wagon around Boysen Park, Pierson Park and La Palma Park in Anaheim. One of our volunteers Cheryl said, “once the word [...]

By |2023-04-18T18:16:34-07:00April 17th, 2023|News|Comments Off on Great Sock Give Away

Volunteering Christmas Eve Morning

Christmas is a time for giving and sharing and our monthly volunteer event, Helping Hands-Friends of VNOC , did not disappoint! The cold weather and fog couldn’t keep them from volunteering on Christmas Eve morning at the Crossing Church in Costa Mesa. Colorful handmade beanies, blankets, sleeping bags and over 140 pairs of Bombas [...]

By |2022-12-28T20:31:03-08:00December 28th, 2022|News|Comments Off on Volunteering Christmas Eve Morning

2022 Homeless Persons’ Interreligious Memorial Service

The Seventh Annual Orange County Homeless Persons’ Interreligious Memorial Service was held Wednesday night. The service commemorated the 492 lives of our neighbors who were experiencing homelessness and died on our streets this past year. We attended the service and found it to be a meaningful opportunity to show some love and compassion for [...]

By |2022-12-28T17:30:53-08:00December 28th, 2022|News|Comments Off on 2022 Homeless Persons’ Interreligious Memorial Service

New Addition to Our Board

We are proud to introduce our new board member, Darrick Garcia. Darrick brings to Volunteer Network OC a wealth of experience and wisdom that will help us achieve our goals to serve disadvantaged members of our community and to encourage getting involved through charitable work. We believe an active community that is compassionate and [...]

By |2022-11-02T22:13:12-07:00November 2nd, 2022|News|Comments Off on New Addition to Our Board

New Board Member

New Board Member We would like to introduce you to our new board member Aurea Lawson. Aurea grew up in Oklahoma and decided to come to California in 2014 to pursue career opportunities. Aurea always had it in her heart to help others, having volunteered at the children's museum in Oklahoma, as well participating [...]

By |2022-10-12T21:03:14-07:00October 12th, 2022|News|Comments Off on New Board Member

Responding to Child Poverty

Responding to Child Poverty Our lives these days are traveling at “freeway speeds” if not at NASCAR speeds, with no low gear to slow us down. So, stopping, is more like the annoyance of the bug on the windshield as we turn on the windshield wipers and keep moving forward. It just does not [...]

By |2022-09-14T17:17:56-07:00September 12th, 2022|News|Comments Off on Responding to Child Poverty