Description
Today, LIFT serves thousands of individuals and families each year at local offices in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. Since LIFT’s founding, over 12,000 volunteers have served nearly 100,000 individuals and families on their path out of poverty.
LIFT-Boston currently runs two resource centers in the Greater Boston Area: Roxbury and Somerville. At each center, trained volunteer advocates (that could be you!) work one-on-one with our community members to identify and access critical resources such as housing and employment, talk to service providers, and develop important life skills. This enables our members to begin charting their way on a path towards personal, social, and financial success.
LIFT advocates work side-by-side with low-income community members, first helping them address any immediate needs such as employment, housing, health care, or public benefits, and then providing comprehensive, long-term support designed to help families and individuals break the cycle of poverty. At LIFT, we understand how important relationships can be to achieving social and economic success. As a result, we aim to pair our advocates with the same members on a weekly basis - ensuring that they have the opportunity to develop a true partnership and work towards the member’s goals.
In addition to the relationships that our advocates inevitably build with hardworking and passionate community members, they have a chance to get to know other advocates, most of whom come from local colleges and universities and who are passionate about social justice and community service, as well. In addition to their service, LIFT advocates participate in a 45 minute debrief session at the end of each day in which they have the opportunity to share and reflect with the other volunteers in their shift.
Through these relationships and experiences, our advocates gain the direct exposure, insight, and compassion necessary to be lifelong advocates for systemic change on poverty policy, regardless of the professional path that they ultimately pursue.
