Small Volunteering: little work, a big cause 
We are active in Chicago and the suburbs. Our goal is about 20 hours of involvement from September to the end of December- in a small team, with training and support in organizing help for families. Fill out the application and we will get in touch with you.
Who is it for
For young people and students
Szlachetna Paczka can be aspirational volunteering – a place to gain experience, develop skills and learn to work with people. It is also a valuable experience that stays with you for years and can become an important part of your future career.
For parents and teenagers
Volunteering can become a shared experience for parents and teenagers. Thanks to it, young people learn responsibility, relationships and sensitivity to others earlier. Helping together lets you discover worlds that are often invisible in everyday life.
For older and empathetic people
Older people often understand other older people best. They have more time, empathy and life experience, so they can build unique relationships. It is also a space where they can continue to feel needed and important to others.
For young people and their development
This kind of volunteering can also be appreciated by schools and educational communities. Community work done together with a parent shows the commitment, responsibility and growth of a young person. It is a project for families who want to raise their children consciously.
For moms working remotely
Many activities at Szlachetna Paczka can be organized by phone and remotely. Thanks to this, moms at home with their children can also get involved in coordinating help, staying in touch with people and organizing activities online and by phone.
For working people
Volunteering can be an important break from the daily pace of work and a way to regain a sense of meaning. After work you can do something good, meet people and really help another person, while building valuable relationships and experiences.
For families
Szlachetna Paczka can involve whole families in helping together. Delivering packages together, organizing help and meeting families become not only volunteering, but also building relationships, shared time and responsibility for other people.
Small Volunteering: little work, a big cause
Volunteering that will change you too
Getting to know another person
Real help begins with listening to and understanding another person.
stepping out of your world
You learn empathy, openness and getting to know another person.
helping changes you too
When you respond to another person's specific needs, you learn responsibility, action and building relationships.
lifelong skills
You learn to work on yourself, organize help and act for the good of others – also beyond volunteering.
Volunteering that fits your life
Aspirational volunteering
Szlachetna Paczka Chicago is meant to be aspirational volunteering – the kind that helps others, but at the same time develops volunteers, teaches relationships and responsibility, and gives experience for life. It is a model of volunteering for young people, parents, families, working people, moms working from home and seniors.
Volunteering that teaches you about life
Volunteering at Szlachetna Paczka should be an experience that helps a person grow. Especially for young people, it can be an important stage of entering adult life.
It would be good if young people wanted to spend two or three years as volunteers – gaining experience, learning to work with people and discovering what real help is.
This kind of volunteering can be especially valuable for students in Chicago – both those who study here and those who commute. It gives a chance to learn many things, gain experience and later put it on your résumé.
When you help, you learn to fly yourself
When you teach someone, you learn the most. It is the same with helping. You help a person discover that they have wings – and along the way you learn to fly yourself.
Szlachetna Paczka gives wings to everyone: families in need, volunteers and donors. To give someone wings, you have to have wings yourself. And these wings are made of magnanimity – an abundance of good love.
An eagle that already knows how to fly doesn’t even need to flap its wings. It catches the air currents and soars.
Become a volunteer. Show that you have wings.
We develop people. We build relationships.
We help wisely – we change the world
Behind every package there is not only material help, but also relationships, trust and a huge amount of organizational work.
📋 Getting to know the needs
Everything starts with preparing a questionnaire and presenting the information in such a way that a donor is found who is ready to help truly wisely and effectively.
📞 The relationship with the donor
The contact between the volunteer and the donor is very important. Over the years, Szlachetna Paczka has shown that the better the relationship and the greater the trust, the greater the commitment and help.
Donors are often able to prepare extraordinary packages – as long as they feel that the help will be on target and will really help someone.
🧩 Organizing help
Behind every package there is a huge amount of organizational work: documents, systems, preparing information and a methodology developed over the years.
The volunteer publishes information, talks on the phone, builds relationships and becomes a real bridge between the donor and the family in need.
🤝 Help that grows
Often one person decides to help, but later invites others – family, neighbors or coworkers.
And suddenly one decision gives rise to enormous help organized by many people.
This really is the volunteer’s achievement.
📦 The journey of a package
The last stage is preparing the warehouse, organizing transport and delivering the help to the family in need.
The volunteer becomes a real bridge between the donor and the family in need.
The volunteer - a bridge and an apostle of change
Szlachetna Paczka is of course material help, but above all an impulse for change.
That is why a volunteer is not just a person who passes on help. They become a bridge between a person in need and the hope of a new life.
Not every kind of poverty can be changed right away, and not everyone can be helped.
But in real poverty, people are very often ready for change.
The story of an elderly man from Podgórze (Kraków, Poland):
Because every person can have a dream. Sometimes you just need to help them find it, regain hope and believe that change is possible.
A team and lifelong skills
Szlachetna Paczka is not only about helping others. It is a space for building relationships, gaining experience and developing skills that stay with you for life.
A very important part of Szlachetna Paczka is building a team – a crew of volunteers. In Chicago we promote small teams, which over time can form larger structures.
Small Volunteering: little work, a big cause
How much time volunteering takes
At Szlachetna Paczka Chicago we want to create volunteering that is well organized and can be combined with everyday life, work and family.
That is why our goal is to optimize the whole process to about 20 hours of involvement – from September to the end of December.
This is meant to be possible thanks to, among other things:
- online training,
- remote meetings,
- smaller teams,
- simpler organization of activities.
Thanks to this, the time spent on working together, communication and organization will be shorter and easier.
What volunteering includes
These approximately 20 hours include all the most important elements of the project:
- training,
- building a team,
- looking for families in need,
- meetings with families,
- analyzing the situation and preparing a questionnaire,
- publishing information,
- contact with the donor,
- logistical preparation and organizing transport,
- summarizing the project.
Part of the summary may also be a small gift or a gesture of gratitude prepared by the family for the donor or the volunteer.
The whole thing – from September to the end of December – should take roughly 20 hours.
Little work, a big cause
In small volunteering, what matters is not only how much time we give, but above all that every hour has real meaning.
It is volunteering based on concrete action, simpler organization and smaller teams, so that more energy can be devoted to families and real help.
That is why we say:
little work, a big cause.
Every hour matters
Every moment of this volunteering should have meaning.
The idea of small volunteering is that even a small amount of time can bring real good and concrete results. The point is that the time given to another person should be valuable – both for families in need and for the volunteers themselves.
What we experience, the relationships we build and the fruits of these activities can become something truly special.
And that is what small volunteering is.
A small leader, a small team
Small volunteering is based on small teams and small leaders – that is, leaders who lead small groups of people.
Teams usually have 3 to 5 people. This makes it easier to get to know each other, stay in touch, organize activities and simply work well together.
That is why it is also good when the leader has the support of a co-leader. In a small team, two people responsible for organization provide greater continuity and make it easier to share duties.
You can invite to the teams:
- friends,
- acquaintances,
- family members.
Each of these people can take part in visiting families in need.
How small teams work
In a small team you can work in two ways:
- as one team of up to six people,
- or in pairs visiting families.
Sometimes the leader adds an extra person to the team – it can even be a teenager working together with a parent.
It is important to always visit a family in pairs, also for safety reasons.
The idea of a small leader is also that smaller teams make organizing work simpler. It is easier to stay in touch with each team member, agree on things faster and work more efficiently.
Such small teams can work, for example, at one parish or local community. Several small teams can be supported by one coordinator who, instead of managing a large group, supports several smaller teams.
Not everyone has to meet all the time – many things can be simplified and well optimized.
The idea of small volunteering
The idea of small volunteering is based on simpler action, smaller teams and good organization.
That is why we say:
- small volunteering,
- little work,
- a small leader,
- a big cause.
Stories written by life
So come, paint their world...
