The holidays are a time of joy, but can be a time for stress, especially for those in financial need or dealing with trauma history in their life. At Community Missions, we offer a variety of programs to help others make a little brighter holiday season for our community.
The holiday season should be a time of warmth and celebration for everyone in our community. Community Missions offers three key programs to ensure no one faces the holidays alone or in need:
Through these initiatives, we connect generous community members with neighbors in need, creating meaningful holiday experiences for all. Whether you’re seeking assistance or wanting to help others, our holiday programs offer various ways to share in the spirit of the season.
The Holiday Help Program pairs sponsors to families in financial need to purchase personalized holiday gifts. Families accepted into the program provide information of their children’s hobbies, interests, and age as well as a list of wants and needs for possible gifts for the child’s holiday presents. Our staff assigns families to sponsors based on the number of children the sponsor would prefer. Our generous sponsors, made up of families, groups, clubs, companies, or even CMI staff, will purchase and wrap gifts for each child, as well as providing a grocery gift card for the family’s holiday meal. Some sponsors will choose to add presents for the children’s guardian or caregiver. The amount spent on these gifts is totally up to the sponsor. Our staff schedule appointments with families to pick up gifts before Christmas. This will ensure that everyone is well prepared for Santa’s visit on Christmas Eve!
Since 1990, our Youth programs have partnered with the Niagara County Community Libraries to provide the "Tidings of Joy" project to benefit youth in our programs. Our ornament trees with specific gift ideas or suggestions are displayed at libraries in Lockport, North Tonawanda, and Lewiston. We hope that you might help our youth, who often cannot return home for the holidays. We also accept tax-deductible monetary donations which can be mailed to CMI “Tidings of Joy” Project, 1570 Buffalo Ave., Niagara Falls, NY 14303.
Each holiday season, Community Missions provides holiday meals to those living within our Food Pantry district. This effort is largely made possible by FeedMore WNY. Donations from the community also help to ensure that everyone visiting our program has all they need for the holidays. If you would like to take part in this year's Holiday Food Drive, which includes donating turkeys, hams, chickens, stuffing, instant potatoes, or canned vegetables, please contact us at santa@communitymissions.org.
Your Generosity Matters
If you are blessed to share your resources with others this holiday season, please click on the following links for various ways you can help:
Donations can always be dropped off at our main site:
Community Missions, Inc.
1570 Buffalo Ave.
Niagara Falls, NY 14303
