Project Guidelines

Day of Caring 750

Projects should be well defined, including maps to locations, list of items needed, scope of work and an assigned project coordinator who is familiar with the project. It is recommended to schedule a meeting two to one week before starting your Day of Caring Project with the assigned team leader(s) so they have an opportunity to visit their assigned site.

Note: Project recipients must be connected to the County of Sonoma or City of Santa Rosa programs as service providers, recipients, or non-profits that have a funding relationship or partnership to be eligible. Non-profits without this connection may be suggested to United Way directly as potential projects.

Project Should Include:

Be complete in 6 hours
Clearly defined scope of work
Easy to reach area
Projects reachable by Transit Bus
Lower level skilled – manual labor
Average person can complete work
Journeyman for leadership & guidance when possible
Leaders who understand scope of work
Team building activity, requiring lots of individuals
Social worker or other responsible person on site
Bring all tools & equipment necessary to complete work
Rent dumpster if necessary or haul away debris
Social interaction/communications with owner or provide social benefit for community
Have paint on site or other selected material
All materials and supplies to complete work on site (paid by others and not Day of Caring volunteers)
Low cost but lots of manual labor
Simple, no permit type work

Project Should Avoid:

Multi-day project:

Ambiguous or too broad of scope
Difficult or potentially dangerous work (Roofs, gutter replacement, etc.)
Projects requiring many vehicle miles
Journeyman level skill (electrical re-wiring)
Requires licensed professional or journeyman level expertise
Sent without leader or without a pre-meeting
Only one person needed
No leadership, just sent out to do work
Using owner’s tools and/or equipment
Leave debris at site for others to remove
No contact with owner or other community benefit
Run around trying to locate materials
Out of pocket expenses or use of personal credit cards
Expensive with little manual labor
Require permit or engineering

Types of Good Projects:

Landscaping, trimming, clearing brush
Moving earth, sawdust, and bark chips
Painting exteriors (less than 6 hours total)
Painting one room (furniture already moved)
Trash disposal and general clean up
General house cleaning
Clean creek of trash and brush
Graffiti removal
Wipe down and clean old Library books
Gardening and weeding
Stocking shelves at the Food Bank
Trail work (Shiloh Park / Spring Lake)

Projects not suitable

Projects that can’t be completed in 6 hours
Physical limitations – Worker's Compensation
Painting complete residential homes
Moving of furniture or other personal items
Hazardous material removal (lead, asbestos, chemicals)
Avoid poison oak, bees and other hazardous
Sand blasting or other specialty equipment use not associated with average individual’s ability to use equipment safely
High elevation stocking, high reaching
Heavy lifting (Worker’s Compensation claims)

Note: Some individuals prefer to complete work in residential homes, such as cleaning kitchens, removing trash, landscaping, trimming brush, weeding. These projects require individual attention and similar effort as larger projects like cleaning the creeks, graffiti removal, and painting commercial exteriors. Often projects are completed quicker than anticipated and other back-up projects or re-assigning individuals to larger projects become necessary. We should try to line up as many projects possible, as early as possible, to work with logistics (transportation, tools, materials, team assignments, etc.)