National Service Initiatives


2023-2024

All Alpha Chi chapters are invited to participate in this year's national service initiative. This year, chapters are asked to collect new socks and donate them to individuals in need. This can be on the local, regional, national, or even global scale. Your chapter does not need to be attending the national convention in order to participate in the service project.

Sock-It-To-Me Sock Drive

For Alpha Chi, scholarship is a pathway toward leadership that makes a difference in the world, a difference that is needed and called for, just as those in Birmingham saw a need and found ways to meet it. Among other things, social justice is recognizing unmet needs and disparate access to resources. You might be wondering, what does this have to do with collecting socks?

 

There are many reasons people experience homelessness around the world today-- from poverty and violence to natural disasters. Something that is desperately needed, particularly by those adults and children who find themselves without homes, is socks. So, Alpha Chi is going to gather and distribute socks globally, regionally, and locally in our first Sock-It-To-Me Sock Drive.

How do we get sock donations?

  • Host a campus new sock drive! Place boxes around campus in high-traffic areas with signage asking others to donate socks. Make an announcement in your campus message boards to let everyone know about the sock drive. Use our flier template to create signs for the collection on your campus.
  • Host a fundraiser and use the funds to purchase socks that can be donated.
  • If you can pre-determine where your socks are going to be donated, check with that organization to see if they have helpful information on preferred sizing or sock styles.

 

Where do we donate our socks?

Choose one or more of the following areas of need. Regardless of which option you choose, get to know something about the organization you donate to and learn something about the circumstances of those who receive the socks.

  1. Donate to an area of need abroad-- a place where famine, natural disaster, or other catastrophic events have displaced people.
  2. Donate to an area of need in your region or state.
  3. Donate to an area of need in the community around your college/university-- a marginalized community such as a homelessness shelter, a mental health organization, or a veterans' charity.
  4. Send socks to an organization in Birmingham that assists individuals experiencing homelessness. We've located three great organizations: