GLADSTONE, Mo. — April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and National Volunteer Month.
Assistance League of Kansas City, with more than 300 members, is providing nearly a dozen programs for children and adults in need, including kits for assault survivors.
"I wanted to find something to spend my time doing that could impact someone else," member Debbie Sobba said.
It's one of the reasons why Sobba is spending her afternoon volunteering.
"You know you're very fortunate that you had the things that you need on a daily basis, just to function and thrive, and feel good about yourself," Sobba said, "And there's a lot of people out there you find out that don't."
She's one of more than 300 members of the Assistance League of Kansas City. These members are all volunteers, working to provide a number of different programs and resources for people in need.
Right now, they're packing hundreds of bags for sexual assault survivors.
"We work through MOCSA, the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault," Assistance League of Kansas City's President, Rita Pickering said. "So they pick up the kits that our volunteers bag."
In the bags are pants, shirts, underwear, socks, and hygiene kits.
"And then each one has a tag on it with our name, and they get a booklet called 'Here are my options,'" Pickering said. "And that's through MOCSA and Assistance League."
On a yearly basis, they put over 1,000 kits together for survivors.
"They (MOCSA) deliver them to hospital emergency rooms for sexual assault survivors who come into the hospitals," Pickering said. "And frequently, their clothing is taken for evidence. If somebody doesn't bring them clothing, they leave the hospital in a gown. So, it gives them a sense that somebody cares, and somebody has given them back their dignity in a terrible, terrible situation."
While these volunteers may never meet the people they help, Sobba says it's not about that.
"If I can give any of those people one single thing to make them feel better about themselves and to provide a basic need, then that's, that's enough reason to keep doing it," Sobba said.
The Assistance League has a resale shop, which is where they receive 80 percent of their funding. 100 percent of the proceeds go towards programming to help children and adults in the Kansas City area with the resources they need.
To learn more about its resale shop, visit the Assistance League website.
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