What We Do

We Believe in Challenging Poverty, One Child at a Time

According to the National Center for Child Poverty, about 15 million children in the United States – 21% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold, a measurement that has been shown to underestimate the needs of families. Most of these children have parents who work, but low wages and unstable employment leave their families struggling to make ends meet. Poverty can impede children’s ability to learn and contribute to social, emotional, and behavioural problems. Poverty also can contribute to poor health and mental health. The needs of children are great and many face significant threats to their well being. The National Christ Child Chapters focus on making a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable among us.

Since 1887, our volunteers have been driven by faith, love and a desire to make a difference. Guided by National’s Challenging Poverty Initiative, we create localized programs or partner with others to build better communities. Today, over 5,500 members from 45 chapters volunteer nearly 400,000 hours and serve more than 75,000 children and their families annually.

Provide Basic Resources

Our layette program is the unifying signature program in honor of initial project of our founder. Each chapter provides a bundle of essentials for newborns. Christ Child Chapters donate approximately 25,000 layettes nationwide per year. Many chapters provide other resources such as coats, warm clothing, shoes and school uniforms to children in their communities. Chapters provide backpacks filled with school supplies or personal supplies for children suddenly in foster care. Chapters distribute an estimated 47,000 thousand books each year.

Enrich Education

Many of our chapters partner with teachers in local schools, pre-schools and childcare centers to provide the special ongoing personal attention needed by children to engender self esteem and a love of learning. We provide tutoring, books and volunteer support to our partners. We provide special opportunities for field trips, art and music enrichment.

Empower Children and Families

We help children and families to overcome adversity, increase resiliency and become self sufficient through programs to decrease isolation, build a sense of community and provide opportunities to learn about child care, decision making and ways to decrease violence in families. Many chapters provide scholarships to help students attend a high school or higher education of choice.

Click here to see the current Impact Report and learn more about our work, our successes and our impact.

We are the volunteers of Christ Child Society, working to bridge the gap, providing assistance where needed in our communities – our actions come from love. To join us, please see find a chapter or contact our office.