EMPOWERED TO ACHIEVE PRESENTS
Choose a Cause. Create Your Impact.
Community impact begins with something you care about. Explore the causes below, learn how organizations are responding, identify where needs still exist, and begin creating a project that reflects your interests, talents, and goals.
EXPLORE
What Cause Matters to You?
Select a cause to learn what the issue means, how organizations are helping, where gaps may still exist, and how young people can contribute.
Homelessness can affect individuals, families, veterans, older adults, and young people. It may involve living outdoors, staying in shelters, moving between temporary locations, or being at risk of losing housing.
What organizations are doing
Community organizations may provide shelter, meals, hygiene products, housing navigation, rental assistance, employment support, and help replacing identification documents.
Look for the gap
Are people missing transportation, personal-care items, school supplies, pet support, employment clothing, storage, phone access, or information about available resources?
Ways you could help
- Create hygiene, welcome-home, or job-readiness kits.
- Organize a supply or fundraising campaign.
- Develop a resource guide or awareness campaign.
- Support a local shelter or housing organization.
Food insecurity means a person or family does not always have dependable access to enough nutritious food. It can affect students, working families, older adults, and people experiencing financial hardship.
What organizations are doing
Food banks, community pantries, schools, churches, and meal programs collect and distribute groceries, prepared meals, and nutrition resources.
Look for the gap
Are families able to reach the pantry? Are culturally familiar foods, fresh produce, senior-friendly meals, baby supplies, or weekend meals available?
Ways you could help
- Host a food or grocery-card drive.
- Prepare meal or snack kits.
- Promote local food resources.
- Fundraise for a pantry or community meal program.
Educational opportunity includes access to supplies, tutoring, technology, encouragement, career information, graduation support, and experiences that help students prepare for life after high school.
What organizations are doing
Schools and nonprofits provide mentoring, tutoring, college and career guidance, literacy programs, supplies, scholarships, and family support.
Look for the gap
Do students know where to find help? Are senior-year expenses, internet access, transportation, tutoring, application fees, or career exposure creating barriers?
Ways you could help
- Create school-supply or senior-support campaigns.
- Organize peer tutoring or study support.
- Develop college, trade, and career resource guides.
- Fundraise for a student-focused nonprofit.
Mental wellness affects how people cope, connect, learn, and make decisions. Stress, grief, isolation, bullying, and family challenges can make it harder for young people and adults to thrive.
What organizations are doing
Organizations may offer counseling, peer support, crisis resources, wellness education, support groups, and safe spaces for conversation.
Look for the gap
Do people know where to seek help? Are stigma, transportation, cost, language, or a lack of youth-friendly information preventing access?
Ways you could help
- Create a positive wellness or kindness campaign.
- Share verified local resources.
- Organize stress-relief or encouragement kits.
- Support a qualified mental-health organization.
Students should share verified resources and awareness information—not attempt to provide counseling or crisis services.
Older adults may experience isolation, limited transportation, difficulty using technology, food insecurity, health challenges, or a need for companionship and practical assistance.
What organizations are doing
Senior organizations provide meals, transportation, friendly visits, caregiver support, activities, resource navigation, and assistance with daily needs.
Look for the gap
Are older adults disconnected from family or services? Do they need technology help, social connection, home-safety supplies, or clearer information?
Ways you could help
- Create cards, care packages, or friendly-call projects.
- Teach basic phone or technology skills.
- Collect comfort, safety, or activity supplies.
- Support a local senior-serving nonprofit.
Veterans and military families may face housing instability, employment transitions, disabilities, food insecurity, isolation, or difficulty navigating available benefits and services.
What organizations are doing
Veteran-serving organizations provide housing assistance, meals, employment support, peer connection, transportation, and help accessing benefits.
Look for the gap
Are veterans aware of local services? Are transportation, technology, food access, housing supplies, or social isolation still creating needs?
Ways you could help
- Create appreciation or welcome-home kits.
- Host a food, clothing, or supply drive.
- Promote verified veteran resources.
- Fundraise for a local veteran organization.
Animal welfare involves protecting animals from neglect, helping homeless pets, supporting responsible ownership, and keeping pets safely with the families who love them.
What organizations are doing
Shelters and rescue groups provide food, medical care, fostering, adoption, spay-and-neuter support, and lost-pet assistance.
Look for the gap
Are shelters short on food, towels, foster homes, volunteers, adoption promotion, or supplies for families struggling to care for their pets?
Ways you could help
- Collect food, blankets, toys, or cleaning supplies.
- Create adoption-awareness content.
- Support a pet-food pantry.
- Raise funds for a shelter or rescue organization.
Environmental and neighborhood issues include litter, illegal dumping, water conservation, extreme heat, lack of green space, and the condition of shared community areas.
What organizations are doing
Community groups organize cleanups, tree planting, recycling education, conservation projects, beautification, and neighborhood advocacy.
Look for the gap
Are certain areas repeatedly neglected? Do residents need supplies, education, shade, water stations, or an organized way to report concerns?
Ways you could help
- Organize a cleanup or beautification project.
- Create environmental-awareness content.
- Collect supplies or recruit volunteers.
- Support a conservation or neighborhood organization.
Children and families may need support with school supplies, clothing, childcare resources, literacy, food, safe activities, parenting support, and access to community services.
What organizations are doing
Family-serving organizations offer mentoring, youth activities, parenting resources, emergency supplies, literacy programs, and referrals to trusted services.
Look for the gap
Are families aware of available help? Are there unmet needs related to transportation, after-school care, diapers, books, recreation, or school readiness?
Ways you could help
- Create literacy, activity, or comfort kits.
- Organize a book, diaper, or school-supply drive.
- Promote family resources and events.
- Support a youth- or family-serving nonprofit.
Your cause does not have to appear on this list. You may notice a challenge at school, in your neighborhood, within a group you belong to, or through your own life experiences.
Begin with these questions
- What problem or need keeps getting my attention?
- Who is affected by it?
- What is already being done?
- What appears to be missing?
- What skills, relationships, or ideas could I contribute?
Students may propose another cause, including a senior-year need, school campaign, neighborhood project, awareness effort, or a new community solution. ETA will help determine whether the idea is safe, realistic, and connected to a meaningful community purpose.
LEARN
Understand the Issue
Before choosing a solution, take time to understand the people, organizations, history, and unmet needs connected to the cause.
Research the Cause
Learn what the issue is, who it affects, why it exists, and what information comes from trustworthy sources.
Listen to the Community
Speak with people who understand the issue. Ask what support is helpful rather than assuming what people need.
Find Existing Organizations
Identify nonprofits, schools, agencies, or community groups already working on the cause and learn how they currently respond.
Identify the Gap
Look for needs that remain unmet. The strongest projects solve a real problem instead of repeating work that is already being done.
Ask Yourself
What surprised me? Who is most affected? What is already working? What appears to be missing? Where could young people make a meaningful contribution?
CREATE
Design Your Impact Project
Turn what you learned into a focused, realistic project with a clear purpose and a way to measure whether it helped.
Service Project
Organize volunteers, collect supplies, prepare kits, improve a shared space, or complete another hands-on activity.
Awareness Campaign
Use videos, flyers, presentations, social media, interviews, or events to help people understand the issue.
Fundraising Campaign
Create a responsible fundraising effort that supports an approved nonprofit or helps complete a specific community project.
New Solution
Design a new program, event, product, resource, club, campaign, or social-impact idea that addresses a gap you discovered.
Build Your Project Around Five Questions
- What is the need?
- Who will the project help?
- What action will we take?
- Who should we partner with?
- How will we know we made a difference?
SERVE & LEAD
Put the Plan Into Action
Create a timeline, assign roles, invite others to participate, and carry out the project with integrity, respect, and accountability.
REFLECT & GROW
Tell the Story of Your Impact
Community impact is more than completing an activity. Students should reflect on what changed, what they learned, and what should happen next.
What Changed?
Describe the benefit to the people, organization, cause, or community.
What Did You Learn?
Identify new skills, knowledge, relationships, and leadership growth.
What Comes Next?
Decide whether the project should continue, grow, change, or inspire a new solution.
READY TO BEGIN?
Your Cause Can Become Your Contribution.
You do not need to have every answer today. Begin with curiosity, choose something that matters to you, and allow ETA to help you turn your idea into meaningful action.