[Serious] Reddit, if you had $300 to donate to charity, what charity/charities would you donate it to so your money would go the furthest?

Warning: this will be rambling/long.

I was an AmeriCorps member, so basically a paid volunteer. I helped the guys get jobs and handled some case management.

It wasn't a drop-in shelter; the men had beds anywhere from a week to months for difficult cases. (Sex offenders who couldn't get jobs after being in prison for 7+ years, pretty terrible mental illnesses, dying of cancer, etc.)

I loved working there. It was emotionally difficult and yet very rewarding. I went back to school to get my social work degree because I wanted to make it my career but ended up starting my own (completely unrelated) business instead.

I'd say it was the most important and meaningful thing I've done in my life besides having a kid or joining the Navy when I was 17. ( am 43 now.) It's ground zero for the social services field and I think anybody who wants to make it a career should work at one to see what it's like; you get exposed to EVERYTHING and learn a lot in a short amount of time.

It's been almost a year since I left.

Two days ago I was on the bus (my car was in the shop) and I saw an old resident. When I first met him he was very fairly high functioning but an old TBI he'd had when he was a teenager (he's in his late 50's now) had gotten so bad he'd lost everything - his wife, home, job, cars, everything. There was an incident that ended up with him being taken away in an ambulance and I sort of lost it publicly in the street, crying, after trying to get him help in a structured program. (Doctor's office wouldn't cooperate. Fuck them.) Anyway, he didn't recognize me, slurred his words to the point that I could barely understand him, and had to ask me to help put his wallet in his back pocket. We rode the bus together and I cried. His life will never get better, and there was never anything I could do by myself to improve it, and the system gives zero fucks.

To balance that out, another resident left the shelter, started his own business and charity, and I see him in the paper getting awards or see flyers for his business around town. He's doing well.

My point? Giving directly can mean a a young man can get on a bus and buy a nice used suit from Goodwill with your $30 in order to meet with investors/mentors and not look homeless. Buy someone work boots. Pick up a monthly bus pass. Take someone shopping at Goodwill for some decent up-to-date interview clothes.

/r/AskReddit Thread Parent