Cradles to Crayons Chicago

Our Mission: Cradles to Crayons provides children living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school and at play. We supply these items free of charge by engaging and connecting communities.

Our Vision: One day every child will have the essentials they need to feel safe, warm, ready to learn, and valued.

Our efficient and effective three-step model provides kids with the essentials they need, free of charge.

• • • New and nearly new children’s items are collected through grassroots community drives and corporate donations.
    • Donations are then processed and packaged by volunteers in our warehouse, The Giving Factory®.
    • Packages from The Giving Factory are distributed to local children — through our collaborative network of diverse service partners.

Cradles to Crayons sets a foundation for lasting change by providing meaningful, tangible volunteer opportunities to thousands of individuals and families and hundreds of corporations each year by organizing clothing collections, hosting a fundraiser, or working in the Giving Factory warehouse. Our shifts in our Giving Factory (located at 2500 W Bradley Place, Chicago 60618) give volunteers the opportunity to roll up their sleeves and sort, organize, and quality check the items donated to our organization.

We have volunteer shifts Tuesday-Saturday 10 am to 12 pm and 1:30-3:30 pm. We welcome volunteers as young as 5 years old when accompanied by a parent. Volunteers ages 16 and older are permitted to volunteer on their own.