Community Involvement

 Arnold & Itkin donated approximately 1,000 school supplies in the Back to School Drive for The Children’s Assessment Center. CAC is a nonprofit doing the vital work of protecting child survivors of abuse. The organization’s holistic approach offers resources for prevention, assessment, investigation, referral for prosecution, and treatment of abuse. All of these approaches serve a single goal: complete healing and recovery for survivors of abuse and their families. Our firm was proud to contribute to their work ensuring these kids get every chance to grow up with all the resources they need.

In July 2023, Arnold & Itkin sponsored two soccer teams in the Fun Fair Positive Soccer organization, a nonprofit that utilizes special rules and standards to ensure every player has a fun, enriching experience. The FFPS plays five-a-side soccer, with all players getting equal play time while rotating between every position. The result is a positive athletic experience for kids aged 4–18. We were proud to sponsor FFPS Tigers and Dragon Fire teams this year to promote youth athletics.

Arnold & Itkin employees packed more than 600 lunches for our annual Kids’ Meals Drive. Each of us volunteered for a 30-minute shift, but to make the lunch extra special, we also took lunch bags home to include handwritten notes, pictures, and stickers to go with every meal. Every year, we look forward to volunteering for Kids’ Meals, Inc. to help them feed thousands of kids year-round throughout Houston. As always, it was an honor to help feed kids in need in our community.

Arnold & Itkin donated $2,000 to the Lady Cats girls’ basketball program at Leesville High School to buy shirts and basketballs for a camp for girls ages 5–14. The Leesville High School basketball team includes about 20 diverse young women who just came off an incredible season, including 18 wins that took them all the way to the second round of playoffs. Youth sports is an important part of learning perseverance, developing coordination, and making friends—many of our firm’s attorneys wouldn’t be the same without it. We’re thrilled to ensure the Lady Cats are able to introduce basketball to more young girls in the Leesville community.

In December, Arnold & Itkin partnered with CASA, or Court-Appointed Special Advocates, for their annual Christmas toy drive. The donated toys go to children who have survived neglect or abuse and need as much love and care as possible. We believe in giving back to our community, and CASA is a great organization that helps some of the most vulnerable members of our society. We are committed to helping CASA continue its work, and we hope our donations make a difference in the lives of the children they serve.

At Arnold & Itkin, we are dedicated to expanding access to justice for all. One of the ways we do this is by volunteering with organizations like Target Hunger. Target Hunger is a nonprofit committed to providing nutritious and satisfying meals to families in need, providing millions of meals throughout Houston. They run multiple food pantries, summer break food programs, and more. In November, we partnered with them to organize a food drive to help replenish the food pantry supplies. We were honored to work with them!

Arnold & Itkin hosted a Color of Justice event in October 2022 organized by the National Association of Women Judges. The Color of Justice is an NAWJ program designed to encourage “girls and minorities of all age levels to consider legal and judicial careers by bringing them together with judges and lawyers and providing them with resources to pursue their goals.” In addition to hosting, Arnold & Itkin donated $2,250 to the Color of Justice Scholarship to support young women of color pursuing a career in law. We were proud to host the event and grateful for the opportunity to help enrich and diversify our profession.

Arnold & Itkin was grateful to support the State Fair of Louisiana in 2022. In October, we became sponsors with a $15,000 donation to help make the fair a success. Our donation helps promote local businesses, raise money for charity organizations, and get people together to have a good time, benefiting the community economically and socially. We hope the State Fair of Louisiana continues to be a success year after year and that our contribution helped make it an enjoyable experience for all who attended!

In the fall of 2022, Arnold & Itkin organized our seventh annual RESPECT Contest, giving away $21,600 in total. Fifth graders were asked to write a short essay and create artwork demonstrating what respect means to them. The best answers won cash donations for the student, their school, and the charity of their choice! This year’s 12 winners came from Galena Park, Pasadena, La Porte, and Deer Park school districts. This year, the charities chosen included Texas Children’s Hospital, St. Jude, American Brain Tumor Association, Feed the Children, Feeding America, World Wildlife Fund, Food for the Hungry, Habitat for Humanity, and Memorial Herman Children’s Cancer Center. As always, it was an honor to read every entry and donate to these kids, schools, and nonprofits.

At Arnold & Itkin, we are committed to supporting The Way Home Adoption, a nonprofit organization that helps children in foster care find permanent homes. The Way Home Adoption does vital work in our community by helping foster children find permanent homes. By adopting children who would otherwise age out of the foster system, The Way Home Adoption prevents them from becoming statistics. We became a “Hole-in-One” sponsor of their annual charity golf tournament in September 2022, donating $2,500 to The Way Home Adoption. We are proud to support The Way Home Adoption, and we hope to continue working with them to help as many children as possible find happy, healthy homes.

Arnold & Itkin organized a Back to School Drive for The Children's Assessment Center in Houston. The CAC is a non-profit for survivors of sexual abuse, particularly children. They provide families with much-needed therapy, forensic interviews, and medical care on-site. The Back to School Drive was designed to help these kids get everything they needed for the school year, including pencils, pens, notebooks, backpacks, and more.

In July 2022, Arnold & Itkin again sponsored the Sabine Sweets' talented athletes to send them to the Dixie World Series! These remarkable young ladies ended up winning the whole thing, bringing home a lot of Louisiana pride (and the big trophy). These girls have consistently been a contender for the World Series year after year, and we were so proud to see them take it home this year. Well done, girls!

In June 2022, Arnold & Itkin donated much-needed pantry supplies to the City Year Baton Rouge site. City Year provides underserved schools with volunteers to support the educational efforts of the teaching staff; they provide students with academic and social skills to help them succeed in school and life. City Year Baton Rouge also runs a food pantry for families suffering from food insecurity, an essential factor in educational inequality.

In May 2022, Arnold & Itkin sponsored a golf cart for the annual Go Tejano Day golf tournament. Go Tejano Day was founded by Mexican-American trail riders who felt that the Hispanic community of Texas had a lot to benefit from the annual Houston Rodeo by combining the Western celebration of the cowboy with the history of Mexican horsemen in the West. Today, Go Tejano is a celebration of Mexican-American history in Texas as well as an opportunity to give back to the Houston community. We were happy to contribute.

Every year, Arnold & Itkin looks forward to packing meals for Kids' Meals Inc., a non-profit committed to feeding children in need throughout Houston. In the summer, the number of kids Kids' Meals serves nearly doubles as school-aged children lose access to school meal programs for the summer. That's why our team spent the morning packing hundreds of lunches for children in need, as well as presented a $2,000 donation to Kids' Meals. As always, it was an honor to volunteer for such an incredible organization and worthy cause.

Arnold & Itkin provided Casa de Esperanza with four dinner meals and four activities for the kids. Casa de Esperanza is a non-profit that provides housing for children at risk for neglect or abuse; their groundbreaking approach provides kids with consistent, safe home life. However, running multiple houses in a private neighborhood takes a lot of volunteer work, including preparing meals and designing activities to keep kids active. Our firm was happy to provide four nights of meals and activities for the Casa de Esperanza kids.

In January 2022, Arnold & Itkin donated logo items to the Pasadena Special Olympics. The Texas Special Olympics organization provides year-round training and competition for people of all ages with intellectual disabilities. The statewide Special Olympics holds over 300 competitions annually, which is one competition almost once per day. It was our pleasure to donate necessary items to the Special Olympics in Pasadena.

In December 2021, Arnold & Itkin organized and hosted a toy drive for BEAR, or "BE A Resource" for CPS kids. BEAR provides support and aid for children who've survived abuse and neglect. Every Christmas, BEAR receives toy donations to provide gifts to Houston kids who may not otherwise get gifts that year. Our team organized a toy drive to make our own contribution to the toy supply BEAR needed that year. With help from other organizations all over the community and us, BEAR was able to provide over 19,000 gifts to kids in need!

Arnold & Itkin organized two different toy drives for CASA of Hidalgo County and CASA Voz de Niños. Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA, advocates for children who are in the foster care system or who've survived neglect and abuse. We were eager to help them give their kids the best Christmas ever. Our firm helped donate soccer balls, art supplies, RC cars, and other gifts for all ages to both organizations.

Arnold & Itkin donated 20 boxes of diapers to Casa de Esperanza, a life-changing Houston non-profit that serves children at risk for neglect or child abuse. Casa de Esperanza serves numerous infants and their parents, providing them with support and stability. For many of these parents, size six diapers are one of the highest and most consistent costs they must deal with. That's why our firm donated 20 boxes of size 6 diapers to Casa de Esperanza, providing parents with much-needed savings and children with vital aid.

Arnold & Itkin organized a canned food drive with Target Hunger, a Houston non-profit that supports food-insecure households. In 2021, Target Hunger distributed over 1.3 million meals in Houston. They emphasize the importance of providing households with high-quality and nutritious meals, which they accomplish through multiple food pantries, summer break food programs for kids, and emergency food assistance. Arnold & Itkin was honored to work alongside this organization, providing such an essential service.

Arnold & Itkin donated $5,000, duffle bags, and caps to the Sabine Darling 7- and 8-year-old Dixie Youth Softball Team. At the time, the team was preparing to represent the state of Louisiana as the Louisiana Darlings at the Dixie World Series taking place in Prince George, Virginia! They traveled across 7 states (an 18-hour trip) in order to make it to the tournament. We’re proud of this team of young athletes and were happy to support them at the Dixie World Series.

In March 2021, the Monarch School named Arnold & Itkin the sole honoree of their annual “Transforming Lives Celebration,” an event intended to look back on their accomplishments over the previous year. In a year filled with obstacles and difficulties, the Monarch School continued to demonstrate the importance of their work for children with neurological differences. We were honored to be featured at the event and to have contributed to their success last year.

In December 2020, Arnold & Itkin donated 12 boxes of much-needed fleece jackets to the Houston Area Women’s Center (HAWC), which serves the survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. HAWC provides spouses and their children with vital advocacy, counseling, education, shelter, and other forms of support to help them rebuild after surviving abuse. Our firm was proud to help HAWC in their work by providing warm winter clothing for shelter residents.

The Monarch School & Institute is an elite institution for learners with neurological differences. Students receive therapeutic education that helps them understand and address neurological conditions like autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, and other obstacles, while receiving the tools to lead independent and productive lives. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020 threatened The Monarch School’s ability to continue enrollment for every student. The Arnold & Itkin Foundation’s $110,000 donation—made possible by Kurt and Tara Arnold and Jason and Kisha Itkin—ensures that the school will have everything it needs to continue doing its vital work through the pandemic and beyond.

Our firm has recently made a contribution to an organization that’s been near and dear to our heart for over a decade: the Sunflower County Freedom Project. The SCFP enriches young people’s lives and develops them into strong leaders. Based in Sunflower County, Mississippi, the organization provides intensive academic training, leadership building, and college preparation to children who need it most. We are thrilled to have contributed to an organization doing such important work.

In July 2020, the employees at Arnold & Itkin mobilized to donate hundreds of school supplies to Houston Children’s Charity for their “Back2School” program. In its history, the school supply program has served more than 40,000 children in the Houston area, all of whom are in need of help to prepare for a successful school year. Our firm proudly supports our students in Houston, and we hope they have a wonderful school year!

In April 2020, team members from the Arnold & Itkin File Room donated their time to volunteer at the Houston Food Bank. As the COVID-19 pandemic has caused so many hardworking families to lose their incomes, the services provided by the Houston Food Bank are needed more than ever before. To serve our community during this time, volunteers are vital. We are so proud that members of our AI Family courageously stepped up! And, thank you to the Houston Food Bank always for supporting our community!

Arnold & Itkin donated 185 meals from local restaurant Goode Co. BBQ to the incredible doctors and nurses in the ER and ICU units at Houston Methodist Hospital last week. These individuals are working on the frontlines day in and day out to help protect our community from COVID-19. We are grateful for these devoted men and women and proud to give them a small thank you for all they are doing!

The Arnold & Itkin team was proud to donate hundreds of school supplies to benefit Be a Resource for CPS Kids and its back-to-school program. BEAR helps children removed from their homes throughout Harris County because of urgent situations. The organization provides these children with supplies such as diapers, clothes, shoes, car seats, cribs, formula, school supplies, and more.

Each year, this back-to-school program supplies over 5,000 children with new uniforms, school supplies, and backpacks to start the year. This way, children under the supervision of Child Protective Services have a chance to start their academic year with the confidence and tools they need for success. Arnold & Itkin is proud to give back to the Houston community through our work with BEAR. We wish success to the students throughout the upcoming school year!

In December 2018, Arnold & Itkin employees participated in our annual toy drive, gathering gifts to be donated to BEAR (Be A Resource for CPS Kids) and their “BEARing Gifts” program. BEAR works with the Harris County CPS and Texas Department of Family to provide for the basic needs and dignity of children that have been recently uprooted. Our team is proud to support BEAR and their cause, helping bring holiday cheer to children in the Houston community under the care of CPS.

Arnold & Itkin employees collected hundreds of school supplies to be donated to Houston Children’s Charity for their “Back2School” program. This program has been assisting under-served children in Houston since 2005 and has helped more than 20,000 students prepare for a successful new school year. Our team is thrilled to be supporting such an important, necessary, and well-established program. Our staff is passionate about supporting youth and helping them prepare for academic success, and we’re happy to put our time, effort, and resources toward helping kids get the supplies they need.

Arnold & Itkin employees gathered hundreds of toys to be donated to Houston Children's Charity as they teamed up with Toys for Tots. Families in need from all around the Houston area were able to come pick out toys for their children to enjoy this holiday. Toys for Tots is a program run by the US Marine Corps that provides toys to children whose parents cannot afford to buy gifts. Since 1947, the program has provided toys to millions of children. AI is proud to support these organizations in giving back!

We were happy to support the Alvin Community College Dolphin Athletics at their 12th Annual Dinner and Auction. The event is sponsored by the ACC Foundation and proceeds from the event support scholarships, facility improvements, and equipment upgrades for the baseball and softball teams. Athletic programs are vital parts of our community, providing students with the opportunity for excellence, growth, and recognition. It is our honor to help provide the Alvin Community College Dolphins with better resources and equipment.

For the second year in a row, the AI team got into the holiday spirit by donating hundreds of toys to BEAR (Be A Resource for CPS Kids). BEAR is a 501(c)(3) that works with Harris County CPS and the Texas Department of Family to provide comfort, dignity, and basic care to children who have been uprooted. For children in the foster care system, what BEAR provides is often vital to their growth and long-term well-being. Each year, this non-profit organization focuses on BEARing gifts to children under CPS care who may not receive holiday cheer—and we are thrilled to contribute.

The Arnold & Itkin team sponsored and volunteered at the Kingwood 5k and 1-mile kid run. The event was put together in support of Young Life Houston Northeast, a local non-profit organization. Young Life provides community for students in middle school, high school, and college, giving them a place to be themselves during the most tumultuous years of their lives. More than 84% of its funding goes toward events, camps, and services to the kids who are a part of Young Life. The organization reaches around 348,000 kids around the world, working with 81,000 volunteers and 5,454 staff members. Our firm was thrilled to sponsor and volunteer on behalf of this worthy organization.

We recently hosted an event benefitting the Neighborhood Longhorns, an organization dedicated to assisting economically disadvantaged students succeed academically. AI was excited to have former University of Texas football player Vince Young attend to show his support for the program. Youth athletic programs teach young people discipline, self-esteem, self-respect, and the power of being part of a team. Combined with tools to succeed academically, we have no doubt that Neighborhood Longhorns will help equip students to be unstoppable in the classroom and unstoppable at life!

The Arnold & Itkin team volunteered at the Veterans’ Hospital in Houston for a free legal clinic. Free legal clinics provide much-needed legal advice and services to people who otherwise would not be able to afford an attorney. Legal clinics can address questions on every kind of matter, from child custody cases to filing for bankruptcy and everything in between. We counseled more than a dozen vets on a variety of legal issues. As proud supporters of our military men and women, we are honored to donate our time and energy to events such as this.

Our team was honored to present a $75,000 check to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in support of John Black’s fundraising efforts for the Ironman World Championship. Every year, more than 60,000 people are diagnosed with leukemia, and more than 22,000 people are expected to die from leukemia this year. More than 5,000 people will be diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma this year, and more than 1,000 will die. The only way to beat this is through more research. We are committed to playing a role in the race for a cure to cancer—and we encourage you to do the same.

At Arnold & Itkin, we held our first annual Food & Clothing Drive to benefit the Emergency Aid Coalition, a non-profit organization in Houston that feeds and clothes the homeless and needy in our community. The program was founded in 1983 to provide food, clothing, and other basic needs to everyone who needs it—but the program places particular emphasis on serving the working poor. EAC Houston services more than 50,000 people every year. AI was honored to do our part.

We are proud to sponsor the Lady Hawks of the Humble Girls Softball League in support of our local community and our wonderful paralegal Celeste Garza who coaches the team. Youth athletics is near and dear to our hearts; being on a sports team is how countless young people learn self-respect, confidence, discipline, responsibility, and how to work with others. Our firm was thrilled to have the opportunity to sponsor a team of young softball players. Go Lady Hawks!

Arnold & Itkin Intake Team Member Megan Elsbury journeyed to Haiti with Northside Christian Church. She spent time working with a wonderful organization called Coreluv to help Haitian orphans. She helped install swings and got to watch the children swing for the first time! Coreluv is a Christian organization that serves and provides for orphans in Haiti. They partner with organizations like Impact for Mankind, Kids Matter, and local churches to provide life-saving care to children. Our team was happy to contribute to Megan’s trip as she changed numerous lives with her work and compassion.