Volunteer Opportunity : Financial Report Developer

Our Fiscal Department is looking for a volunteer versed in the ways of Sage or Sage Timberline to help develop financial and management reports. This is a flexible start time and commitment time volunteer opportunity.

Budding filmmakers!

Enter into the Do Gooder TV Nonprofit Video Awards! Submit as many videos as you want/can in any format in any quality about your non profit and the awesome stuff that you do. Check it out!

Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities!

Housing Lottery Volunteer
Met Council’s Housing Department will be selecting low income housing applicants through a lottery system for one of our residences. They need a detailed oriented volunteer to help with this process of selection and recording.

March 4th 9AM-5PM
80 Maiden Lane, 21st Floor
Manhattan


Resume Review (New and improved time!)
Due to popular demand, our ever popular Resume Review workshop has been moved to 6PM for more volunteer ease. We need volunteers to help our Home Attendant Students enter the work force with a bang! Give tips on snappy action verb usage and advice on how to spin past work history to make a great impression.

March 11th 6PM-7PM
80 Maiden Lane, 10th Floor
Manhattan

Interested in volunteering? Email the volunteer department or call Jillian at 212.453.9675.

Take Action Round up: February 24

Best Buy has decided to donate $1 million and wants teenagers to decide where the money goes. Sign up @15, collect points by doing simple actions on the website, then use those points to vote for your charity of choice.

Use USA Service to create volunteer events for causes you feel strongly about, and find volunteers to help you reach your goals.

Check out PolicyPitch to introduce new ideas on a very local level to a national level.

Food drives, pantries and kitchens

Every time we go home to visit family, my boyfriend's mom sends us home with food. Which is awesome, but sometimes it turns out to be stuff that we wouldn't actually eat. I certainly don't want to throw it out, and I don't want to pack it up and move it when we leave our current apartment. I twittered The Food Bank for NYC at FoodBank4NYC what I should do with this food, and they directed me to their food program locator that will help you find the closest place to drop off food stuff donations.

Invisible People : Marco and Cherese

Marco and Cherese from invisible people on Vimeo.

Volunteer Rewards

Even before President Obama called American citizens to service, the Presidential Volunteer Service Award acknowledged volunteers who have given anywhere from 100 hours a year to 4,000 hours over a lifetime to volunteer service. Learn more about it here, and start keeping track of your volunteer hours. 4000 hours is just 4 hours a week for 19 years! What kind of service would you spend 4000 hours doing? What do you think you could get done in 4 hours a week?

Take Action Round Up: February 17

Test your vocabulary knowledge while raising money for vaccines for kids who's parents can't afford to buy them at GiveVaccines.org Or donate rice while testing your language, math, chemistry and art recognition skills at Free Rice.com
To keep up to speed with all kinds of actions to take, consider adding the take action widgets by Social Actions to your blog or website.

Volunteer Opportunity : Purim Party

Ring toss, face painting, mask making, bingo! If you love to play games than you should help out at our Purim Party for domestic violence survivors.

March 1st 11:30AM to 1:30PM
Congregation B'nai Avraham
117 Remsen Street, Brooklyn

If you are interested in participating please email Jillian Constantine or call her at 212.453.9645.

Ways to give on Valentine's Day

Donate Blood to the American Red Cross or the NY Blood Bank.

Case Foundation gives ideas about how to share the love, from buying chocolate from sustainable cocoa farms to volunteering with your loved ones. And as we know, volunteering makes you more attractive!

Welcome to Jillian!

The Volunteer Department has expanded! We now have a Jillian, Volunteer Coordinator extraordinaire, who will be helping Stefanie run programs, talk to new volunteers, develop new programs, and work on all the things that Stefanie has not had time to do by herself, like send you thank yous and work on the long ignored volunteer newsletter.
Jillian can be reached at jconstantine@metcouncil.org or 212.453.9675.

Q&A with Willie Rapfogel

Question:
Is there any way to encourage people to buy in bulk and save money? Or plan/budget food purchases? — Estie Scheiner

Answer:
If people are dedicated to saving money on food, here are a few options.

• Split the cost of a discount card to a bulk food store — you need only three or four families to chip in — and purchase food in bulk.
• Look into food collectives like the Park Slope Food Co-op where customers share the labor to keep prices down. You can also start one in your community — reach out to your local elected officials for help.
• Learn to plan ahead, buy what is truly needed, create menus that are seasonal (inexpensive) and avoid meat (expensive).
• Use coupons, buy on sale, buy fewer prepared foods and buy house brands whenever possible.
• Brown-bag lunch and drink water with lemon or other fruit slices for flavor instead of soda.
How to spread the word? Advertising always helps. Schools, synagogues, churches, community centers and libraries can post these tips and information to serve as a resource for those trying to save.

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Question:
It’s painfully obvious that there are many people in our communities who need food assistance. Which is a better way to help: giving food donations or cash donations to the organizations trying to help? — Eric Steinhardt

Answer:
Both food donations and cash grants are important. Cash grants are often more useful because it allows us to use our bulk discounts to get the best prices, and also because we can then purchase the food we know our clients need. However, many people find it more practical and convenient to make food donations, and this is extremely helpful as well — especially protein items such as canned tuna or beans. So tell your friends to do both if they can!

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Question:
I, along with some of my friends, have moved back home because of high rents, school loans and the general cost of living not allowing us buy food. We are the sole support of our parents, and all of us have run into budget problems by the end of the month. Between school loans, supporting our parents, clothing and daily expenses, all of which are nominal. We all are having a hard time budgeting for food and live in fear how we may not be able to put food on the table. We are all making a salary in the thirties and wonder if there are any food assistance programs for persons in our situation to alleviate occasional or monthly food shortages? — Ray

Answer:
You should check to see if you are entitled to food stamps, since that is the only government benefit that is based on family size, monthly income and monthly expenditures. You can determine your eligibility at www.nyc.gov/hra or call 311. Food pantries and soup kitchens are another good option. Visit www.foodbanknyc.org for a listing in your area.

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Question:
Are you satisfied with New York City’s new poverty measures that reflect the cost of food, clothing, shelter and utilities — as opposed to the prior federal measure primarily focused on the cost of food? — J. Stone

Answer:
The federal poverty level does not reflect the needs of the urban working poor and near-poor. New York City’s cost of living is much higher than most of the country, yet the calculations are the same.

Mayor Bloomberg’s effort to look at new models deserves praise. By incorporating multiple components including food, clothing, housing, utilities and transportation costs in a new poverty measure, it brings us closer to a more accurate picture of poverty in New York City. With more precise information, we can do a better job of helping those in need.

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Question:
During the months of November and December, nearly every store I pass by seems to be running its own food drive and collecting cans and boxes of nonperishable food. Does this food actually get to needy people? Is it a cost-effective way of helping the needy, or is it just a feel-good gesture? — Robert W.

Answer:
Robert, we can’t vouch for everyone else, but I can guarantee that every canned food drive — as well as every clothing and furniture drive — that benefits Met Council goes directly to people in need. I would guess that this is true for most organizations and businesses running food drives. As to whether they are cost-effective, I would say that organizations are better served by cash donations than food donations. People may have diet restrictions and other needs that are better attended to when an organization has the means to purchase the most appropriate food in bulk. But as I said above, many people find it more practical and convenient to make food donations, and this is helpful as well.

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Question:
What is the food stamp guideline? I’m currently making about $1,080 bi-weekly, and it’s not enough with rent, transportation and other bills to also provide a healthy meal at home. I also have two young children and would like to know if this benefit is accessible to someone in my situation. Thank you. – Nerisusan

Answer:
Food stamps are the only government benefit based on family size, monthly income and monthly expenditures. You can determine your eligibility at www.nyc.gov/hra or call 311.

Taken from the NY Times Neediest Cases Ask an Expert feature

Random Acts of Kindness Week

Somebody somewhere decided that this week is Random Acts of Kindness Week.
From Karma Cooler check out 100 acts of kindness to get you started. And check out the Human Kind Project's matrix of good deeds.

Take Action Round Up: February 9

Good morning friends!

Care2 has a lot of resources for those who are interested in learning more about any cause that ever existed and what you can do to help out those causes. Sign a petition, create a petition, get involved with an organization, receive updates about your interests, donate.

Use Service Nation's search engine to find volunteer opportunities in your area; they will search many of the larger volunteer posting sites and list them all for you in one place.

Become a PenPal through In2Books to a grade schooler who is learning how to read. Volunteers read the same books that their grade school counterparts are reading, then participate in online discussions with them about the important themes and ideas of the book. You will help them develop close reading and critical thinking skills.

Invisible People: Mark

Mark from invisible people on Vimeo.

ACORN

ACORN works to raise minimum wage, advocate for the development of affordable housing, improve urban public school and fight certain practices of mortgage lenders that have contributed to the current foreclosure debacle. One of the issues they are working on right now is fighting to keep family's in their homes until some solution is made. ACORN is looking for volunteers to join their Home Defender Campaign to help people stay in their houses. They are especially looking for for volunteers in NYC, and will be holding trainings next week.

Do 1 Thing

Do 1 Thing is a team of journalists and photographers who are raising awareness of homeless teens. Millions of runaway and homeless youth live on the streets every year. Many of these kids were beaten or abused before they left home. The majority have or will drop out of school. A third have attempted suicide.

Serve America

President Obama has called Americans to action. He believes that to be good citizens we can not be passive. We have been asked to serve our country in order to make it a better place and to help those who are struggling to obtain the American dream. Obama’s charge sparked millions of American’s to volunteer on MLK Day, making it the largest national day of service in United States history. Those millions of volunteers got a lot done on January 19, but to get even more done, long term, full time service programs could be leveraged to accomplish even more. AmeriCorps is one such example of a long term, full time volunteer program whose alums have donated many millions of hours of time, skill and energy in an effort to alleviate poverty, improve reading skills, build affordable housing and clean parks, to name just a few of the invaluable activities that they’ve performed.

In the spirit of President Roosevelt’s Citizen Conservation Corps, and President Eisenhower’s Peace Corps, AmeriCorps was created by President Clinton in 1993. Expansion of the AmeriCorps program, which now places 75,000 volunteers a year in 6 month to year long terms, has been proposed by Senators Orrin Hatch and Edward Kennedy under the Serve America Act, to include 175,000 more volunteer positions. These new positions would deal with specific national issues such as tackling the dropout crisis and strengthening our schools; improving energy efficiency; safeguarding the environment; improving health care in low-income communities; expanding economic opportunities for low-income individuals; and preparing for and responding to disasters and emergencies. The Serve America Act hopes to engage adults of all ages as well as encourage innovative ideas from non-profits as to how to resolve these pressing national issues.

Closer to home, the effects of the AmeriCorps program on Met Council and our clients are plenty and vast. Met Council serves as a host site for 3 AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers, and the supervisor for 5 more. The VISTA branch of AmeriCorps deals exclusively with capacity building, unlike the more well known State and National or NCCC programs that serve directly in the community. The VISTA volunteers at Met Council work to grow the capability of the organization, so they are able to provide services to more people. At Met Council this means recruiting more volunteers, writing grants or developing new marketing strategies in order to attract new donors. VISTA volunteers at Met Council have helped design our new website, which has attracted twice as many donations as our previous website, brought in $2 million dollars in grants, recruited 5,000 new volunteers and created countless flyers, newsletters and presentations that have informed numerous people about the effects of poverty and the services that Met Council offers.

Photographer Needed for Head Shots

We need a professional photographer to take head shots for one of our clients. The shoot can be done anywhere within the city. No touch up will be needed, and no prints need to be made, we just need you to be able to burn the images onto a CD.

Contact Stefanie Greenberg if you are interested! 212.453.9619 or sgreenberg@metcouncil.org

Passover Outreach Volunteers

Who are Passover volunteers?

Passover Volunteers are caring, responsible, and non-judgmental, who wish to support their Community, and who treasure the special joy of helping others through personal contact.

What do Passover volunteers do?

Volunteers offer the kindness of a listening ear and a sensitive heart.
Volunteers interview applicants from 10 AM to 2:30 PM, Mondays through Thursdays at JBFCS facilities, community centers, and synagogues throughout the five boroughs of New York City.
We ask for a commitment of three days over a three week period from February 23- March 12, 2009.
Volunteers inquire about the applicants’ circumstances and enter the information on application forms. Where appropriate, volunteers refer clients to agencies in the social and mentalhealth services.

How will I know what to do?

Every volunteer must attend a two-hour training session in early February. At training, you learn about the program’s mission and how to fill out application forms and make referrals.At every location an experienced volunteer site coordinator is on hand to assist new volunteers.

How can I sign up?

Call Ilana Weinstein at 212-632-4693 or e-mail at IWeinstein@jbfcs.org

Sunday Painting at Client's Apt.

Yesterday, 6 volunteers (including the friends and and significant others that we made come with us) showed up in Sheepshead Bay to help paint a client's apartment so it will be approved for a government funding program.
We had to do some repairs where water damage had happened before we painted, and we got a lot done! The apartment had lived through some kitchen fires and had not been painted since the 70s, so a fresh coat of paint made a big difference. Our original plans to paint to whole place in one afternoon had been ambition, as I realize in retrospect, and we didn't get everything done, but we're planning on finishing up next Sunday if anyone is interested in joining us.
Find more pictures here.

Take Action Round Up: February 2

Loosing pounds and clicking for good.

If you want to kill two birds with one stone, as they say, take the pound for pound challenge put on by Feeding America, for every pound you loose and report in April, Pound for Pound will donate 10 cents to Feeding America.

Virgin Airlines will donate $25,000 to a local Boston non profit, vote for which charity will get their money!

Intel will be donating 25 cents for every click on their small things challenge.