New Yorker's Do Volunteer

They say that New York has some of the lowest volunteer rates in the country. In fact in 2010 New York state did have the lowest volunteer rates in the country. New York City has been ranked anywhere from 49th-51^st out of 51 major cities in various volunteer categories including numbers of residents volunteering and volunteer hours per residents. While I’m sure these studies were done scientifically and with legitimate surveys there is one thing they left out. They forgot to ask me. Stefanie Greening volunteer department manager at Met Council. I have been with Met Council for 6 years. Watching the growth of our volunteers and their efforts. While studies may show New Yorkers are not into volunteering, my own calculations say that Met council defies all of that. We had 200 volunteers more than last year, totaling over 1,700 volunteers for this year alone. Now if we could only get our volunteers in front of other New Yorkers we would be the number one volunteer city in the world. 

So why is the Met Council community so giving of its time and talents? What makes us different?

My theory: community and impact. In a city of 8 million it is hard to do either, but Met Council volunteers do both. 

Last year we had two new volunteers with us, Alana and Emily. They are both Jewish girls from Jersey, were the same year at Syracuse and were active in their sororities and at Hillel, and are in the same women’s group in New York City. They even both have twin siblings. Its not surprising that they both decided to volunteer for Met Council’s senior lunch program, but it is surprising that the two of them had never met before, that is until they started volunteering for our Sunday senior lunch program. Once they began volunteering they met and become great friends. Not only are they co-volunteer leaders, but they now bring together their groups of friends not only to explore NYC but also to do more acts of kindness including working together on an item’s drive for families in our family violence department. This is not the only place that friendship has grown, we now have a few volunteers that go out together after our job readiness workshops, our MVP group hangs out together and there are many more examples. So far I don’t think we have created any shidachs but we’ll keep working on it. Our volunteers aspire to create a community in and of themselves and in a city of 8 million people finding a community of like minded individuals is not always easy.

We are a community based on action and impact. Recently while sitting at my desk I got that little e-mail pop up in the bottom of my screen that said “I have never been so excited that a client is not showing up to a workshop”. This peaked my interest and I opened it. It was a very excited e-mail from Jessica, our AmeriCorps volunteer coordinator focused on job readiness opportunities. When I opened it I shared in her excitement. One of our job readiness clients had just landed a job, not just any job but a job with an $80,000 a year salary. Not to bad. Our volunteers know that they can share in our clients pride because they directly helped to get this client back on his feet. Its true for all of our programming. When you hear a senior say “ I am so glad you have this exercise class, my physical therapy ran out and this helps to keep my arms strong.” Or when you hear one of our students from homework helpers say “I wish homework helpers was every night” Our volunteers feel the connection with our clients, they know they are helping. They know their time and efforts are worth it. 

What ever the reason you volunteer, its not important, we love having your help, time, talents and commitment.Hope to see you out there volunteering soon.