Engage Jewish Service Corps

West Side Campaign Against Hunger Volunteering
Engage Knitters
Engage Zoom call
Engage car full of gifts

What is Engage?

Through Engage at the Wechsler Center, older adults find meaningful volunteer opportunities to use their skills, passion, and leadership to meet the needs of the JCC and help partner agencies in the community. Volunteers serve as peer leaders and join in regular community-building gatherings.

The Wechsler Center for Modern Aging seeks to reimagine older adulthood in a Jewish communal setting as a time of expansive possibility, purpose, community engagement, mutual support, and blessing. We envision an engaged and connected cohort of older adults who find deep meaning in community, who are treasured by the broader Jewish community for their wisdom, and who will develop the tools and attitudes to successfully transition through life as they age.

To learn more and join Engage, please contact Rabbi Brian Fink at 646.505.4408 or bfink@mmjccm.org.

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Partner Organizations

Engage volunteers choose opportunities that fit their interests and availability or create their own. Possible volunteer opportunities include:

  • Afya Foundation: Support efforts to provide healthcare supplies to underserved communities.

  • Bottomless Closet: Assist in providing business attire and job coaching to disadvantaged women returning to the workforce.

  • Care for the Homeless: Assist with various hands-on volunteer projects.

  • Caring Calls: Call older members of the JCC community to wish them happy holidays, check in with them, and help identify their current needs.

  • City Harvest: Help rescue food and conduct nutrition education to support hungry New Yorkers, and provide office assistance.

  • Citymeals-on-Wheels: Visit with and deliver meals to New Yorkers in need, and provide weekly phone calls to homebound seniors throughout New York City.

  • Community Kitchen and Pantry of West Harlem: Volunteer at this full-service soup kitchen and food pantry that helps provide more than 50,000 free meals each month.

  • DOROT: Connect with seniors weekly with the friendly visitor program, or on an occasional basis with the response team, either virtually or in person. Participate in intergenerational volunteer programs.

  • The English Speaking Union: Help newcomers to the United States gain fluency and confidence in conversational English by becoming a volunteer tutor for weekly conversation sessions.

  • English Overseas: Practice English on a weekly basis with a high school student in Jerusalem over Zoom

  • The Food Bank for New York City: Volunteer at a food distribution warehouse in the Bronx and other affiliated sites throughout NYC.

  • Glamour Gals: Write greeting cards for homebound seniors.

  • Goddard Riverside: Prepare holiday meals for seniors, assist with tutoring programs, and facilitate programs and workshops.

  • God's Love We Deliver: Prepare and deliver meals to neighbors in need.

  • HIAS: Provide career mentoring and other assistance to recent immigrants.

  • iMentor: Mentor a high school student via email and in-person meetings to help him or her succeed in high school and get into college.

  • JASA (Jewish Association Serving the Aging): Volunteers teach classes, lead workshops, plan special events, provide clerical support, and serve lunch at senior centers and NORCs throughout New York City.

  • The Jewish Board (JBFCS): Become a volunteer in one of several programs that assist children, teenagers, individuals with developmental disabilities and special needs, individuals with mental health diagnoses, and victims of domestic violence throughout New York City.

  • The Koopersmith Family Literacy + Math Program: Assist a student virtually or in person in an Upper West Side public school through the JCC's long standing initiative.

  • Mandala Cafe: Help prepare and serve dinner to members of the West Harlem community who have varying levels of food security.

  • National Council of Jewish Women: Assist with various programs benefiting seniors, children, and other populations.

  • New York Common Pantry: Help provide groceries and meals for food-insecure New Yorkers in East Harlem and throughout the city.

  • New York Legal Assistance Group: Assist at pro-bono legal clinics throughout the city.

  • Project ORE: Serve lunch at the Educational Alliance’s kosher soup kitchen, located in the East Village.

  • Reclaim Our Vote: Contact voters by phone or through sending postcards to encourage them to vote in upcoming elections.

  • Tech Soup: Teach computer tutorials and provide tech assistance, one-on-one or in small groups, to other seniors.

  • Upwardly Global: Provide career mentoring Assistance to recent immigrants.

  • The YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood: Assist with programs for seniors in need.

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To learn more about Engage, please contact Rabbi Brian Fink.

Help us continue to ensure accessible programming for everyone. Please support the Engage Jewish Service Corps at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan.