Volunteer Program

Here are ways you can help!

• Friendly Visitors: Volunteers bring friendship and companionship to seniors and homebound adults, visit and phone those who are isolated from the outside world, or provide occasional respite care for someone who is caring for a chronically ill individual.
• Shabbat Shalom Visitors: Volunteers bring the warmth and spirit of Shabbat and the joy of Jewish holiday celebrations to Jewish residents in nursing homes and residential facilities by visiting and conducting services. This is an ideal volunteer opportunity for parents with young children.
• Tutoring: Volunteers assist newcomers to our country in acquiring language skills to help them make a successful and comfortable transition to their new homeland. No knowledge of a foreign language is necessary.
• Teacher's Helper: Volunteers serve as an extra set of hands in the pre-school classrooms at the Sari Isdaner Early Childhood Center at the Katz JCC. Volunteers help with various tasks depending upon the needs of the teacher in each classroom. This is a perfect opportunity for middle or high school students to help with the after-care program starting at 3:00pm.
• Jewish Hospice: Through a partnership between Samost JFCS and Samaritan Hospice, volunteers bring the comfort of Jewish traditions through visits with seriously ill patients, often providing respite care for family members. Volunteers also enhance their lives by bringing them challahs, candles, and other traditional items to celebrate Shabbat.
• Kosher Meals on Wheels: Volunteers deliver kosher meals on a weekly basis to homebound or convalescing older adults who need some extra assistance.
• Transportation: Volunteers provide transportation to medical or other appointments and help individuals unable to get around on their own to maintain an independent lifestyle.
• Special Friends: Volunteers make a difference in the life of a developmentally disabled child or young adult by spending time and sharing activities with them, providing some much welcomed extra attention.
• Food Pantry: Volunteers help organize and distribute non perishable food items and personal care products from our food pantry to individuals and families in need. Volunteers and Samost JFCS Board members also help package and deliver food to homebound seniors and other community members at Thanksgiving and Jewish holidays. Donations of food and scrip are always welcome and are used to help tide over families with financial difficulties.
• Domestic Abuse (Project SARAH): Volunteers help with outreach by distributing educational materials to various organizations throughout the tri-county area. The volunteers also serve as speakers about domestic abuse issues at local synagogues and organizations.
• Mentors: Volunteers spend time on a weekly basis with a child of an incarcerated parent. These youngsters, who often live in troubled single-parent homes, benefit from the opportunity to spend quality time with caring adults. Mentors and children can decide what activities they would enjoy doing together. Opportunities might include playing sports or games, reading together, exploring special interests or enjoying outings. In addition, local businessmen serve as mentors to unemployed individuals to help them conduct their job searches.
• Nintendo Wii Program: Teenagers, who are well known for their expertise with video games, are paired with our senior clients in an intergenerational program to help them to learn and play the Nintendo Wii. This video technology helps to improve memory, coordination, balance and flexibility in the elderly by having them simulate the physical motions in virtual games of golf, baseball, bowling, tennis and other sports. A generous grant from the Samost Family has enabled JFCS to provide Nintendo Wii's for seniors at federation senior housing, Lions Gate, NORC, and numerous nursing care facilities around the community.