If contributing to individuals on behalf of JFS, be sure to do your due diligence. They enabled a very deceitful woman to place residence in my building saying that they worked with her before and knew her. She never paid a dime in 13 months and we now need to have her physically removed and locked out. I asked them for help in the beginning with intervening but they did not really follow through.
Review from Guidestar
I have been involved with this organization for years and am so impressed with the quality of service, program and staff. In every aspect, client needs come first and the care provided reflects this. On a personal level, I have volunteered frequently with Our Closet and experienced first hand the benefits to this underserved population in our community. The experience is amazing for both those who receive as well as those who give!
I have been a volunteer many times at Our Closet.
The clients are treated like customers , they are able to try on the quality clothing that they receive. Most are very appreciative, lots of happy smiles.
Volunteer experience at JCFS
The light filled teaching kitchen is made even brighter by the lively chef at Helping Heroes. The sunny, relaxed atmosphere she engenders encourages convivial participation and dialogue among the large group of clients who consistently show up to work together. The recipes have been carefully chosen around participants’ needs, and take their learning differences and limitations in to account. The volunteers are clearly asked to facilitate, but to let the clients do the work.
Consistent with the principles of Froma Walsh, this protocol allows the sous chefs to take initiative, persevere, and master what is possible against the odds and face what can’t be changed. A sense of coherence, competency and camaraderie permeates the kitchen.
Projects like making soup, quiche, challah and pizza, to eat for lunch and also to package and distribute to the needy in an on-site soup kitchen, encourage engagement and awareness of others’ needs. The joint projects also prompt tolerance for one another's differences, connectedness, and purposefulness that engender hope and optimism.
Participants carefully dice vegetables to be thrown into the soup pot or into individual quiches.
Braided challah is sprinkled with cranberries or chocolate chips, labeled and packaged with a delicious sense of pride in shared goals. The participants giggle, tell jokes and have quiet conversation. They ask for the recipes so that they can go home and cook them for their families. The meal makings are achievable challenges that translate into concrete steps towards success both here and in the outside world.
Working with Helping Heroes has been an enlightening and happy experience. Though these clients live with intellectual and emotional conditions, they are refreshingly open with their emotions, yet careful about others’ feelings. Within the group there exists a distinctive sense of humor and cheer. They are gentle, warm and upbeat with each other, their instructor and the volunteers. One can only imagine that the outside world is a better place because of their influence.
Working there as a volunteer has broadened my appreciation and tolerance for differences. It has given me the opportunity to see many ambitious projects come together and the subsequent growth engendered in the clients and their relationships. I feel blessed to be part of this caring and inspired community.
Sincerely,
Nancy Warren, LMSW
29 November, 2018
I am a new volunteer with JFCS and I am very pleased with my experience thus far. There are many exciting opportunities for volunteers and I am thrilled to be associated with such a wonderful organization. JFCS offers services that help many different types of individuals and all are very worthwhile causes. The staff has been very welcoming to me and the training provided to me was very useful in helping me to be prepared for my volunteer experience. I recently helped bake for the Jewish food pantry housed in the new JFCS building. I met many wonderful people who were both employees and volunteers and it was a wonderful day. Very fulfilling. I then assisted with a fashion fundraiser for Our Closet. Everything was very organized and my volunteer experience could not have been better. We were treated with respect and the fundraiser was a huge success. I am proud to be associated with such a wonderful organization and look forward to future volunteer opportunities.