Jewish Volunteering Network

An excellent initiative that fulfils the need for linking volunteers with projects. Simple and effective. Their link with Mitzvah Day also gives merit to that initiative.

I was unemployed for about a year. I contacted JVC to see if I could use my free time constructively. They told me about Camp Simch that helps to enrich the lives of terminally ill children and Friends of the Sick. Camp Simcha trained me how to be a clown and Friends of the Sick introduced me to a 99 year old retired Doctor I could visit. This experience was not only highly emmotionally rewarding, but it also enabled me to build up a stronger CV. I have now gained employment as an Activities coordinator for the elderly with Dementia. I am sure without my voluntary experience I would be unable to have got a paid job in this field.

I joined the volunteer scheme at The British Friends of the Hebrew University after interrogating the JVN database. I was looking for a role where I would not have to travel to London or other city and could make some worthwhile contribution from home. The JVN network was well structured and allowed me to select my criteria in the jobs offered. I appreciate a user friendly system and congratulate the creators of the JVN website.

The expert volunteers that have come to support the work of the One to One has been far beyond our expectations. We hope it will continue to give us the service that we have now come to expect.

We were given the name of volunteer Avner Radomsky who was interested in updating our website. Avner had many meetings with Raphael trustees and updated the website to an extremely professional standard. He assisted in making a presentation to all trustees, counsellors, supervisors and guests at a training day to launch the new website. It was a pleasure to work with him and he keeps in touch to ensure that all is going smoothly

From a standing start this organisation is making a difference. It engages with the whole community and allows participants to take on as much or as little as they find suitable.

jvn has a lovely way of encouraging people to commit to their own level of volunteering by offering so many varied opportunites that you can find something that suits your time commitment and interest and feel you are really helping.

As a Trustee of a small charity I can say that we have been delighted by the assistance JVN have given us in networking with other charities of a similar size experiencing the same trials and tribulations! In addition to this they have assisted us in attracting volunteers for our services. Finally the small team at JVN are always very happy to assist us wherever they can.

Excellent professional organisation - committed to matching volunteers and charities. Also committed to improving the skill levels of the charities

The JVN in my experience is a wholly professional and proactive company. In trying to find volunteers for our charity, they provided me with valuable assistance and support.I am forever thankful for Karen, our wonderful volunteer!

JVN is helping the Jewish community in terms of finding volunteers. We are working with them on recruiting volunteers into public service roles. They have delivered a 5 star service and have a terrific team that supported us from fruition to completion. They are an outstanding non profit.

I have known the Jewish Volunteering Network for over 12 months. The enthusiasm and committment of the staff is brilliant and I'm sure this has played a major part in the growing success. I'm sure their work will comtinue to grow.

I have found JVN to be a highly professional organisation that also exudes a great deal of warmth and expertise in the way that they work. They appear to be genuinely interested and passionate about the value of volunteering time. I will definitely use them each time I'm looking to fill a volunteer gap in my organisation. I have also approached them re volunteering in my spare time!

Jewish Lads' & Girls' Brigade has been working in partnership with JVN in schools. It has been a most rewarding and very successfull experience.

I am delighted to have contributed to JVN's success in recruiting such a wide selection of voluntary organisations and large mnumber of volunteers.

I have always found JVN very helpful when I am looking for new volunteers. They are supportive on the phone and their website is easy to access

JVN have drectly placed well qualified volunteers in a number of other Jewish charities that I am familiar with. They also engage people form every age group in the community.

This is an excellent, efficient new organisation that promotes wonderful values and encourages people to get involved with volunteering as a valuable use of their time

For an organisation so young it has done so much already - matching me up with charities and volunteer needs that i didn't know existed! A fantastic way to show the non-Jewish world just how deeply the spirit of volunteerism runs through Jewish culture.

I have felt honoured to be involved with the Jewish volunteering network over the past few months, working towards the production of their first newsletter and the increased visbility of the brand name. As well as being a pioneer in the Jewish Communtiy in the UK, the people working at the charity really care about what they are doing. Adina and Leonie both work immensly hard at promoting, running and continuing the good work that JVN does. The newsletter itself was sent out to over 50 synagogues around London as well as many more charities already involved in the Network. Everyone coming through is impressed not only with the idea of the charity itself, but the fantastic and innovative way JVN are going about it

My daughter, Hannah is 17 years old and has Aspergers syndrome. She wanted to do something useful during my summer holidays and thought she would like to volunteer. When she decided she wanted to volunteer I got in touch with the wonderful people at JVN and explained the issues. They put me in touch with Marilyn whose job it is to help volunteers who have any special needs. She rang me and we had a long chat about Hannah and what help she would need. Then Marilyn rang Hannah and arranged to meet her at a local coffee shop to talk about her needs and what type of volunteering she wanted to do. Marilyn and Hannah decided that the best post for her was at a Jewish Care Old Age home. Marilyn went with her on the first day and introduced her to the staff. She stayed for the morning and worked alongside Hannah to make sure she was OK and understood what she needed to do. Marilyn also explained to the staff the nature of Hannah’s difficulties and the support she would need. She got regular feedback on Hannah’s progress and kept me up to date. Hannah volunteered for a total of 6 weeks in 2 different homes. She had a wonderful time and got on well with the staff and residents. She did a wide variety of jobs, including helping to feed the residents, and helping them to play Bingo. Both homes have asked her to go back during my winter holidays and she hopes to do so. Hannah had a wonderful time volunteering. She learned a lot and really gained in confidence. We were so happy that she was enabled to do so and so proud of what she achieved. She is now thinking of working with the elderly as a career. I have also volunteered for JVN on an ad hoc basis providing governance training.

I run a charity called Tzedek that is signed up for the Jewish Volunteering Network. We share office space with them and have benefited from over 10 volunteers in the last year from them. Many of the volunteers have real skills that we need to forward the aims of our charity and we would find very difficult to find ourselves. Keep up the good work!

I knew Leonie Lewis through my contacts with her when we lived in Kingsbury, and she worked at the United Synagogue and incidentally I sit next to her ex-colleague every shabbos in shul. She now runs a Jewish Volunteer Network ( http://www.jvn.org.uk/), which connects people wishing to effectively utilise their time both for themselves and others. It is a one stop shop for Jewish volunteering, for those between jobs or has recently retired. The skills being offered can be matched against skills required giving one a new direction as well as restoring one’s self esteem. It is also liked by employers as I read somewhere that those who have worked in this sector stand a better chance of re-gaining employment. After a. brief exchange of E mails, JVN secured me a “position” within one week of leaving work at the Jewish Military Museum, ably administered by Brenda Goldberg, which shares offices with AJEX, in Hendon. (http://www.ajex.org.uk/museum) well worth a visit but ring first 020 8201 5656 / E: museum@ajex.org.uk as it is closed on Fridays. My job , with the help of one another volunteer who came in for a few hours once a week, was to put their archives in some semblance of order as they were transferred from filing cabinets into special boxes. Naturally this meant looking at everything, and the relative silence of the office was suddenly shattered with a “WOW!” as I would interrupt everyone to show them the latest “ archival material” that I had discovered. This was truly fascinating, moving work and a great learning experience. Fascinating, because I had seen rousing speeches into battle from General Eisenhower and especially moving as I read the correspondence from fathers/ sons as they wrote to their loved ones. in the UK. But what really brought it home to me was that, only a relatively few and well known soldiers achieved high rank, the vast majority of men and women involved in WW2 were ordinary folk, who gave up jobs, careers, academic places and put their lives on hold, too many permanently, so that victory would be assured; and don’t forget that many had anglicised their German names, because they understood only too well the doctrine of the enemy that had to be destroyed