Ask JCI&R: Volunteering in the Jewish Community

Q: I would like to volunteer in the Jewish community. Do you have information on volunteer opportunities?

A: Volunteering is chicken soup for the soul, and it’s your chance to help the community. When you want to volunteer, but don’t know where to start, we can give you ideas and leads to fit your interests. Here are some places to contact about volunteering:

• Jewish Coalition for Literacy trains volunteers to become reading tutors in public elementary schools, pediatric clinics and after school programs. Day and evening hours are available. If you don’t have time to be a tutor, you can help organize a book drive.
• Jewish Family and Children’s Services is looking for volunteers for a wide variety of programs in all the regions. You can be the wheels for a needy family, brighten up a senior’s day, or mentor a child in San Francisco, Marin, the Peninsula and Sonoma.
• Shalom Bayit needs volunteers to help at events with childcare, office help, collecting used cell phones, and organizing mitzvah projects. Their youth program, Love Shouldn’t Hurt, does outreach in the schools. Shalom Bayit helps bar and mitzvah students with projects.
• Jewish Community Center of San Francisco has plenty of volunteer opportunities including preschool assistance, senior kosher lunch programs, and ushering for performances, and much more. You can even volunteer for the 2009 JCC Maccabi Games in San Francisco, August 2-7.
• Volunteer Match is a great resource for other opportunities in the community.

For more ideas for volunteering and connecting to Jewish life, call JCIR 415.777.4545 or toll-free 877.777.JCIR (5247) or e-mail Info@JewishNfo.org. Jewish Community Information and Referral is a free and confidential service of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, and the Peninsula. Please visit our website, www.sfjcf.org/resources.