Volunteer With JSSA

Volunteers pick up nourishing kosher meals and deliver them to older adults in Montgomery County who cannot cook for themselves. Meals are picked up in Rockville at 9 AM and delivered Monday through Friday.

If you have questions, please call Taylor McCarley at 301-816-2636 or via email at tmccarley@jssa.org.

Volunteers deliver packages of food and ritual items at Passover, Rosh Hashanah, and Thanksgiving to individuals and families who could benefit from a little help during the holidays.

If you have questions, please call Taylor McCarley at 301-816-2636 or via email at tmccarley@jssa.org.

Volunteers who speak both Russian and English are strongly preferred.

Volunteer virtual instructors help older adults stay healthy by engaging their minds by providing live and/or pre-recorded classes. Familiarity and comfort with using zoom is required. Program lengths can vary but are typically 30-60 minutes in length, held at least once or twice a month. Visual aids, such as slides, pictures, etc., are strongly encouraged.

All prospective volunteer instructors must provide a sample course outline and a 15-30 minute preview with the volunteer coordinator.

Contact Gabe at: gpinkney@jssa.org or 202-235-5793.

Volunteers who speak both Russian and English are strongly preferred.

Volunteer virtual instructors provide virtual and/or pre-recorded classes and help JSSA Holocaust survivors stay healthy by engaging their minds in learning through a unique program that brings the classroom into homes through client television sets.

Volunteers provide virtual courses that are ideally 30-60 minutes long. Requires familiarity with presenting on the Zoom platform. All prospective volunteer instructors must provide a sample course outline and a 15-30 minute preview run with a volunteer coordinator.

Contact: Gabe at  gpinkney@jssa.org or 202-235-5793.

Examples of possible ideas include:

-Music performance

-Visual art demonstration

-Walking tour of unique places and discussion

-Show off your collection! Explain when you started collecting and some of your favorites!

-Magic show (card tricks, juggling, etc.). Option to show how tricks are done too!

-History lesson

-Guided meditation or sound meditation

-Short story reading, analysis, and discussion

-Theater performance

-Talent show

-Narrated slideshow about a trip you went on

-Gardening

-Dance performance

-Poetry

Café Europa

Volunteers help with setting up and serving meals to older adults at a special luncheon held once a year for Holocaust survivors living in the Washington, DC, area. This event will feature live music and dancing. Café Europa will be held on Thursday, December 7th, 2023, in Rockville, MD.

Contact: Gabe at gpinkney@jssa.org or 202-235-5793.

Our volunteer friendly visitors provide social visits for Holocaust Survivors and other seniors who are socially isolated and would benefit from the interaction. Activities range from conversations, sharing stories, looking at photos, reading aloud, playing a card game, and walking. Friendly visits are most effective when conducted in person. In some cases, they can be done over the phone or virtually.

Contact: Gabe at gpinkney@jssa.org or 202-235-5793.

Volunteers grocery shop for clients who cannot go to the grocery store on their own. Many older adults who need this assistance live in communities with elevators. Volunteers will need to be comfortable entering various communities, riding elevators, and lifting and transporting grocery items from the store to the client.

Contact: Gabe at  gpinkney@jssa.org or 202-235-5793.

Volunteers help older adults learn how to use their electronic devices. Devices may include mobile phones, tablets, and/or computers. Many of our older adults need basic help with learning how to send and receive texts, download apps, open emails, perform internet search functions, etc.

Contact: Gabe at  gpinkney@jssa.org  or 202-235-5793.

Nourish Now is a food recovery warehouse, so clients have access to fresh food and pantry staples. Nourish Now volunteers go to the warehouse monthly to pick up and deliver food to clients. Some clients may need help putting the food away.

The Nourish Now warehouse is open Monday through Friday, 11 AM-3 PM. 

Contact: Gabe at  gpinkney@jssa.org or 202-235-5793.

Volunteers host collection drives based on the current need of clients, advertising with family, friends, and colleagues to collect new, necessary items. They then package collected items into kits and drop them off at our office in Rockville for care managers to distribute to clients.

Contact: HospiceVC@jssa.org 

Volunteers offer emotional, spiritual, and social support to people in their last weeks and months of life and their families. Caregiving support volunteers provide companionship, help with shopping, and respite for caregivers to help people living with a life-threatening illness and their families. Volunteers must complete a 3-phase training, consisting of online and in-person training.

Contact: HospiceVC@jssa.org or call 301-816-2676

Create recorded content for older adults to enjoy. Many of these older adults are aging in place or isolated. Content must be family-friendly and will be available for older adult clients to view.

Videos will provide opportunities for learning, enjoyment, and entertainment and could genuinely make people’s day and improve mood and overall quality of life.

Please find more information and guidelines on how to create this content below.

Contact and send your completed (unlisted) YouTube videos to: Gabe at  gpinkney@jssa.org.

Volunteers help cover the front desk receptionist position as on-call and floater coverage during the lunch hour. Volunteers answer the phone, greet clients, welcome guests, etc. 

Contact: Janyene Glay at jglay@jssa.org. 

If you are interested in volunteering for JSSA, please use the link below to fill out an application.

APPLY HERE