Congratulations to our November agency of the month: Holocaust Community Services! The projects and programs of TOV are made possible by our outstanding partner agencies.
Since 1999, Holocaust Community Services (HCS), a collaborative effort of Jewish Child and Family Services (JCFS), CJE SeniorLife and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, in partnership with HIAS Chicago, has helped ensure that the Chicago Holocaust survivor community and their families can continue to live independently and with dignity.
We asked Daniel Way, Program Support Specialist, a few questions about the agency and their involvement with TOV.
What is your agency mission?
How do volunteers help impact your agency?
Volunteer support is a critical component of our program's day-to-day functioning; indeed, we have at least one administrative volunteer in the office every day of the week. Sometimes, volunteers assist program staff with ongoing tasks, such as data entry and mailings, thereby enhancing overall staff capacity; other times, they work on discrete projects to benefit the survivor community, such as charting which dental service providers offer the most economical prices.
In addition to administrative volunteers, events volunteers are essential to the success of HCS' socialization program. Alongside smaller events throughout the year, HCS hosts four annual Cafe Europa events, which are attended by approximately 250 survivors; it is very important that we have volunteer assistance at these events to ensure that each table of survivors receives the full care and attention we strive to provide at all times, and which we know our survivors deserve.
Finally, volunteers allow us to serve more survivors, and to serve them better. We acknowledge that we are just one part of a community, and we can’t do this work alone!
Why do you like working with TOV in particular?
One of our favorite aspects of working with TOV is the broad and diverse reach the agency has. We love that we can reach out to TOV for volunteers, and get responses from men, women, families with children, older adults, and many more. Furthermore, we love that – across the board – TOV volunteers share one goal: to contribute to our communities, together with program staff, for the benefit of those we serve
