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Get Involved this Summer with Our Community Partners!

 | Jelani House  | Homeless Prenatal Program | Youth Spirit Artworks- Tiny House Village |  RAC-CA: Senator Durazo | Larkin Street Youth Services | Hamilton Families  | SF Black-Jewish (& Allies) Unity Group | Jewish Family and Children Services| Jewish Coalition for Literacy | Avodah |
Congregation Emanu-El Supports Give 1 Get 1 | Light of Giving Appreciation Video 2020 |

Bring Lunches to Jelani House Shelter for New Moms
Partner: Homeless Prenatal Program at Jelani House
What is Jelani House?  Jelani House is a transitional housing shelter for new mothers experiencing homelessness, which opened in the Bayview District in February 2020. Our partner HPP (Homeless Prenatal Program) facilitates programs at Jelani House which focus on creating a healing home that fosters stability while residents acclimate to motherhood. These women need specialized support, as homelessness poses significant risk to birth outcomes.  HPP offers health, parenting and financial classes along with housing assistance with the aim of boosting the women and their children into permanent housing and a better future.  
How can you help?  The volunteer’s responsibility is to drop off lunch on Wednesdays between 11—11:30am. Please plan on bringing a main course, vegetable/fruit salad, and dessert to feed 15 women. The items may be cooked at home or purchased (we are unable to offer reimbursement). Your coordinator will be in touch with reminders and more information a few days prior. 

“The meals prepared by the congregants at Temple Emanuel are the best meals of the week!” – HPP Founder, Martha Ryan

Partner: Homeless Prenatal Program (HPP)
Family Pantry
Homeless Prenatal Program provides food and other essential items support to over 650 families every Friday, an increase from 75 food bags pre-COVID. We urgently need volunteer help with bagging fresh food to keep providing this critical support to our families.

Timing: every Friday, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Volunteers work in our open-air garage where we follow COVID-safe protocols, providing masks, gloves, and a quick temperature check. Volunteers must be able to lift 25+ pounds and work at a quick pace.

Please complete HPP’s volunteer sign-up form. 

Partner: Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA)

Last month in June, Emanu-El congregants built a community structure at the nation’s first Tiny House Village for youth ages 18-23 experiencing homelessness. Our partner, Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA), identified the number-one obstacle impacting young artists in their program as being a lack of stable and affordable housing in the Bay Area. Their response was to design and build a Tiny House Village on city property in Oakland. As of this Spring, 26 youth are living at the newly completed village and are now benefiting from this community space to gather outside safely. See how you can support this project! 

This summer, every Saturday from now through August 13, the Tiny House Village will be open for volunteers to come and help build and beautify the Village.  And at the same time, you can see the community structure that your community just built!  If you are interested in helping out, please email Julie at [email protected]. We’d love to involve you in our extended community!

Partner: RAC-CA
Senator Durazo: Organizing together for Racial and Economic Justice
Wednesday, July 28, 7:30 – 8:15 pm
California State Senator Maria Elena Durazo is a child of migrant workers and a former labor organizer. She has authored both of RAC-CA’s priority bills: SB 731 “Time Done,” which seeks to eliminate post-incarceration barriers, and SB 62, which seeks to ensure fair wages for garment workers.

Join us to learn from and talk with Senator Durazo about building interfaith solidarity and organizing to win campaigns for justice.

Partner: Larkin Street Youth Services
Volunteer Opportunities:
1. Delivery and Distribution – Occasionally we need help distributing supplies and donations from our headquarters to our young people in shelters, congregate housing, and scattered sites. If interested, please join our pool of distributors by emailing [email protected] with your name, available hours, and contact.
2. Ambassador – Interested in becoming an ambassador? Larkin Street’s Ambassador Program provides an opportunity to virtually engage within your community over an 8-12 month period.  In this program, ambassadors will join a community of like-minded people, spread social activism through social media engagement, and grow leadership skills. If interested, please apply here.

3. Other needs – Bilingual tutor (email [email protected] for more information).

Partner: Hamilton Families
Individual volunteers are a tremendous asset supporting Hamilton Families in our offices and our temporary residential programs. With a roster of more than 1,000 people, our volunteer services program offers a wide array of opportunities to get involved, ranging from teaching cultural activities, helping tutor the children in our programs, or skills-based opportunities depending on your talents.

GETTING STARTED: To become a Hamilton Families volunteer, just click on the “Individual Sign Up” button below and fill out our brief application. Once you submit this form, a member of Volunteer Services will be in touch within two weeks to schedule an orientation with you. Our volunteer orientation allows you to learn more about the families we serve, our organization, and volunteer opportunities.
Everyone must complete an orientation before volunteering with Hamilton Families. Please note that individual volunteers must be 18 years or older.

INDIVIDUAL SIGN-UP

Join the SF Black-Jewish (& Allies) Unity Group
Partner: SF Black-Jewish (& Allies) Unity Group
Meets 2nd Thursday of each month
To sign up or for more information, email Rachel Montana 

In 2016, Rabbi Beth Singer and congregant Malcolm Gissen collaborated with leaders within the African American community in San Francisco to create the SF Black-Jewish Unity Group. Since then, the two communities have been working together to fight injustice and bring about change. All are welcome to join the group. As of now, the Unity Group will not hold in-person meetings. Monthly meetings have moved to ZOOM every second Thursday of the month from, 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm.

Partner: Jewish Family and Children’s Services
You don’t have to change your life to volunteer, but volunteering may change your life!
JFCS’ volunteers help strengthen individuals and families throughout the Bay Area by extending a human touch and meaningful connections to the greater community. Each year JFCS serves thousands of people and our volunteers are a critical component in that care. There are many ways to use your talents and time as a volunteer with JFCS. Join us!
Volunteer food bank shoppers and food runners and Safe At Home callers are especially needed during COVID-19!
Learn more about all the different JFCS volunteer opportunities here.

Partner: Jewish Coalition for Literacy (JCL)
Volunteer reading tutors are needed more than ever in public schools throughout the Bay Area. In just one hour each week, you can help a struggling young reader become more confident and successful.
Join the Jewish Coalition for Literacy (JCL) for this deeply meaningful Tikkun Olam opportunity. It will change a child’s life – and your own!
Upcoming JCL Tutor Training Sessions:

• Tuesday, August 24th, 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
• Thursday, September 23rd, 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Register for this FREE online training session at jclread.org/sign-up. For more information, please contact Nieema Galloway at [email protected].

 Partner: Avodah
Turn your passion into action with the Jewish Service Corps!
If you’re between the ages of 21-26 and excited to work, live, and learn at the intersection of activism and Jewish life, you could have a place in Avodah’s growing community. Apply today and spend a year serving for justice in New York City, Chicago, New Orleans, Washington, DC, or our newest city, San Diego. Visit avodah.net/serve to learn more and apply.

Congregation Emanu-El Supports Give 1 Get 1 
A people-to-people initiative to speed the spread of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide
In the Bay Area, we are fortunate to have ample access to free COVID-19 vaccines, which has resulted in one of the highest rates of vaccinations in the country. We can give that peace of mind to another by supporting the cost of a vaccine. Give 1 Get 1 contributions go to COVAX-AMC, the global mechanism created to buy and distribute vaccines to 92 lower-income countries. All money contributed goes directly to purchasing vaccines (instead of overhead costs). Through this simple act, we can expand protection against COVID-19 and end the pandemic faster.

Light of Giving Appreciation 2020

Year-round Collection Bins
We have traditionally held clothing and household collection bins year-round at Emanu-El for St. Anthony’s and non-perishable food collection bins for both the San Francisco Food Bank and Jewish Family and Children Services.