Blood Drives
The Brick Presbyterian Church maintains a partnership with The New York Blood Center to help meet the urgent and ongoing need for healthy blood in our local area. An important part of meeting this need is to coordinate on-site blood drives, providing the congregation and our community with the convenience of donating blood at The Brick Church twice each year. In addition to coordinating on-site drives, the committee educates church members about the need for blood donors and encourages eligible donors to give blood at local collection sites throughout the year. If you are unable to “join us for a pint” and would like to donate, call The New York Blood Center at 800-933-2566 to schedule an appointment. The Brick Church reference number is 2557. Blood drives are scheduled for the fall and spring.
For more information, please contact Deacon Matias Stitch.
Children’s Storefront Schoolwww.thechildrensstorefront.orgThe Children’s Storefront is an independent, tuition-free school in Harlem committed to providing a comprehensive education to children with varied academic strengths from preschool through eighth grade. Its work is grounded in the conviction that every child deserves the opportunity for an excellent education.
The Harlem community faces challenges on a number of fronts. The median income is $16,600 and 23 percent of the population is on public assistance. This area has the highest concentration of shelters and facilities for drug and alcohol treatment of any community in Manhattan. Children’s Storefront works in partnership with families and community members to prepare children academically, socially and emotionally for further education, empowering each child to reach his or her potential. They inspire the imagination, creativity and love of learning inherent in all children. The school programs promote values of hard work, mutual respect and service to society in a structured, joyful environment.
Tracking indicates that more than 90 percent of Storefront students graduate from high school, in stark contrast to the community rate of 33 percent. Over the last several years, students have attended private schools that include Buxton School, Brooklyn Friends, Miss Hall’s and Northfield Mount Herman in Massachusetts, and the Masters School, Mount St. Michael’s, Xavier, Notre Dame and LaSalle in New York City. Storefront students have gained admission to competitive-entry New York City public schools such as Brooklyn Technical High School, Frederick Douglas Academy and Young Women’s Leadership Academy.
Opportunities
The Brick Church Women’s Association provides classroom helpers to assist the staff in their important work. For more information about volunteering with this program, please contact Carol Ann Mercer at the church.
Cooks Who Care
Cooks Who Care is a Brick Church outreach ministry that provides dinner to people with HIV/AIDS living in single-room occupancy hotels on the Upper West Side. Every Saturday throughout the year, Brick Church members cook and deliver dinners that fill in the gap left by the city agencies that provide meals Monday through Friday.
Planning, preparing and delivering the meals can be a challenge, but it inevitably enriches those who become involved in this ministry. Aside from the clear gratitude of the recipients when Brick Church members arrive with meals, the greatest reward is when we see recipients make positive life changes: putting on weight for the first time in a year, signing up for clinics and check-ups formerly avoided, and thinking about careers and the future.
Opportunities
Cooks Who Care delivers meals every weekend throughout the year and is always in need of volunteers. Volunteers choose the menu, shop, and prepare and package the meals in containers provided by the church. Volunteers then deliver the meals. It is very simple and the commitment is flexible for busy church members, but yields a great return and means so much to those who count on us for their meals. For more information, please contact Deacon Clare Pickering.
The Deacons' Outreach Christmas Party
The Brick Church has traditionally held a Christmas party to benefit children in need. This year, Brick will be partnering with Mentoring USA to host the annual Deacons' Christmas Party to benefit children in foster care and their mentors. Founded in 1987 by Matilda Cuomo, Mentoring USA has been matching children with positive, inspirational role models who provide onsite individual attention and guidance amongst the child's peers to promote an overall supportive and positive environment for all involved. We are thrilled to be hosting this event for this exceptional group. We hope you will join us.
The party is held the second Saturday of December every year. During the year, the Deacons solicit corporations, local businesses and the congregation for donations of new clothing, topys, books and gift items for the "shopping malls" where, during the party, the children and their guests can choose gifts to exchange for Christmas. The party rooms are Watson Hall and the Youth Floor, and include arts and crafts, spin art, t-shirt stenciling, professional photos, gift bag decorating, games and sports, a visit from Santa and a delicious lunch. All while Santa's elves are wrapping the gifts our guests have selected.
Opportunities
We need volunteers to set up the "malls" and party rooms on Friday, December 11, from 9:00 a.m. through the afternoon, and on Saturday for the party, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Volunteers meed and greet our guests, prepare and serve lunch, help with the "shopping," arts and crafts, games, present wrapping, and clean-up. Volunteers find the rewards of giving and sharing are immediate and life lasting. We always welcome new ideas and volunteers! For more information, please contact Deacons Amanda Heath or Sally Young.
Habitat for Humanity – NYCwww.habitatnyc.orgHabitat for Humanity–NYC transforms lives and our city by uniting New Yorkers around the cause of decent and affordable housing for everyone. Founded in 1984 as an independent affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, Habitat–NYC builds in all five boroughs, completing about 25 houses each year. Current projects include a 41-unit environmentally friendly condominium in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of Brooklyn.
Homes are built with the “sweat equity” of family partner homeowners who work side-by-side with volunteers. Professional contractors build the exterior shells to code, and the volunteers do the interior construction. Each year, more than 10,000 New Yorkers from faith institutions, corporations, schools and civic groups come to build with Habitat and learn more about how to help solve New York’s affordable housing crisis.
Opportunities
For more information, please contact Deacon Bob Appleby.
Inwood House
www.inwoodhouse.com
Founded in 1830, Inwood House is a nationally recognized leader in the prevention of teen pregnancy. The organization helps nearly 12,000 adolescents make responsible decisions through a variety of after-school programs, such as Teen Choice, Project Straight Talk and Boys to Men. Inwood House also provides a haven for homeless, pregnant teens in foster care at their Maternity Residence on 82nd Street. While in residence, these young women are provided with prenatal care, counseling, classes in parenting and nutrition, continuation of their high school education, assistance in the pursuit of a college degree, and job training and interview skills. It is at this Maternity Residence that members of The Brick Church volunteer.
Opportunities
The Brick Church volunteers run a weekly Arts and Crafts Program for the residents who range in age from 13 to 18 years old. Each Tuesday evening from 6:45 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. during the months of September through June, volunteers lead the young women in a wide variety of craft projects. While these projects require no particular artistic talent, they provide the girls critical opportunities to discover new interests, meet new people and know they are part of a caring community. Volunteers may commit to a single Tuesday evening to help with a specific project (like a fabric-covered bulletin board) or several consecutive Tuesdays for ongoing projects (such as a crochet clinic). For more information, please contact Deacons Jenny Elmlinger or Shannon Henderson.
Jan Hus Presbyterian Church
www.janhus.org
Jan Hus Presbyterian Church has a long history in New York City as an advocate for disenfranchised members of the community. Its Homeless Outreach and Advocacy Program (HOAP) provides a variety of direct services to those in need — from a weekly dinner program and pantry services, to counseling, referrals and emergency grants. HOAP also works in coalition with other organizations to mobilize and advocate for a change in policies that affect the low-income, poor and homeless populations of New York City.
Jan Hus is a founding member of the East Side Congregations for Housing Justice and works collaboratively with other groups, including The East Side Homeless Network, Lenox Hill Neighborhood House and Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter to provide the greatest possible services and support for its clients and to advance forward-thinking policies aimed at ending homelessness as we know it.
Opportunities
For more information, please contact Deacon Peter Bohner or Samantha Kimm.
NCS Friday Night Dinner Program
The Brick Presbyterian Church is proud to have been one of the early supporters of The Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter (NCS) after it was founded in 1981. Located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, NCS was created by religious and civic organizations who were concerned about the growing problem of homelessness in the neighborhood. This community came together to help the homeless people on its streets by establishing soup kitchens serving lunch and dinner daily, operating an information and referral program in a local church, and opening a women’s shelter.
NCS was formally incorporated in 1982, when it began its search for a building to provide permanent housing to homeless men and women. Today the NCS 81st Street Residence houses men and women who are gaining personal and financial independence and becoming active members in the community once again. It serves as a long-term, supportive housing facility for people who have come through the Coalition’s Shelter Program. Formerly homeless, the residents live independently, but, like all of us, need some support and tender loving care.
Opportunities
The Brick Church hosts a weekly Friday Night Dinner in Watson Hall. Each week the host volunteers plan the dinner menu and purchase and cook the food to be served. Most importantly, volunteers are needed to sit and enjoy the meal with the residents of the 81st Street Residence. The time commitment is just one Friday evening. This is a fulfilling way to spend a Friday evening and help a great cause. For more information, please contact Deacons Hamburg Tang or Sue Fosmoen.
Search and Care
www.searchandcare.org
The mission of Search and Care is to seek out older people in the Yorkville and Carnegie Hill communities (East 86th to East 104th Streets, from Fifth Avenue to the East River) who need help in managing life’s daily activities or accessing essential services, and to provide them the support and companionship they require to live with security and dignity.
This not-for-profit, nonsectarian social service agency has served more than 6,000 residents in these communities since 1972 through a collaboration of experienced social workers, volunteers, student interns (social work, nursing, occupational therapy) and retired financial professionals.
Opportunities
Volunteers make home visits, help access benefits and entitlements, serve as escorts and
shoppers, and provide bill-paying assistance and effective care plans geared to each individual. For
Yorkville Common Pantrywww.ycp.orgYorkville Common Pantry (YCP) is the largest nonsectarian neighborhood-based provider of emergency food in New York City, providing more than two million meals annually to individuals and families in and around the Upper East Side and East Harlem communities. YCP was founded in 1980 by a coalition of Upper East Side churches and synagogues to reduce hunger and promote dignity and self-sufficiency, and receives strong support from its 40 member board of directors.
Each week, YCP provides hundreds of emergency food packages through its 24/7 program called "24|7 YCP." It is the city’s only emergency food pantry open 7 days a week. YCP serves 1350 hot meals per week and distributes nutritious grocery packages containing 33,000 meals to 1600 low-income families, or approximately 3,700 individuals. In addition YCP provides on-site showers and laundry facilities, haircuts, psychiatric assessments, emergency shelter and social service aid.
Opportunities
As a founding partner, The Brick Church has very close ties to YCP. We fill grocery bags at the
pantry, hold food drives, provide Thanksgiving turkeys and participate in many other activities. For