From Our CEO: Serving Families in Need

Over the past few months, you may have noticed stories of people we’ve been able to help in our email blasts and social media. These stories have been just a snapshot of the work we’ve been doing since COVID-19 hit. The JCC was forced to adapt to the new normal incredibly quickly—offering new services remotely to meet the needs we saw in our community. To help those impacted by the virus and its economic effects, we launched COVID-19 Connect to Recovery, a full array of free services to assist those in need.

In the first few months following the crisis, requests for our food pantry more than doubled. We’ve helped hundreds of people find health insurance and other benefits after they lost their jobs. We moved educational classes online to continue to serve children and adults. Seniors, including Holocaust survivors, reached out to us—not just for necessities, but also for the chance to connect to other people and help break their social isolation. We created new programs to address the mental health issues that arose from the pandemic.

While many businesses have begun to reopen, we know that the issues this crisis created will not go away overnight, and there are so many people in our borough who still need our help. At the JCC, we are constantly working on new programs to serve the new and growing needs we see in our community. Our staff has worked incredibly hard to get these programs up and running, and I am so proud of their dedication to our agency’s mission.

Luckily, we are not alone in this effort. The outpouring of generosity we’ve seen over the past few months has been incredible, and we are so grateful to all of our donors and funders who helped us keep our programs running through these turbulent times.

We know this will be a long road, so I hope you will consider donating to our Families in Need campaign, which helps us continue to run these essential programs in our community. With your support, we can continue to provide these life changing services to those hit hardest by the pandemic and help get Staten Islanders on the road to recovery.

Donate here!

-Orit Lender