What We Do
- We compile Resource Notebooks containing benefit information - food stamps, tax refunds, utility and rent subsidies, reduced telephone rates, voter registration, schools and day camps for children, etc.
- We recruit volunteers, many of whom are peers of those we serve.
- We set up at sites where the low income community gathers: Unemployment Insurance offices, food pantries, housing developments, medical clinics, etc.
- Volunteers work regularly at their sites, talking to customers, screening them for benefits, giving them information, and following up with clients.
- We train volunteers on the screening process, specific benefits, and effective client interaction.
- In addition to on-site work, we distribute benefit information to various NYC social service organizations. Among them: FEGS, Housing Works, Community Access, the Welfare Rights Initiative, St. Francis Friends of the Poor, South Beach Psychiatric Institute, CUNY’s COPE program.
Who Does Our Work
Connecting to Advantages uses volunteers instead of paid staff for the following reasons:
- Our mission is to be a model of how food pantries, health clinics, Unemployment Insurance offices, supportive housing developments, and other places where the low-income community gathers can, at very low cost and without paid case managers, refer their clients to the government benefits for which they are eligible.
- Our mission is to develop into community leaders people who live on the same Public Assistance, SSI, or Social Security as their clients. Part-time pay for the few and variable hours they work each week would adversely affect their government benefits. Volunteer expense reimbursements for travel and refreshments serve them more effectively.
Where We Work
- Brooklyn Workforce1 Career Center
Every Tuesday, 1 - 3pm
9 Bond St., 5th Floor (Livingston - Fulton Sts.) - Hunts Point Workforce1 Career Center
Every Wednesday, 10am - 12pm
1029 East 163 St., 3rd Floor - Our Lady of Sorrows food pantry
Every Wednesday, 1:30 - 2:30pm
213 Stanton St. (corner of Pitt and Stanton Sts.) - Village Temple
Once a month, the 4th Saturday of each month, 2:30 - 4pm
33 East 12th St. (between University Ave. & Broadway) - Metropolitan Community Church
Every Thursdays, 9 - 10am
446 West 36th St. (9th - 10th Aves) - Mt. Zion AME Church (closed for July and Aug)
Every Friday, 10 - 11am
1765 Madison Street (116 St.) - Metro Baptist Church food pantry
Every Saturday, 11am - 12:30pm (except a 5th Sat in the month)
410 West 40 St (9th-10th Aves) - St. Francis Xavier Welcome Table
Second Sat of the month, 10am - 12pm
46 West 16 St. - Casa La Esperanza
Every Monday 1 - 3pm
NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC - Lutheran Social Services New Life Center
Every Wednesday 11am - 1pm
NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
