Jewish Community Council Of Greater Coney Island Inc

Older adult centers (formerly known as senior centers): the senior support systems division of jccgci operates eight (8) brooklyn older adult centers with year-round services, monday through friday. The older adult centers are coney island seaside older adult center, jay-harama older adult center, haber house older adult center, marlboro older adult center, marien-heim older adult center, kings highway older adult center and ocean parkway older adult center. They provide nutritional congregate meals, a wide range of healthy aging services, educational and recreational programming, case management and entitlement counseling and advocacy. Seniors are assisted with application/form-completion and medical/social service referral assistance. Activities include english language instruction, exercise classes, art/music classes, mental health counseling, health promotion workshops, computer classes, nutrition workshops, and other educational/recreational sessions. In 2024, our eight older adult centers provided 220,200 congregate meals to 5,076 seniors.

Senior citizen transportation services and community shuttle bus: since 1981, the jewish community council of greater coney island has been making daily life for older adults a lot easier with our professionally operated senior citizen transportation program. The program provides transportation to enable low-income, functionally impaired elders to keep medical and entitlement appointments, go shopping, and attend senior centers for nutritious meals and healthy aging programming and other essential services and appointments. Over the years, our highly acclaimed senior citizen transportation program has become one of the largest such programs in new york city. In 2024, jccgci provided 99,146 units of transportation service to medical appointments, shopping, banking, and other similar services to 4,327 clients (including 40,038 trips to 1,494 holocaust survivors) in brooklyn and staten island. In addition, our southern brooklyn community shuttle bus provided 4,016 units of transportation services to 181 south brooklyn residents facilitating their access to essential employment, education, shopping, medical and nonmedical appointments and services.

VOCATIONAL SERVICES: The vocational support systems division provides occupational skills training, employment counseling, job placement and/or adult literacy classes to unemployed, under-employed, and immigrant NYC individuals. In 2024, 1063 individuals from low income Jewish Ultra-Orthodox communities and other diverse populations were readied for better employment opportunities with primary service sites in the Borough Park, Williamsburg, Far Rockaway, Crown Heights and Gravesend communities through the Workforce Development Program. 301 low income Haredi individuals were assisted in their job search by the Parnossah Employment Services Program, with 288 career counseling sessions, 275 resume preparation sessions, and 86 job placements. 405 career counseling sessions, 90 job placements and 48 scholarships were provided to 283 individuals by The Crown Heights Career Assistance Program. The Crown Heights Career Hub enrolled 74 Chabad individuals in business courses, with 59 participants obtaining employment or pursuing higher education in their chosen fields.

Anti-gun violence activities: In 2024, through JCCGCI's "Operation Hood" cure violence program, 69 violence interruptions occurred, and 110 high-risk youth were mentored and offered mental health care, job readiness training, and life skills development. JCCGCI also has a school based conflict resolution program for high- risk students in two Coney Island public schools, serving 59 students and through the Work Plus Program we provided 17 at-risk and justice involved youth in Coney Island with work readiness and employment services.

Other social services: In 2024, these services included: 22,622 sessions of entitlement counseling, advocacy and emergency assistance services to 3,377 elderly, and the health insurance counseling center that provided 1,417 hours of health insurance counseling and advocacy services to 723 clients. Through the NYC Care Outreach and Public Education program, caseworkers provided outreach and NYC Care enrollment assistance to 146 community members in Brooklyn. We also hosted Club2600, a monthly socialization event for 438 Holocaust Survivors and a cultural carnival in Queens.

Senior citizen home delivered meals programs: JCCGCI's 3 homebound meal deliveries and meals-on-wheels program delivered 146,297 meals to 2,402 seniors.

Educational support systems: Many children in New York City schools find it difficult to focus on their studies. Unfortunately, this results in poor attendance, impaired scholastic achievement, lack of motivation and low self-esteem. Children of immigrant families face compounded challenges because of various socio-economic issues. Their parents often have poor job skills, lack living wage employment, have limited English proficiency, and have difficulty adjusting to the American culture. Because of these struggles, immigrant parents are often unable to provide their children with the emotional, physical, and educational support they need. In the last three decades, JCCGCI has sought to address these issues through its educational support systems framework, founded in 1991. Currently, the framework includes five programs. 1) Our Advantage After School Program (serving 95 middle and high school students in a site in Queens). 2) Our Extended School Day/School Violence Prevention Programs (serving 743 students with after-school programming at 2 public schools in Coney Island). 3) Our Comprehensive Afterschool System of NYC (Compass-NYC) program (serving 193 youth in grades 6-8 at two sites in Crown Heights, Brooklyn). 4) Our Horizons Academy Workforce Development Program (providing college and career preparation services to 125 high school students and alumni at Abraham Lincoln high school). 5) Our Expanded Schools After-School Program (providing 29 students at PS 288 in Brooklyn with homework and tutoring assistance).

Mental Health Services: JCCGCI provides mental health services through various programing including: Building Resilience through Youth program which supports Coney Island youth by identifying mental health risk, expanding access to care, reducing stigma related to mental health, and encouraging the connection with community care that youth need to ensure their health, self-reliance, and well-being; JCCGCI's Trauma Recovery Center provided mental health services geared toward residents of Brooklyn who have experienced violent crime and trauma; and a JCCGCI Social Worker who addressed trauma and mental health needs in the Coney Island community.

Adult literacy: In 2024, JCCGCI's adult literacy programs provided English as a second language ("ESL") instruction to 840 low-income, unemployed or under-employed limited English speaking students and 290 made an educational gain at sites citywide.

Covid-19 assistance: JCCGCI's Covid-19 Disparities Initiative Community Health Workers in Coney Island and Far Rockaway provided health screenings, outreach and education services to 2,200 community members.

Homebound senior visitation programs: In 2024, JCCGCI's Citymeals-On-Wheels Senior Citizen Friendly Visiting Program and 'Connect2' friendly visiting program for holocaust survivors provided 5,078 friendly visits to 304 participants.

Urban Neighborhood Services (UNS) Wraparound Services: Approximately 1500 of traditionally underserved Coney Island residents were assisted with 9,158 service sessions of a spectrum of vital programs and services provided by JCCGCI at UNS including the housing preservation initiative (HPI) program, domestic violence and empowerment (DOVE) initiative, and mental health therapeutic services.

Technical assistance to nonprofits: Nonprofit Helpdesk (NPHD) is JCCGCI's division which provides essential management training and organizational development services, enabling NYC's nonprofits to streamline internal operations, enhance leadership performance, and fulfill their mission at the optimal level. Since its initiation in 1992, we have helped over 2500 New York City nonprofit organizations with capacity building technical assistance in such areas as financial management, marketing communications, fundraising, program development, human resources, technology, leadership and organizational development. In 2024, NPHD assisted 3,121 nonprofit professionals citywide.

Financial Assistance: In 2024, JCCGCI provided Passover food assistance vouchers for indigent families, camp scholarships for children from low-income families, and food packages for Rosh Hashanah, Chanukah, Passover.

Storm recovery and disaster prevention: JCCGCI was designated by the Governor's Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR) as a "rising community center by NYC department of health and mental hygiene as a "Community Organization Active in Disasters (COAD)" provider (for the community leadership of the emerging community-led coalition aimed at coordinating emergency/disaster preparedness and response among hyper-local service providers).