Karsh Family Social Service Center Inc

Volunteer engagement - the commitment of dedicated volunteers is essential to the work and success of the karsh family social service center. Engaging volunteers as a key component of delivering service allows the karsh center to be a catalyst for community members wishing to be of service and help their neighbors who are navigating challenges like food and housing insecurity, and more. Building on a foundation of wilshire boulevard temple congregant volunteers, the karsh center volunteer engagement program includes volunteers from all over los angeles, including members of other faith-based organizations and school programs, an array of professionals sharing pro -bono time, and, increasingly, members of the koreatown community who recognize that the karsh center is a pillar in supporting the surrounding community. We host recurring weekly volunteers, special event/one-time volunteer activities, and student and community interns. In spring 2024, we opened the karsh tikkun olam social service center in brentwood as a hub of volunteerism on the westside, further expanding the reach and impact of our volunteers. Across all of our volunteer activities, volunteers range from 3 years old to over 100 years old, and they share their time both on-site and through remote programs. Volunteer activities range from packing grocery bags and making sandwich lunches to doing outreach to clients and completing data entry, and so much more. Across these activities, we engaged around 482 volunteers in fy23-24.

Program #3: big give programs: the big give is our annual thanksgiving distribution special event, through which we provide 1,000 thanksgiving meal kits to our community. Each kit is designed to provide four full thanksgiving meals, including all items from a turkey or other protein, to a pumpkin pie and all sides. It ultimately provides a special holiday meal to 4,000 members of our community. This event also engages hundreds of volunteers in the preparation and hosting of the distribution, as well as supplemental projects to help prepare other essential items for our community such as hygiene kits and winter kits. In 2024, we distributed 1,021 full thanksgiving meal kits to our neighbors experiencing food insecurity across los angeles and engaged 288 volunteers in an estimated 650 hours of service.

All other programs: karsh center offers an array of services within four program areas food and nutrition security, child and parent well-being, health and wellness and community services. In collaboration with over 37 organizations, karsh center offers vison care, dental care, grief groups, legal consultations, english classes, nutrition education, case management, and essentials such as clothing vouchers and toiletries. Additionally, karsh center provides linkage and referrals for mental health support, legal aid, job search, and other services. In addition to our thanksgiving program, big give, karsh center also hosts a special summer back to school event which helps students become excited and prepare for the start of kindergarten. Students receive backpacks and school supplies and parents are able to learn about different resources. The karsh center's goal is to connect families to services that promote healthy development and well-being of children and families. We offer workshops to gain knowledge, support groups to connect with other parents, diaper and essential distributions to meet basic needs, and referrals to increase families support systems. Families are also recruited and prioritized for our annual events.