ReachOut! FAQ
ReachOut! is a volunteer program for young adults in their 20s and 30s. All our volunteering happens either after work or on the weekends and almost all of our programs are T accessible. We offer weekly volunteering options during our seasonal volunteer cycles as well as options to drop-in to allow for more flexible volunteering. Volunteers are also invited to Shabbat dinners twice per cycle to get to know other participants.
ReachOut! runs three cycles each year- Fall, Spring, and Summer. Those cycles are 10-12 weeks long depending on how the Jewish Holidays fall. Check out our website for up to date information on our next cycle!
Absolutely! We do not require that our weekly volunteers have perfect attendance. With that said, we do ask that our weekly volunteers commit to being there as often as possible. Anywhere from 1-3 absences are completely fine, anything beyond that we’d recommend you check out our drop-in volunteering option. This is particularly important for our sites tutoring middle school students or working with adults with special needs as these groups require consistency in their schedule. If you have any questions, please be in touch with Shoshana Edelson at .
ReachOut! cycles offer two different types of volunteering- weekly and drop-in. Weekly volunteers sign up to volunteer at the same site every week throughout the cycle. This allows for volunteers to form a strong connection with the other group participants and build relationships with their volunteer site. We do ask that weekly volunteers commit to missing as few volunteer nights as possible.
Drop-in volunteering allows for a bit more flexibility. Drop-in volunteers can sign up to volunteer as often as they would like with various site options. We cannot allow drop-in volunteering at all our sites as some require CORI checks and the clients require more consistency than drop-in volunteers can give, but we do have plenty of options to choose from!
All volunteers are invited to join us for our Shabbat dinners.
We do! We offer one-offs throughout the year, but our most popular season of one-off volunteering is our Season of VolunCHEER, a series of one-off events between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. These events happen on various days of the week throughout the city. We also run an annual Charles River Cleanup day every summer. Join our mailing list to make sure you get all the details of these events!
Each cycle we offer two Shabbat dinners for our volunteers. The first, also known as the “small Shabbat dinner,” is done home-hospitality style. Your entire volunteer team will be invited to someone’s home for a low-key, inclusive Shabbat dinner. The second dinner, also referred to as the “large Shabbat dinner” is where everyone participating in the cycle gets together for Shabbat dinner, often at one of our volunteer sites. Shabbat dinner is welcoming and inclusive of all observance levels. We say the blessings over Shabbat candles, wine, and challah, and offer translations and transliterations of the prayers. All the food served at our Shabbat dinners is kosher dairy. We hope you will come and enjoy each other’s company and have fun!
Yes! ReachOut! is volunteer program that runs with lots of volunteer support. Each of our volunteer sites have a site captain. We also have a ReachOut! Steering Committee that helps facilitate ReachOut! events, recruit for upcoming cycles, and come up with new ideas for the program. We are also always looking for Shabbat dinner hosts. If you are interested in a leadership role in ReachOut!, please email Shoshana Edelson at .
Each ReachOut! volunteer site will have a designated site captain that will serve as the group point person. They will let you know the details of your volunteer site, provide updates prior to The site captain will also organize an outing after volunteering if your group is interested. Many of our groups go out for dinner, drinks, or ice cream after volunteering.
Registration for our fall cycle is now open! For site descriptions and registration, check out our cycle info page.
