Volunteer Opportunities


 

Morningside

University-wide Blood Drives
Phone: (212) 870-2675
Web: www.columbia.edu/cu/president/blooddrive/index2.html

Each Spring and Fall, Columbia holds a blood drive to assist the Greater New York Blood Center. Blood donations are necessary to provide lifesaving therapeutic treatments to cancer and surgery patients, burn and accident victims, organ and tissue transplant candidates, and hemophilia sufferers, among others. Employees receive notices of the drives in their campus mail.

Columbia Community Outreach
Phone: (212) 854-1304
Email: outreach@columbia.edu
Web: http://web.columbia.edu/cu/outreach/

CCO is an entirely student-organized week of volunteer activities culminating in a community service day, when 1,000 Columbians, including faculty and staff, work at 40 volunteer locations to help with labor-intensive short-term projects ranging from classroom fix-ups, building renovations, and park clean-ups. CCO organizers also make the day a community event by calling on volunteers from surrounding communities to join in. Two of the goals of CCO are to raise awareness of opportunities for long-term service for the Columbia community and to form mutually beneficial relationships between Columbia and the Harlem and Morningside Heights communities.

Watch for notices of Community Service Day in late March, early April.

Columbia Community Service
2980 Broadway
304 Earl Hall, Made Code: 2025
Phone: (212) 854-4288
Web: www.columbia.edu/cu/annualappeal/

For more than half a century, Columbia has been supporting dozens of community and neighborhood programs: summer and after-school, art, music and educational activities for inner city youth; nursery school and kindergarten scholarships for children from low-income families; social work services for the elderly; and meals and shelter for the homeless. These are just a few things that Columbia Community Service (CCS) brings to the University’s neighbors, but none of it would be possible without the support of Columbia, Barnard, and Teachers College faculty and staff.

Employees of Columbia and its affiliates receive donor cards in the campus mail each Fall/Winter to make donations. Each year, thanks to the dedicated staff and volunteers who run CCS, 100 percent of the dollars donated go directly to more than 55 CCS-supported organizations within a 35-block radius surrounding the Morningside campus. In the previous campaign—the 61st Annual Appeal—CCS raised over $287,000.

Please call the above number if you would like to volunteer your time to CCS. To donate please visit the website at: www.columbia.edu/cu/annualappeal/

Community Impact
105 Earl Hall, Mail Code 2010
Phone: (212) 854-1492
Web: www.columbia.edu/cu/ci

More than 950 Community Impact volunteers operate 25 programs serving more than 8,000 people each year. By addressing the fundamental human needs for food, clothing, shelter, and companionship through the combined efforts of the Columbia community and the neighborhood’s residents, Community Impact affirms a vision of mutual respect and cooperation. Community Impact operates on the basic belief that service and understanding can foster a more unified, integrated, and shared community. As evidence of this, although one-quarter of Community Impact's budget is allocated by the University, three-quarters comes from donations.

Community Impact offers various volunteer opportunities, including Peace by PEACE, which aims to train young people in methods of conflict resolution through cooperation and mutual assistance. Trained volunteers teach elementary and middle school classes ways of resolving differences by understanding each other's perspectives, learning together, and communicating effectively. Community Impact also participates in the National Empowerment Zone Education Success Project serving the Upper Manhattan/Harlem Empowerment Zone, one of six urban areas designated by Congress for revitalization. Community Impact recruits volunteers to mentor and tutor inner-city youths; to teach, tutor, and counsel low-income adults through GED and ESL programs; and to provide family literacy and citizenship workshops.

In addition, Community Impact sponsors efforts to provide direct emergency services through programs like the Emergency Food Pantry and the Clothes Closet. These programs provide food packs and clothing for low-income and homeless individuals and families, the elderly, and people with AIDS. Community Impact also sponsors various other educational, advocacy, and environmental programs. Students, graduates, and staff are welcome to join the volunteer projects. Please stop by or call the Community Impact office for more information.

Double Discovery Center
306 Lerner Hall, Mail Code 2604
Phone: (212) 854-3897
Fax: (212) 854-7457

The Double Discovery Center (DDC), founded at Columbia in 1965, has provided academic instruction, tutoring, counseling, personal development programs, mentoring, and inspiration to thousands of young people from Harlem and other New York communities.

Serving predominately low-income, first generation college-bound students through its Upward Bound and Talent Search programs, DDC assists young people in reaching their academic potential with the goal of college enrollment. The Center serves as a rich source of meaningful volunteer opportunities for students, faculty, and staff interested in youth education and community service. Volunteers may serve as tutors, teachers, or mentors to students in grades 7 through 12.

Everybody Wins! Foundation Power Lunch Program
Phone: (212) 965-2290
E-mail: rsklar@everybodywins.org
Web: www.everybodywins.org

The Power Lunch Program, created by the Everybody Wins! Foundation, gives you the opportunity to spend one lunch hour a week reading to an elementary school child (grades 3–6) at the Ralph Bunche School (PS 125), conveniently located at 123rd Street and Amsterdam. You meet with the same student each week, building a relationship throughout the school year. An Everybody Wins! coordinator at PS 125 ensures that your experience goes smoothly, letting you know, for example, if your reading partner is absent from school.

That’s all there is to it. The Power Lunch Program is so successful in part because it is so simple and convenient. Contact the above phone number or e-mail address to volunteer or to find out the time of the next orientation session.

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Medical Center

Medical Center Neighborhood Fund
Phone: (212) 326-5727
E-Mail: jma17@columbia.edu

In 1987, the then-Presbyterian Hospital, the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Columbia jointly established the Medical Center Neighborhood Fund as a way for employees to extend their “hospitality” to Washington Heights/Inwood residents in ways beyond health care. Neighborhood Fund dollars are used in assisting local organizations who invigorate the quality of life of the residents of Washington Heights/Inwood. Because the Fund is staffed by volunteers, and administrative costs are assumed by the three institutions, 100 percent of contributions go to the local organizations that apply and are approved for awards.

Medical Center personnel are solicited annually. All gift amounts are appreciated, and participation is key to showing our community support. To volunteer for the Fund or for non-profit organizations in the area, please call or e-mail. Good, used working computers are also appreciated.

Office of Government and Community Affairs
630 West 168th Street, PH 132
Phone: (212) 305-8060
E-mail: ev3@columbia.edu
Web: www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/gc/

The Community Affairs Office is responsible for establishing working relationships and maintaining communications with community organizations, schools, and elected officials. The office provides community-based organizations with technical assistance in the areas of fund-raising and program development, and assists with the coordination of special events in the Washington Heights/Inwood area. In addition, the office facilitates collaborative initiatives between the Health Sciences and community-based organizations to develop community programs. The office coordinates the following events and services:

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