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
Telephone: (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
2960 Broadway
Telephone:  (212) 854-7007
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 volunteers who run CCS, 100 percent of the dollars donated go directly to more than 54 CCS-supported organizations within a
35-block radius surrounding the Morningside campus.

Please call the above number if you would like to volunteer your time to CCS.

Community Impact
105 Earl Hall, Mail Code 2010
Telephone: (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
Telephone:  (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
Telephone:  (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.

Medical Center

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