For eight years, the Silverstein family kept a special Chanukah tradition. On one of the eight nights, they celebrated with the Schwartzes, an elderly pair of Holocaust survivors. Together, they played dreidel, lit the candles, and ate latkes.
“This becomes an ongoing relationship over the course of eight years, so much so that my kids ask me: ‘What night are we going to visit the Schwartzes?’” says Natalie Silverstein, the volunteer listings coordinator for Doing Good Together in New York City. “That has tremendous value: The continuity, the family tradition.”
Silverstein first found the opportunity to spend Chanukah with the Schwartzes through DOROT, a social services organization for seniors on the Upper West Side. Silverstein often struggled to find opportunities such as these, in which her entire family could volunteer together.
“I couldn’t believe that in a city of eight million people, there would not be a one-stop shop listing through a family magazine or a website that would just provide you with a calendar of family-friendly volunteer opportunities,” Silverstein says. “I couldn’t find it.” What she did find was the website for Doing Good Together, a Minneapolis, MN nonprofit dedicated to connecting families with volunteer opportunities; she then emailed its founder, Jenny Friedman, about expanding the organization and creating a branch in New York.
Friedman founded Doing Good Together in 2004 in order to foster the habit of family volunteerism and help parents raise children who are engaged with the needs of their communities. In addition to Minneapolis and New York, today the organization also has branches in Seattle and Boston. Silverstein, an Upper West Side mom of three, brought Doing Good Together to New York two years ago, and through her work the NYC listserv has grown to just under 1000 subscribers. With previous work experience in the healthcare and non-profit worlds, as New York’s volunteer listings coordinator, Silverstein’s job is the backbone of Doing Good Together’s output: She curates a short list of local (or national) family-friendly volunteer opportunities that she sends out to subscribers once a month. “I believe that there are tens of thousands of families in New York City who would want to receive something like this but don’t know about it,” Silverstein says.
And not only has Doing Good Together allowed families to find volunteer opportunities, but it’s also aided organizations in gaining volunteers. For instance, Celebrate U, a newer organization in New York City, has gained several volunteers from its inclusion on the monthly list.
By signing up for the monthly email, parents receive a list of volunteer opportunities that may appeal to families of all different interests and inclinations. Opportunities range from playing chess with the elderly through DOROT to helping throw a less fortunate child a birthday party through Celebrate U. The opportunities listed vary by month, and some are weekly or more fluid commitments, while others are one-time events. Silverstein attends and researches nearly every volunteer opportunity she lists to guarantee they will be family-friendly and compelling. From donating candy to overseas soldiers and veterans through Operation Gratitude to helping out at a grocery-style food pantry like the West Side Campaign Against Hunger, there’s no shortage of ways New York families can make a difference.
“Kids are not naturally born to be philanthropic,” Silverstein says. “You teach by example. I say this all the time: Any individual volunteering opportunity that you do as a family isn’t going to necessarily open your kids’ eyes and change their whole world, but if you do it on a consistent basis and you make it a part of your family life, it’s just constantly there.”
To learn more about Doing Good Together and to subscribe to the New York list, visit doinggoodtogether.org/family-volunteering-nyc/!
