Virtual Chessed

Kindness Begins at Home

Teen Relief Missions has gone virtual! Here are some exciting new programs that teens can do from home:

The Lander Colleges of the Touro College and University Systems are proud to join in sponsoring the vital Chessed work of the Teen Rescue Mission Division.

lcw.touro.edu

https://lcm.touro.edu/

http://las.touro.edu/

 

1. Home Alone– Are you home alone? Bored? Why not learn once or twice a week with a teen?

Click Here to Sign Up

 

     2. Virtual Babysitting– Many families may be overwhelmed by having all their children home.          Teens can ask their parents or local shul Rabbi to see if there are any families who can benefit from virtual babysitting. Teens can read books over the phone, play online games, etc. to give the parents a little break.

Click Here to Sign Up

 

Other Virtual Volunteering Opportunities

 

Sixty and Me offers different ways for seniors to volunteer!

Adopt-a-Frontliner It’s been two weeks (523 quarantine years) since Adopt-a-Frontliner launched! We have over 300 volunteers covering nearly 1,000 frontliners so far.

Each volunteer sends one personalized digital card/pic/video/etc  to a frontline health care worker.
Join the movement!!  Great for kids of all ages! Share with your friends!!

Please fill out this form if you are interested in participating.

Met Council/UJA Federation While COVID-19 precautions call for people to isolate themselves, for those living alone with advanced needs, this can be particularly anxiety provoking. Help us remind them that they are not alone, even when we can’t be there to hold their hands. Poetry, letters, short stories, plays, cards, drawings, etc. are some of the many ways that you can bring joy to our seniors. Anything that can be mailed or slipped under the door is acceptable and would help make our seniors feel CONNECTED! Things can be emailed to CreatingConnections@metcouncil.org or mailed to:

Leah Schechter, Met Council Fulfillment Center, 171 Lexington Ave. New York, NY 10016

The Laptop Project Many of us have old laptops or tablets laying around that could really be used right now for Distance Learning and Work From Home. The Laptop Project advises that people use CloudReady from NeverWear  to turn those old laptops into Chromebooks. Ask your local synagogues or schools who could use them.

ARCHIVES, GENEALOGY & MAPS

Ancestry.com’s World Archives Program (AWAP) provides free software to its volunteers to access already-scanned images and transcribe them into a common, publicly-searchable database. The Ancestry World Archives Project’s online volunteers use their passion for genealogy to help others discover their roots.

Carnamah Historical Society virtual volunteering initiative uses online volunteers to help with transcription and indexing projects to make historical records more discoverable and searchable.

Map Rectifier Project by the New York Public Library. This geo-rectification toolkit creates layered digital maps utilizing all the information available about a certain geography from sources as varied as Google’s satellite imagery and centuries-old fire insurance land maps. Volunteers index information that records how many floors a building once had or what a street was named at different points in time, and the resulting layered digital map shows the aggregate results.

The National Map Corps (TNM Corps), part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks citizen volunteers to collect data on structures and use it to add new features, remove obsolete points and correct data for The National Map database.

The Smithsonian Digital Volunteer program engages the public in making its collections more accessible. Digital volunteers transcribe historic documents and collection records to facilitate research and preserve these valuable assets for future generations.

 

DISASTER

The American Red Cross always has needs for volunteers to act as digital advocates. Volunteers can help generate donations to the Red Cross while shopping for themselves online or by setting up online fundraisers. Volunteers can also help spread awareness by repost their social media content.

Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) Key data needed by humanitarian workers addressing critical needs during a crisis, such as a natural or man-made disaster, as well as data needed by other development workers and researchers, is often trapped in PDF documents. Volunteers extract this data into a database so that it can be easily found, helping anyone to visualize trend lines across regions or countries and compare this data to other indicators.

Humanity Road volunteers use Internet and mobile communications technology to collect, verify and route information online during disasters. They provide public safety information as well as directing the public to governmental and aid agencies that are providing assistance for the disaster.

 

GENERAL SKILLS

Doe Network Devoted to assisting official law enforcement agencies in solving cold cases concerning unexplained disappearances and unidentified Victims from North America, Australia and Europe. Online volunteers also help translate documents into various languages.

Mozilla/Firefox Did you know that this web browser is produced by a nonprofit organization? “We believe in the power and potential of the Internet and want to see it thrive for everyone, everywhere.” Mozilla involves hundreds of online volunteers, and “you don’t have to be a C++ guru (or even know what that means!)” to contribute as an online volunteer.

Nabuur is an online volunteering platform that links volunteers with local communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America so they can learn about each other, share ideas and find solutions to local issues.

Wikipedia, the largest online volunteering initiative in the world. To volunteer, you simply find an article you have some knowledge of and add information to the entry. Note that Wikipedia now strongly encourages all additions to any entry be attributed to a verifiable source. Available in Spanish, French, German, Polish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese and more!

 

HEALTH, WELL-BEING & EMPOWERMENT FOR ALL

Crisis Text Line is a free 24/7 national crisis-intervention and counseling service conducted exclusively through SMS text. Volunteers use the nonprofit’s web-based platform to provide emotional support to texters who are dealing with a wide range of issues– bullying, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and more. Prospective volunteers go through screening and a lengthy self-paced training. Once completed, volunteers sign up to take one four-hour shift each week for a year.

TED Translators are a global community of volunteers who subtitle TED Talks and enable the inspiring ideas in them to crisscross languages and borders. Bring TED into your language! Join the global community of volunteers.

Help to bring personalized voices to people with speech impediments or who have lost their voice! VocaliD is aimed at designing personalized synthetic voices so that people with severe speech impairments can use a voice that fits their body and personality. Share your voice and help drive innovation in voice technology through VocaliD.

 

LITERACY

BookShare.Org offers thousands of books to people with reading disabilities. As an online volunteer you can either scan books to be added to the collection or edit books that have been scanned.

Distributed Proofreaders These online volunteers turn public domain books into online books, mostly for Project Gutenberg. Many volunteers work on a book at the same time and proofread each other’s work.

LibriVox is a nonprofit that coordinates online volunteers to record audio versions of public domain books.

Translators Without Borders recruits volunteers who want to translate texts into different languages for NGOs and nonprofits.

 

SEARCH ENGINES FOR VIRTUAL VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Help From Home has a mix of volunteering activities you can do from home, both online and without a computer. Most are micro volunteering – tasks that require just a few minutes or a few hours.

Idealist has many volunteer tasks listed on its site that can be completed online.

Skills for Change is a great way to find online volunteer opportunities to use your “skills and wits to battle the world’s toughest challenges.”

VolunteerMatch uses their website to bring good people and causes together. Search through their database of thousands of volunteer opportunities and be sure to look for those opportunities that are virtual.