By: Erin Evangela Gannie

CRUNKciety Spotlight turns its focus to the Morris Cafritz Center for Community Service at the Washington DCJCC (DC Jewish Community Center). The Cafritz Center is located on the fourth floor of the Washington Jewish Community Center at 1529 16th St. N.W. (at Q Street). For short, the organization in our nation’s capital is warmly known as the 16th Street “J.”

The center organizes high-impact community service projects and events that address unmet needs in the Washington Metropolitan area. For the past 20 years, the MCCCS has enabled tens of thousands of people to make a difference in the community.

Volunteers at MCCCS are responsible for enriching the lives of others as well as bringing enrichment to their own lives. Through active partnerships with over 100 local social service agencies and corporations, MCCCS takes on the task of repairing the world, starting with one neighborhood at a time.

This organization does many things for the District of Columbia. One of the productive programs that MCCCS sponsors is the Behrend Builders program. This project’s workers repair, renovate and rebuild throughout the city to revive homeless shelters, public and charter schools, homes for low-income families and elderly residents, recreation and community centers, social service agencies, and vital community spaces and facilities.

The overall goal of MCCCS is to meet the critical needs of Washington’s low-income housing communities. It also supplements the understaffed, over-extended social service agencies and government programs in the city.

Another way the center reaches out is through its “Be A Friend” volunteer program, which offers friendship to the homeless. If you know how to play cards, chess, checkers or backgammon, your gaming skills are valued at the MCCCS. You also get the opportunity to tutor residents in reading or simply visit with the men staying in the temporary shelter in Northeast DC.

MCCCS sponsors blood drives four times a year in the District in partnership with INOVA Blood Donor Services. One blood donation could save four lives. Type O and Type B blood supplies run out quickly at hospitals, so donations are always needed.

Helping feed the hungry is another program within the organization. Twice a month, the MCCCS meets at the Washington DCJCC to prepare a full meal that will be donated to the DC Central Kitchen. The organization says, “Hunger isn’t specific to homeless individuals; it’s a much more widespread problem.”

Year around the MCCCS offers educational programs. Through its educational services, there’s a group of volunteers that helps unemployed individuals fine tune their job interviewing skills and help with job searching. This group helps people who have been placed in the Jubilee Jobs Placement program.

Through the D.C. PALS (Positive Adult Leaders) program, volunteers tutor children during the school year at the Kingman Boys and Girls Club. MCCCS has a partnership with Mentors Inc. to help DC students graduate from high school with future goals and plans. They help the students figure out and pursue their next move, whether it’s college, joining the military, going to vocational school or seeking employment.

Perhaps the most important part of the center’s educational outreach services is the Washington Literacy Council. This program gives one-on-one tutoring services to adults to teach them how to read.

During the holiday season, MCCCS offers several ways of giving back to the community. Volunteers can work with children, seniors and the homeless to brighten the lives of many people in the city. The MCCCS believes that community service and volunteer work are not something to be focused on just during the holiday season, but throughout the year.

MCCCS volunteers can become leaders and manage their own volunteer program. They can also offer internships for those looking to gain community service hours.

This organization has made a major impact on many communities within the city by being able to bridge the gap between social service agencies, government programs and other community-based programs, bringing them all together as one powerful force to help better the community.

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