Boston Cares pairs you up up with non profits of your choice at convenient times. It's really easy…read moreand excellent way to volunteer at places all around boston. I can't stress this enough how easy it is to volunteer. The diversity of organizations as well is superb. They offer everything from food kitchens to the symphony! To join they require a $30 one time registration fee and you must attend an online (zoom) orientations. Stress free all around, and such an amazing way to interact with our community!

Could some additional checking in and some additional outlets. I have over 200 hours and I call…read moreabout some jobs and no one ever called me back. Still a good resource

I agreed to be a Loader. A Loader, I was told, had to have the ability to lift at least 50-70…read morepounds for three hours. Naturally, I saw this as a challenge, and I accepted. The Greater Boston Food bank employs 14,500 volunteers and provides 19.5 million meals to 320,000 people in New England annually, not just Boston. Volunteers allow the GBFB to defer nearly $600,000 in payroll costs. Wow. Volunteers help in many ways, but mainly by inspecting, sorting and re-packing food at the Roxbury warehouse. Here is what my team accomplished in an afternoon shift: . Number of volunteers: 43 . Total pounds of food sorted: 10,412 (Ten Thousand Pounds!) . Total pounds of food salvaged: 8,330 . Pounds of food sorted per volunteer: 194 . Meals made possible per volunteer: 149 . Total meals made possible by NAIOP volunteers: 6,407 There are many ways to help. You can donate money. You can donate food. You can volunteer for a less physically demanding job. Just do something.

If you're looking for a place to volunteer, this is it. Good for singles or groups. Call ahead,…read moresign in, get ready to sort. Huge new clean place used to sort donated food. It's awesome. You get a rundown on food safety, what to look for, how the process works, then you're off to the main room to sort. It's actually kinda fun. And the facility is nice and new so it's definitely safe and good. Bonus - they feed you expired candy and crap after you're done! Yay!?

Volunteered here with One Brick and while it was kind of chaos at the start (putting the food in…read morethe appropriate boxes) it ended up going well and was nice to be able to directly see the impact that you're having. Overall you'll be sorting food then helping the people pick up the food that they want and figure out how much of each food item they can have.

I've been around a good deal of volunteer organizations in the greater Boston area. It breaks up my…read moredays when all I want to do is sleep in late and waste away in front of my computer playing games. Harvest Food Pantry is a small operation out of the Cambridgeport Baptist Church and it does it's best to serve poor in our neighborhood every first and third Saturday. I wake up (or at least try to) at 7am to get here for 9 in the morning. That in itself is a huge feat, mostly because as I said I'm lazy. But I really, do enjoy these volunteer opportunities as it makes me think I'm not being completely selfish with my free time. Usually, you come in the morning, let the volunteer at the front desk know you're here to help then you head down to the basement where there's never a shortage of things to do. I've been here with One Brick, Boston Cares also helps out here once and a while. But I've also been here by myself. You don't need to sign-up or register to help here, just try to get here on time and be ready to work. There is no commitment but, if you wanted to make one or do more than just Saturday help they've got other roles you can participate in. Anyways, after you sort food and bags and maybe some clothes you head up to the waiting area where all the people who came by for food are waiting. You then escort someone down to the basement who will then shop from the available food products available at the pantry. They've got a really good system setup and let people take food according to family size. During this time you're either carrying bags for the people shopping or downstairs restocking. It's all over pretty quick, usually it's an hour setting up, an hour helping the patrons and an hour breaking everything down. Now the reason for the 4 stars is because I think that because this is a volunteer run outlet sometimes the people working the administrative side forget to order stuff, like fruits and bread and this has happened on more than one occasion that I'd been here so that effects the families that need help more than my own volunteer experience but yeah there's room for improvement.

This is an amazing resource for homeless and poor women in Boston. Rosie's is not only a shelter,…read morebut also runs classes, distributes clothing, cooks hot meals, and manages a food pantry. Many women in my community have lived at Rosie's place when faced with unstable or unsafe housing. I have been lucky enough to volunteer at Rosie's food pantry. This is a lean and efficient operation. When I was there, it was managed by an experienced, smart lady named Maria, who had worked there many years. A few days before Thanksgiving, the limited stock was heartbreaking. Though 60 women came through, there were only enough cans of tuna for about half of the women. Rosie's is always in need of donations and volunteers. Is tuna on sale-10 for $10? Buy 10 for Rosie's! Organize a toiletries drive at your place of work! Donate your kids' old books! You will be a hero! This is a great place to volunteer with friends and a great place to do something important that benefits your community.

I give shelter really big fat Zero not good at all toward myself. Since day one i got spoke down…read moretoo and totally disrespected behavior from them against me. The third I been there I was told three days in a row to wake up no sleeping in this place. Actually I was sitting in a room charging my phone I have been ill several times being on 5 different medicines and over three times explain to them that on a lot medication and have disability call narcolepsy in which brain control when go to sleep? So I'm under doctors care. I let plenty of time I have disability but since I don't look like a am a person disability they don't believe you. Other time I got bullied by the staff, men I never seen there working strangers come up me give orders like am a criminal then I address their violated behavior toward they don't like to be disrespectful like they show me some women claim she isa staff person come a word call suspended like she is Actually a judge. So mention I suggest you stay off social media you have across of public harassment. Now I'm planning to file a bullying complaint against this organization with Attorney General/Charities division for cruel and unusual punishment. Also, all this was said for humiliation and verbally. I got no formal notice written. JH my initials

VERY surprised at the previous reviewer. This is a non profit organization that helps disrupt the…read morecycle of violence in urban neighborhoods by providing a safe, fun and educational environment for EVERYONE to participate in. Due to the advanced metrics of success the organization used, the Boston Globe, The New York Times and WBUR ran articles about the organization after they were gifted $12MM from Goldman Sachs since their methods show tangible benefit and results for the City and State. Blown away by the previous reviewer who clearly is mistaken. Roca offers job training, public services, education, counseling, assistance to young mothers and a whole host of other services. Next time you see a ROCA van, stop and wave, I am sure they will wave back.

Roca: Roca is an outcomes driven organization that helps very high risk young people ages 14 - 24…read moreget out of violence and poverty. Roca's innovative intervention model uses long-term relationships, education and employment programming, and organizational partnerships to achieve sustainable individual and community change. Need: America's young people are dying. They are dying quickly from guns and gangs and slowly from poverty and isolation. There are no services for young people who don't show up for programs, schools or jobs. These are the young people and young parents in gangs, in and out of state systems, using drugs and alcohol, poor, hungry, often homeless and/or suffering from the trauma of war. Reports show that nationally 10-15% of all young people ages 14-24 are disconnected from work and/or education. What Makes Roca Different: Roca is unique in the work that it does: 1) Roca seeks out the most difficult, challenging young people - the young people who are unwilling or unable to attend traditional programming, work or school; 2) Roca is an outcomes driven organization and has created a successful Intervention Model to change the lives of our young people and our communities; and 3) Roca works with systems to change how they work with those young people. WHAT WE DO: We connect very high risk young people to each other and adults by building positive and intensive relationships. Using these relationships and targeted programming (life skills, education and employment) Roca helps young people develop the necessary skills to move them towards economic independence and living out of harm's way. Roca teaches young people to get and keep jobs, creating businesses and other opportunities to allow for economic advancement. Roca's transitional employment model has been successful at working alongside union employees. Roca's model is showing results and generating national attention. Most recently, Roca received a $2.3M grant from the U.S. Department of Labor's Pathways Out of Poverty Program - the only grant of its kind in the entire state of Massachusetts. Goals for the Future: For the most part, people think that these young people can't change their lives. Roca knows better. Roca is demonstrating success. Young people are changing their lives. Roca is at an early stage in demonstrating its intervention model as a solution to reducing violence and poverty. To do this, Roca has five strategies: 1. Demonstrate the Intervention Model for Very High-Risk Youth as evidence-based; 2. Build an infrastructure to create and expand transitional employment opportunities; 3. Replicate the Intervention Model for Very High-Risk Youth; 4. Implement a Knowledge Sharing, Advocacy, and Public Policy Agenda to share the model, develop a comprehensive system for supporting these young people and leverage funds; and, 5. Increase organizational capacity for scale, impact, and sustainability. Benefit: Roca's work makes significant changes in the lives of young people and communities. It is extremely cost-effective, investing an average of $5,000 for a transformational relationship per young person per year over 3-4 years (average of $7,000 - $12,600 per person for transitional employment per slot per year from which young people pay taxes), as compared with the alternative costs to the community, estimated by the Journal of Criminology to be between $250,000 and $2,000,000 in social and incarceration support over his/her lifetime.

I gave 2 starts because I believe in their mission but found the staff to be disorganized and…read moreunprofessional if not downright rude. I offered my time and services as a volunteer. I came to the center and interviewed with the volunteer manager. After the interview she left me with another volunteer so that I could tour the facility. And when I say she left me, I mean she LEFT me. Like didn't shake my hand (Actually, she never gave me a handshake at all which, again, I find unprofessional), offer any explanation as to what the next steps would be, walk me out, etc. I don't think she even said goodbye. She handed me off to the other volunteer, walked away, and that was the last I ever saw or heard from her again. After the tour both myself and the other volunteer were confused as to what to do next. I just stood there while the other volunteer went to the manager's office. She knocked twice but there was no response so, totally confused, I just left. Never heard back from the manager despite her initially telling me they needed consistent reliable volunteers. At the end of the interview I asked for reasonable accommodation for a disability and I wonder if that has something to do with her ghosting me. Either way I think it's an incredibly unprofessional way to represent the organization and a rude way to behave towards ANYONE who is offering to volunteer their time and energy. While I understand they are understaffed, there is no excuse to ignore basic protocol of professionalism. Ultimately I decided to volunteer elsewhere.

The Women's Center in Cambridge has lots of interesting free groups to attend. I have gone most…read morerecently to the Spanish/English conversation group and the singing class, and to a few others over the years. There is also yoga, sewing, beading, songwriting, healing through arts, discussion for survivors of child sexual abuse, women's narcotics anonymous, feminist book club, and lots more. Any woman can propose to set up and facilitate a group. The house, on Pleasant Street, indeed is a pleasant place to hang out, use the computer lab (there are plenty of computers) or the library, or prepare yourself a snack. You can meet other women from all walks of life. There is a small restful patio in back with a garden. And, what I particularly like, everything there is free! This is partly because most of the staff are volunteers. And it's only a few blocks from the Central Square MBTA station.

I've keep saying that they have workers there who go beyond what they have to do. And they don't…read moreget acknowledge for it. They higher up takes the credit and he don't know nothing. How someone could be a higher up like him is not right. I was there one day he don't know me one of his workers were talking to someone on lunch break and he told his worker that he had to do something so end the conversation. I think he needs to respect his workers more. I know the place would fall down without some of the workers there. I just wish they showed more respect to there workers

You are not considered a valuable member of society living here they treat you like you are less of…read morea person! The new kitchen manager with ABSOLUTELY NO experience is a perfect example. She loves to yell at people but she doesn't even know what her actual job is. It's repulsive, that you would treat veterans that way!

I've lived in five cities in the past three years and have visited even more churches, but my four…read moremonths with King's Hill were unbelievable. If you are a young adult in Boston seeking Christ-centered community, this is the place to be. King's Hill is full of people truly doing life together all throughout the week. Sunday mornings are theologically deep and Gospel-focused. They are also serious about discipleship and helping their members grow in their faith, and truly seek to serve the city of Boston. King's is an amazing church to be a part of. In Boston, which can be a lonely and busy city, I found instant friends at King's and was immediately made to feel at home. When it became clear that I live too far away to become a member (tragically), King's encouraged me towards a partnering church closer to home. Their graciousness speaks volumes to the type of church they are.

Have you ever been to a church where you walk in awkwardly and no one really engages in…read moreconversation with you? Then you sit down alone in a row of empty chairs and no one sits next to you? And once the service is over you walk out wondering if anyone even noticed you were there? Well, I have. A few times. It's difficult finding a church and I've been on the hunt for one for a while. I went to King's Hill today, making this Sunday, a special one. When I got to the doors and admitted I was new, a lovely young woman said "let me walk with you!" and escorted me in. Once there, multiple people came to talk to me--and it wasn't forced, it wasn't fake. The worship music has two stunning female singers. Most importantly, the message was so good! Connected directly to the word, to us the congregation, and to our daily lives. It wasn't hard to follow, but it was full of scripture at the same time. The pastor runs an honest and passionate ship of believers. Imma get myself onboard. For logistics: service takes place on the first floor of the Hilton hotel. Parking is next door in a garage. The church will give you a ticket to validate your parking (you won't have to pay). They set out bibles for you to take home. No tea or coffee, but a whole lot of conversation.