SOCIAL ACTION

(Contact Bess Eisenstadt)

Community Shelter Meals 

• Cook or bake at home and bring your dish to Cornerstones’ Temporary Overnight Shelter and Hypothermia Shelter, where we provide dinner for up to 75 shelter residents every two weeks (Mondays).
• Donate water or other specified food and deliver it to the shelter.
• Help to serve the dinner at the shelter.

Weekend Snack Bags for Neighborhood School Children with Helping Hungry Kids

• Transport food from Costco and Sam’s Club to NVHC for volunteers to pack in snack bags.
• Help pack the snacks into bags on Wednesday mornings at NVHC.

Annual High Holy Day Food Drive for Cornerstones

• Fill your grocery bags with non-perishable foods, personal hygiene items, and baby items.

Annual Rice and Bean Packing

• Pack rice and bean meals that will be provided to Helping Hungry Kids.

(Contact Jim Rose)

• Meet weekly with a student for 30 minutes (meeting times and dates are at the mentor’s discretion as approved by the school counselor). Program operated as MentorWorks across FCPS.
• Activities consist of board games, reading, or other activities. High need for Spanish speaking adults.

(Contact Kathy & Ken Laskey for Afghan Family Resettlement)

(Contact Ellyn & Dave Pontell for Ukrainian Family Resettlement)

• Your generous donations of cash, gift cards, cars, furniture, clothing, and household goods have created the essential foundations for these families as they start over.
• Our teams have worked to assist our two extended families, focusing on housing, ESOL, jobs, transportation, government benefits, medical care, and children’s needs.
• From time to time, we reach out to the community to ask for specific needs and assistance.

Contact Ellen Ranard, Show)

• Write nonpartisan Get Out the Vote postcards for upcoming elections.
• Register voters, serve at polling sites, drive voters to the polls.
• Help our group work with Jewish Partnership for Democracy.

(Contact Dave Pontell & David Hettler)

• Engage with NVHC members and the broader community to promote racial justice and equity.
• Help identify specific areas for understanding and action through study, internal conversation, advocacy, and partnership with outside organizations.
• Educate through programs at NVHC on issues of racial justice

(Contact Andy Lacher)

• Join us in nonpartisan, interfaith advocacy for:
  • Criminal justice reform
  • Social justice
  • Anti-hate legislation
  • The interests of marginalized communities
  • Local solutions to climate and environmental issues
  • Affordable Housing
  • Democracy

• Work with:
  • The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC)
  • Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy (VICPP)
  • Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC)
  • Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions (FACS)
  • Cornerstones’ Advocacy

(Contact Ken Gubin)

• Help identify and implement solutions to reduce NVHC’s carbon footprint.
• Educate NVHC members on how they can enhance sustainability in their daily lives.
• Volunteer for our Adopt-A-Highway clean-up commitment along Wiehle Avenue.

(Contact Ellyn Krause Pontell & Rachelle Dorne)

• Step up and help us explore the ways we can best support this vital cause.
• Join us to support patients at local clinics by making comfort care packages and baked goods for workers.

(Contact Mark Tauber)

• Greet and welcome participants with us at the annual Reston & Herndon Pride events each June.

(Contact Meryl Paskow)

• Engage with the NVHC community and beyond to help combat societal inequities, discrimination, and stereotypes faced by members of the disability community through education, advocacy, and service.

(Contact Ellen Ranard, Show)

• Help us create and nurture relationships with people of other faiths and other congregations in the region.
• Welcome our Muslim neighbors when they come to NVHC for their Friday prayers.
• Get involved with interfaith projects and activities (in the past we have held interfaith dialogue and classes with Muslims and Catholics and participated in interfaith projects such as a survivor workshop on child abuse).

(Contact Ellen Ranard, ShowClick Here to View Contact Information)

• Would you like to help with our communications? (contact Nell Hirsch)
• Have an idea for a new project? Please share it with us!
• We are on the lookout for urgent needs and effective ways to address them, adding new work each year.
• We want to hear your voice!