Catholic Charities Boston (Food Pantries)
Volunteer Non US Citizen
Yes
Categories:
Spanish Language Preferences:
Location Details
Description
Catholic Charities Boston (CCAB) is a leading provider of comprehensive emergency assistance and long-term economic empowerment for families and individuals. As an organization rooted in a faith mission, we support people who seek our service from all religions and backgrounds. We are a frontline organization that many people first turn to in crisis and provide basic needs such as food, shelter, and emergency resources while creating pathways to job and housing security. The work in our 20+ sites across Eastern Massachusetts is focused in Gateway cities, providing affordable programs that support ongoing economic growth such as childcare, education, and English classes, as well as mental health services, case management, and advocacy for refugees and immigrants. Our goal is to offer, through compassion and care, help to individuals and families to move through an immediate crisis and build a sustainable future to break cycles of poverty in our communities. This CCAB site entails working in our food pantries. We have four food pantries, in Boston, Brockton, Lowell, and Lynn (NDBridge students would likely work primarily out of our Boston and Lynn locations). Our food pantries distribute 2.6 million meals annually to more than 11,000 homes, with demand for emergency food up 100% since pre-pandemic.
Student Role
We anticipate having the NDBridge students help us conduct research into the impact of light case management for our food pantry clients. The students’ role in this research would be as follows: 1) They would research and develop a net promoter score instrument to use to survey clients; 2) They would also provide some light case management for the “test” group of clients, such as connecting them to programs within the agency, referring them to services they may be eligible for, providing appropriate language resource materials, etc.; 3) The students would then implement the net promoter score instrument with the “test” group of clients and a control group of clients to determine the impact of this light case management approach. There will also likely be opportunities to support the work of the pantries more broadly, through restocking pantry shelves, helping with product selection, preparing bags for distribution, SNAP application assistance, some light cleaning, and helping lift and transport light to moderately-heavy items.
Work Schedule
Primarily Monday-Friday from approximately 8am-3/4pm
Orientation
If we are hosting other summer interns (e.g., Social Concerns Fellows), we will bring all of the students together for a one-day orientation on their first day on site. This orientation will include an agency overview, activities to get to know each other and begin to build community, a review of important policies and logistics, as well as site tours and meet-and-greets with key staff. NDBridge students would then have a pantries-specific orientation, which would include getting them trained up on the pantry data management system, on pantry operations, and on case management.
Housing Information
Students will likely stay at Northeastern University and take public transportation to their site each day.
Other Language Proficiencies
It would be ideal (but not a must-have) if three or more of the students spoke one of the following languages: Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, Cape Verdean Creole (at conversational to fluent levels)
Background Check
Local Background Check
Drivers License
No
Student Preferences
Students must exhibit a willingness to work with those in need, as well as be interested in and comfortable with speaking with clients/potential clients about themselves and their contexts.