Give a second chance, Volunteer!
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Bookstore Café
The Housing Works Bookstore Cafe is powered by a vibrant community of volunteers who sort books, manage our cafe, and staff concerts, readings, and other special events.
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Current Volunteers
Tell us why you volunteer at Housing Works!
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Housing Works Inc.
Engage with our clients one-on-one, help in the administrative offices, participate in advocacy and outreach events, and more! Learn all about Housing Works from the inside out while putting your good skills to work.
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Meet our Volunteers
When it comes to Proust, world travel or fashion history, Sara Depczenski can talk anyone under the table; and when on the topic of Housing Works – “the hub of creative forces in NYC” – Sara is undoubtedly one of the organization’s biggest cheerleaders.
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Thrift Shops
Volunteers at our ten upscale Housing Works Thrift shops lend their time, dedication and personal style to New York City’s premier home for modern and vintage treasures.
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Upcoming Events
From the Open Air Street Fair to Design on a Dime, from sorting thrift donations in Queens to painting a new retail space, we have lots of semi-annual and one-time events that need your help!
Volunteer Profiles
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As a long-time resident of GreenwichVillage, Deborah Braff remembers the early 1990s as the period she witnessed neighbors getting sick and dying of AIDS. “I saw men being ostracized and neglected, losing jobs and apartments. I knew I had to…
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Joe Magnone has been dedicated to Housing Works’ mission for more than 12 years. His dedication to our organization has resulted in significant sales in the area of jewelry for the Columbus Avenue store. Thirteen years ago Joe had a…
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In the early 1990s Richard Kressler frequented the then-18th Street Housing Works location so often that the staff suggested he work there. And so he did. In 1993, Richard became an active volunteer with Housing Works’ then small group of…
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Jane Klain has spent many of her years as a volunteer pricing and displaying donations of books. To her delight, customers refer to Jane as “The Book Lady” and request her expertise when they come by the store to find…
blog
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Volunteer Party: 2 More Weeks!
It’s 3am. It’s hot. You can’t sleep because you’re up thinking about how just a few hours ago you were having the best moments of your life while volunteering at Housing Works. How many times have we all been there? In your head you try to calculate the amount of hours you put in a month, a year-you wonder, ‘well if I put in that many hours and all my friends put in the same amount, just how many hours do volunteers contribute to Housing Works?” Alright, so maybe we here in the Volunteer Department are just hoping you all are up at 3am thinking about us! But the fact is, that you guys contribute a lot to this organization. Annually our volunteers donate well …
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School’s Out for Summer!
No more teachers, no more books! Now that school’s out for summer, our devoted Housing Works customers and volunteers can get to work readying their wardrobes with hot in-store deals on cool threads. The summer months are ideal for spending your free time having fun in the sun at sizzling HW celebrations or giving back to our community by helping out at our thrift shops.
Every summer our Volunteer Department receives countless requests from numerous city-wide Summer Youth Programs to have their student-volunteers work in our thrift shops, health care facilities, offices, warehouse and at our special events. This summer, two groups of volunteers have been a tremendous help at our stores. We would like to give a big Housing Works shout-out to the …
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International Volunteer Exchange Program
Housing Works is known for our quick expansion. We are in every borough, we have locations in D.C., Puerto Rico and Haiti, and now we are in Europe. Ok so we aren’t actually in Europe yet, but this summer we are making some great connections with five amazing international volunteers from all over the other side of ‘the pond’. Housing Works has partnered with Volunteers For Peace, an international volunteer exchange program. As a partner we provide accommodations and a learning experience for volunteers and they provide us with their expertise in areas of medicine, politics, and more. It’s a joint learning experience built out of a shared passion in societal and public health issues. The volunteers will be living at our East …
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Housing Works Pride
Housing Works Pride was a huge success with over 100 volunteer, staff, clients, and friends in attendance. We definitely made our presence known with a boisterous group and a music bumpin float, and everyone had a great time (despite 90 degree weather!). In case you missed it, here are pics courtesy of Sarah Morrow, our Volunteer Board Representative.
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