Social Action

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Committee Chairs

Gail Coskey &
Nicole Guidry

Stephanie Allen
Judith Arms
Pam Center
Carolyn Cohen
Robert Isgur
Jackie Kallay
Patti Kievel
Liz Labadie
Joan Lite-Miller
Susan Monas
Edna Oberman

• The Goals of the Committee are:
• To provide the adults and youth of the congregation with opportunities to learn about social and political issues of the day.
• To facilitate opportunities for maasim tovim (good deeds) for all members of the congregation and develop and support projects for the congregation to work actively towards Tikkun Olam (repairing the world).
• To facilitate opportunities for building bridges between the different movements of Judaism as well as between faiths in working towards Tikkun Olam.
• To work toward incorporating actions and consideration of Tikkun Olam into the culture of the Beth Shalom community.

Are you thinking about donating or getting rid of usable furniture or housewares?

Consider donating to Sharehouse. Sharehouse is one of the few places that families transitioning from homelessness to permanent housing can get free furniture. This program is highly recommended by the staff at Solid Ground's Journey Home Rapid Re-Housing project.

Items can be dropped off at Sharehouse or you can arrange for large items to be picked up in the greater Seattle area. This link to the Sharehouse website has all of the contact information, how to donate, and the types of items that they take.

http://www.thesharehouse.org/what_take.htm

Demand is up and supplies are down.  Your clutter or castoffs can help someone start a new life. Please consider donating now. 

Social Action/Mitzvah Opportunity:

Join Temple Beth Am in a Sunday meal program for our neighbors who are homeless in the Lake City area. Dinners are coordinated by the Seattle Mennonite Church in Lake City, and held in their building on the north side of NE 125th Street just east of Lake City Way. Four different congregations take turns hosting dinners. Temple Beth Am provides dinners at SMC on the third Sunday of each month.

CBS members and TBA already cooperate on the Homeless-2-Renter program, and further work together would strengthen our ties to each other and our common Jewish values.

Email coordinator/TBA member, Sally Kinney through our contact form or phone (206)364-4866 if you’re interested in participating. We cook menu items at our homes and bring them to the church. One dish per month or whatever you can manage would be very welcome. You have the option to bring your dish and stay, or drop off your dish – whichever you like. Our guests appreciate both the food and the company.

Looking for a way to help Darfur refugees?

Darfur refugees are often attacked or raped when leaving camp in search of firewood for cooking. Jewish Worldwatch is purchasing solar cookers for refugees to help minimize this risk and make cooking easier for them. If you are interested in helping, send a check made out to Jewish Worldwatch (a 501(c)(3) organization created by a coalition of synagogues) to CBS and the social action committee will forward your check.

Kiddush Club Yard Waste

We are now using bio-degradable garbage bags during Kiddush and throwing our used plates and leftover food into Yard Waste instead of garbage. WE NO LONGER USE PLASTICWARE AT CBS EVENTS. We purchased biodegradable utensils for use at all CBS events. One small garbage can is present for items brought in from outside the building, but all material served is yard waste. This will help the shul save money, plus help the environment with compost instead of garbage. Please notice the different waste cans and do your part to separate the yard waste.

Sandpoint Community Housing

For several years the Social Action Committee supported SANDPOINT COMMUNITY HOUSING FOR ADULTS and SANTOS HOUSING FOR SINGLES through participation with an Interfaith group. The resource room, which helps people get started with housing is always in need of household items - especially kitchen, bed and bath

items. They do not accept clothing or furniture due to the small size of their facility. For information or to arrange a drop-off of items at the resource room call 206-529-9450.

WELCOME BASKETS (2 kinds)--see below.
Residents often move into Sand Point Housing with literally only the clothes they are wearing. As part of the Interfaith Group, we provide "Welcome Baskets" of basic household and personal care items. You could put one together with your family or have a party and ask everyone to bring an item. Call Judith Arms, 206-522-7660, if you have a welcome basket to donate.

BASKETS FOR FAMILY AND SINGLE ADULTS

• Laundry basket and detergent
• Broom and dust pan
• Sponges, toilet brush
• Trash containers: kitchen, bath/bedroom
• Mop, bucket, and all-purpose cleaning liquid
• Household wipes
• Tissues, paper towels, toilet tissue
• Shower curtain and hangers/clips

Suggestions for additional items:

• Bar soap
• Personal care items for hair, teeth
• Liquid soap, comet cleanser
• Garbage bags, household size
• Pictures/calendar/wall hangings/plants
• Duct tape, transparent tape, scissors
• Clothing hangers

BASKETS FOR YOUTH MOVING INTO GROUP HOME

• Laundry basket or bag
• Set of towels
• Writing tablets/spiral notebooks and pens/pencils
• Bar soap, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion
• Tooth brush and paste
• Tissues
• Clothing hangers
• Optional: calendar (planner or wall), pictures, and/or plants

Homeless to Renter Program

Homeless-2-Renter (H2R) is a Temple Beth Am initiative to help end homelessness. We at CBS can support this effort, and perhaps in time, replicate some of their work. Here is how it works: H2R is supported by the TBA Social Action Committee, but is its own committee and reports directly to the TBA board. The goal of H2R is to move families out of homelessness by subsidizing their move into permanent housing. In order to do this, the committee raises funds and works through a nonprofit organization, Mutual Interest. Mutual Interest takes referrals from social service agencies, and then works with those families and landlords to get them into housing. So, the main H2R activity is fundraising. TBA has done this in a nice way. For example, they recently held a lovely Succot event, which featured a speaker from Mutual Interest, time in the sukkah with Rabbi Beth speaking on homelessness, an auction of cakes constructed to look like houses, and a music performance. It was a great combination of a social and an educational activity and raised a significant amount of funds for the program.

What Can We Do?

At the current time, anyone who wants to donate to H2R can make a tax deductible donation to Temple Beth Am--H2R, and send it to Temple Beth Am, 2632 NE 80th Street, Seattle 98115. H2R members are eager to see this effort replicated at other congregations. We may not be able to do that yet.

Congregation Beth Shalom joins Be'chol Lashon (In Every Tongue) in fostering positive, pluralistic, multicultural expressions of Judaism that embrace the ethnic, racial and cultural diversity that has characterized the Jewish people throughout history, and through contemporary forces including intermarriage, conversion and adoption.