New Job

So I started my new part time job yesterday. My official title is "Family Liason for the Friendship Circle of Miami."

FC is an organization started by Chabad, my friend Rabbi Yossi's homeboys. It pairs teen volunteers with special needs kids, for home visits and events at the local Chabad shul. As I think about it, it's sort of like Andrew Shriver's Best Buddies, but more geared to kids...

Rabbi Yossi and his wife Nechama run the South Dade operation. They started it years ago, and I've visited and known about it, but never got very involved. The Ds just missed it when they went through Chabad's Hebrew School, and I've sort of admired it from afar.

But lately, as I told Yossi I have some free time and lack of productive things going on, he invoked the age old religious adage: idle hands are the Devil's workshop. Not really, but he was thinking that...

So we came up with a job for me. I'm going to reach out to the families of the special needs kids, and get their thoughts about the program, and see what suggestions they have. I'm also going to get involved in designing programs for the parents. Finally, I'll start meeting with pediatricians and other health care providers in the community, to recruit more kids.

Yossi and Nechama want to increase the size of the program. It currently serves about 60 families, and they want to double that number.

The program, though sponsored by an orthodox Jewish group, is not religious. About 90 % of the special needs kids are not from Jewish families. Most of the counselors are, as they get recruited from Chabad and local synagogue youth programs, though that may be changing. Yesterday, Nechama had a training meeting for some new volunteers, and they included beautiful West Indian twin 9th graders, who are volunteering as their younger sister, who has a disability, is part of the program.

So I spent 3 hours at the center yesterday, mostly observing. What I saw was so beautiful, I was forced to stifle some tears. There's no crying in volunteer work, right?

A tall, handsome, teen volunteer in a basketball jersey spent the entire time with his buddy. The younger man had pretty involved autism, and didn't react much, even to the loud music and other activities. But when he looked up at his friend, he smiled so broadly, and the two of them kneaded dough together while making cookies, as the young child beamed.

Scenes like these were common yesterday, and Nechama told me there's even closer connection when the volunteers visit the houses. The sad truth is that the kids with special needs, most of whom have autism, rarely have friends visit. So, while they get great medical care, and of course the love of their families, they miss out on the socialization that comes from friendship. Hence, the very essence of this program.

I stood outside after the baking demonstration (led by a lovely young grad student who was sharing her favorite hobby) and music therapy, and play therapy, and met several of the parents. I introduced myself, and told them I'd be contacting them soon.

Of all the pride I have for my friend and partner Paul, for his legal prowess, I'm proudest of his current gig. He volunteers many hours per week as a guardian ad litem, meeting with kids in foster care and advising Juvenile Court judges on whether the kids should be sent to parents or remain in state care. It's an awesome responsibility, and he treats it as such.

It's funny --when we'd handle an auto crash case, we were sometimes paid very handsomely to get a money recovery for someone who, say, broke an arm. Now, Paul uses his same skills and training to do something far more significant, and the pay is, at least in dollars, zero.

And he'd tell you he's privileged to do the work. I get it, too.

For me, this may be the start of something big.