The New York Cares Podcast

Our guest this week is Nan Jack, a New York Cares Team Leader who has served the five boroughs for the last ten years. She is a genuinely inspiring and selfless member of our community, who has led projects with Visions and the Astoria Park Alliance. 

Our guest this week is Luis Torres, the principal of PS 55X in the Bronx. He beat the odds of his upbringing to become a community leader—advocating for ending systemic inequity, breaking the cycle of poverty, and seeing his students reach a college degree. 

This week on the New York Cares Podcast, we're presenting a Spanish-language conversation between our Chief Program Officer, Arlene Lozano, and our Officer of Event Production, Juan Carlos Vasquez, the recognizable face behind some of our most exceptional work across the five boroughs. Here is a link to volunteer projects which need Spanish speaking volunteers: https://bit.ly/3SL3fK3. 

This week, we're sharing a conversation with Trevor DeMilt, a Corporate Project Manager with New York Cares. Trevor is well known in our community as a creative problem solver with endless energy and positivity. We dove into how Trevor became involved with our mission, and what it takes to lead huge projects across the five boroughs. 

Our guest this week is Caroline Anderson, the founder of BloomAgainBklyn. This incredible organization promotes sustainability by upcycling unsold or once-used flowers for vulnerable populations across the five boroughs. New York Cares volunteers assemble bouquets of flowers twice a week, and we cannot recommend this opportunity enough. To volunteer with BloomAgainBklyn, visit us at newyorkcares.org.

Our guest this week is New York Cares’ Chief Program Officer, Arlene Lozano. She has lived a life dedicated to community advocacy, from her native Los Angeles, to here in New York. Today, she works tirelessly to address the evolving needs of our communities, and promote a sense of belonging for all New Yorkers through service. Stay tuned for another episode with Arlene very soon!

On this episode, we're proud to feature another exceptional volunteer Team Leader, Patrick McGuire.  Patrick is a Queens native who has completed over 4,000 projects and 8,400 hours of volunteer service over the past fifteen years. Patrick is a Coat Drive MVP, serving as an Ambassador promoting our program to commuters at Penn Station and leading coat collections, sorting, and distributions: but the most rewarding of all is Christmas mornings distributing coats at the Rescue Mission Center on Canal Street. In Patrick's own words, "What I really love about working with New York Cares is making an impact on the lives of the people we serve."

This July, we’re shining a spotlight on the ways our volunteers and partners help create equity in students’ physical wellness. Joining us today, is Keishorea Armstrong, a program design specialist with New York Cares. She is an expert on the ways our volunteer programs holistically support students' socialization, wellness, and mental health. We’ll also discuss her journey to civic engagement, and her foodie-approved recommendations for a trip to her native home of Antigua.

On this episode, we are pleased to present Aida Rondon, Community Director of PS 557K, and Christopher Pearson, a Community Partnership Coordinator with New York Cares. We've worked extensively with Aida in Brooklyn Gardens Elementary, both in person with their murals and gardens, and online with our Story Anytime program. Christopher specializes in East Brooklyn, where pre-existing inequities were exacerbated by the pandemic. They have worked very closely together to ensure that the community around PS 557K has a shot at equity of opportunity.

On this episode, we're highlighting an exceptional team leader and volunteer, Kai Tham.  Kai grew up in Little Italy, and started volunteering in 2017. He became a High Riser in 2019, a volunteer who has completed +1,000 hours of volunteer service. As a team leader, Kai serves as an example of punctuality, problem solving, and dependability. Many volunteers have returned to his projects as a result of his leadership and vision. He advises anyone interesting in volunteering to, "Pick a project and get started. It's contagious."

We speak with Nyisha Holliday, New York Cares' Chief Talent Officer, about our diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and Women's History Month.