The Social Service Board is a 501(c)(3) non-profit service organization affiliated with the New York Society for Ethical Culture. We leverage our resources to provide direct services to marginalized and underserved people in New York City. We build listening relationships to develop responsive programs that alleviate the symptoms of systemic injustice to promote a more compassionate city.
Participation in the SSB offers hope and assistance to people in need, but also offers immeasurable benefit for those who volunteer and participate. Ethics is the soul of a secular democracy. It inspires authentic self esteem, motivates our dynamic social conscience, and demonstrates the love, care, and trust which are the human glue of our society and helps us create a better world.
SSB members have created, financed, staffed and sustained many rewarding and meaningful “core projects” with their dedicated efforts.
Social Service Board Projects 2024-2025
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Ethical NYC’s Good Neighbor Initiative (February 23, 2023)
The Joy of Being Generous: SSB’s Food Security Initiative During Covid (August 1, 2021)
In late October of 2020, NYSEC members Janet and Howard Rose began a food insecurity initiative. Acting on behalf of the Ethical Action Committee and honoring the Ethical Culture tenet of deed, it was a simple concept that grew enormously, building by building, to ultimately a collection of over five tons of food. Join Janet and Howard as they share this incredible journey. Learn about all of the participants – from the volunteers who organized their buildings, to the managers who ran months long drives. Share the enthusiasm of students who set up a pantry in their East Harlem high school and finally, the food pantry organizations who received the desperately needed donations.
Lunch Bag
In the lower level of the Ethical Society, we assemble and deliver monthly to New York City’s Housing Authority Harborview Houses one hundred sandwiches including a drink, fruit cup, chips and cookies. This goes to seniors for a weekend meal.
Food Insecurity
In the lower level of the Ethical Society, we collect shelf stable food in 120 bags delivered to two NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) communities – Harborview and Amsterdam Addition. We drop off the bags and they disseminate them to the residents. This is a monthly effort.
Reclaim Our Vote Initiative
A non-partisan post carding campaign with writing events attended by Upper West Side volunteers on the 5th floor of the NY Society for Ethical Culture. These will continue through October for the General Election.
Clothing for Migrants
We collect donated clothing and deliver these items to a church that disseminates the clothing and other items to those migrants in need.
Conscious Aging Support Group
A pilot project led by SSB Chair, Janet Rose, this group of ten women meet monthly in the Elliott Library on the 5th floor of the New York Society for Ethical Culture.
Backpacks for The Street
Backpacks for the Street (BFTS) is a new relationship forged with the SSB. We are providing them with 100 brown bags of shelf stable food to add to the 700 bags they disseminate to the unhoused and migrants in the City. In addition, donated clothing is now being picked up regularly by BFTS and offered to the unhoused and migrants in the City.
My Own Book: Helping children build their home libraries and learn to love reading!
My Own Book, a non-profit co-managed by the New York Society for Ethical Culture’s Social Service Board, brings 3rd graders from underserved NYC schools to bookstores and lets them pick out $60 worth of books to start their own home library.
With books that they chose themselves close at hand, children pick them up and read them repeatedly, and in the process become better readers.
Learn more about My Own Book from President Vince Brancato:
Welcome to the world of Ethics in action. The SSB is for anyone young or old, who is looking for more meaning in their life and the personal satisfaction of helping make a difference in our community. If you are interested in volunteering your time you can:
- Attend a Board meeting as our guest
- Present a new project idea
- Participate in a project of your choice as a Friend of the Board
- Become a member of the Board
For more information, please email SSB Chair Janet Rose at jrose@socialserviceboard.org.
The Social Service Board provides an array of opportunities for caring people to put Ethics into action.
People who desire to become a Board member are invited to attend a monthly Board meeting and see how its members give their leadership to ongoing projects and create new ones as their need arises.
The SSB also provides the opportunity for people who wish to participate in a project but whose busy lives don’t permit them to be a full-time Board member, but can participate in a desired project as a Friend of the Board.
A Friend of the Board may also support the SSB in two ways: by helping financially or volunteering time to a project of choice.
If you feel the call to put ethics into action to preserve and expand our American Democracy, the Social Service Board is set up to energize, empower, and facilitate the ideas and needs of ethical people.
