Connect2 Website

CONNECT2 – HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS HOME VISITATION PROGRAM

Living alone as a senior citizen in New York City can be quite daunting. The husband or wife has passed away…children or close relatives have moved and rarely come to visit…the infirmities of advanced age have made it difficult to get around and take care of everyday matters. And when the elderly individual is a survivor of the Holocaust, their feelings of isolation are likely to be compounded by painful memories that refuse to recede into the past.

Fortunately, the Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island took notice of this increasing social concern, and created Connect2, a unique program that assigns volunteers to regularly visit older Holocaust survivors who are mostly homebound, and help them with such needs as shopping, trips to the doctor, and just plain companionship.

Under the attentive direction of Sheva Frank, the three-year-old Connect2 program has cultivated an enthusiastic group of 100 volunteers who spend a minimum of one hour each week visiting and assisting 250 elderly survivors. After Sheva assesses each client to ascertain their emotional status and personality, she pairs them up with a volunteer with a similar mindset. “Our goal is to bring a friend into the survivors’ lives,” she explains. “Sometimes they will willingly discuss their wartime experiences with the volunteer, but the majority of our clients prefer to talk about current interests.” The Connect2 director relates how some volunteers have gone to extraordinary lengths to help their elderly “partner” with important personal matters, such as obtaining money due them from different sources and intervening on their behalf upon discovery of a serious personal problem that was not being attended to.

Thanks to Connect2, hundreds of older Holocaust survivors who now face life alone have found new support and friendship that gives them joy and a renewed connection to the outside world.

Connect2 is Primarily Funded by the Claims Conference