OUR TEAM

Michael Taylor, President

We Care NY Founder and President has over 19 years of active volunteer experience creating, organizing and managing annual programs to improve the community he grew up in. Michael managed and supervised with the help of dozens of other volunteers a weekly community service program with assigned workers from the Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes Office, NY Federal Probation and others for over a decade. The assigned workers and volunteers contributed hundreds of thousands of work hours to improving the NYC Parkland of Marine Park that is the back yard to his community. He has a proven track record of having integrity, honesty and getting things done that most thought would be impossible to accomplish. He understands it is always a team effort dealing with the many complications managing volunteers and an organization. He says "I'm just the person to complain to or blame. Someone has to do it and that’s fine by me"

After Hurricane Sandy struck New York, his leadership and experience with organizing hundreds of events and activities proved invaluable to thousands of residents during the first few months of the relief efforts, helping people recover from the worst natural disaster to hit our community. Thanks to an army of volunteers and many caring people, supplies were shared with many affected communities. Michael acquired and arranged for the transportation and direct delivery of thousands of electrical heaters, carbon monoxide and smoke detectors, sleeping bags, cots, cleaning kits, hot meals, non-perishable food items, flash lights & batteries, toiletries, winter coats, clothing, cleaning products like brooms, shovels, gloves and baby supplies to affected residents.

In 1998 he co-founded a 501(c)3 charity GB Cares, Inc. that he managed for the 17 years as a volunteer, until his 2013 decision to resign so he can establish a new organization; one that will expand the scope of services to an even larger geographical area, helping more people in need during a time of crisis. Michael credits the years of experience dealing with rumors, lies, gossip and intentional misinformation from those making decisions for personal gain in helping him understand how to handle the issues from those that have agendas for political or financial gain. He says “That’s what they do and It’s OK with me. The people will know the truth it always comes out”.

His immediate future activities will include building a new team of experienced honest caring volunteers leaders with integrity and compassion for helping those in need. Creating online support & notification systems using new technology to assist volunteers and everyone in need of assistance, securing funds to provide needed mold remediation by properly insured and trained professionals and air filtration systems, donation deliveries & pick-ups, and other services to as many affected residents throughout New York City as there are volunteers available. He plans to focus on the needs in Brooklyn and then to replicate the programs into the other boroughs as volunteer leaders, workers, support staff and funding become available.

Marissa Bernowitz, Board Member

Since the devastation of Superstorm Sandy, Ms. Marissa Bernowitz has successfully become an active disaster relief volunteer coordinator serving her community of The Rockaways and many others around NYC as the unmet needs of Sandy victims are still plaguing many with real life challenges and struggles.

October 29th, 2012 means more than just a personal loss for her, it began a life change that would span active involvement in the lives of many people across NYC. Far beyond what she could imagine and was ready for but she stayed the course and stayed focused in her unrelenting efforts to help others. After losing her apartment and then her job due to Superstorm Sandy, Ms. Bernowitz found ways to make the best of the bad situations that were quickly developing from Sandy. She immediately started coordinating the safety of her neighbors, and then the well-being of those who stayed behind as they adjusted to the challenges left behind from the devastation. Not knowing how much longer they would be without power, without local businesses open or without everyday essentials, she started making calls and using social media to reach out to the “outside world” to bring and offer aid, and support her community with basic needs.

Ms. Bernowitz volunteered at local distribution sites throughout The Rockaways helping to expand the reach of the supplies, items and services that were available from different sources. In January 2013 she noticed that areas and people were still in need that were not being met because of the meticulous process of application for aid and support, and so she founded and started The Rockaway Free Flea Market with a team of dedicated and caring women from the community. Throughout the week Ms. Bernowitz and her team of volunteers would rent trucks, transport supplies and store them accordingly. Once a week they would pop up tables and tents in a flea market style offering donated supplies to people for free. This project faced many hurdles and even had to close down at one point due to lack of funding, storage and donations slimming down but her dedication to the people never waned and she continued finding ways to make it work, which they did and the flea market is still functioning strong today serving more families and people in need of aid.

She continued to stay involved in the community and advocate for those recovering/rebuilding by helping with FEMA paperwork, getting people into the Disaster Case Management and CAN system, signing people up for community services, voluntarily being the Head Elf of Queens for the Secret Santa Claus Project (which delivered toys and essentials to roughly 1,500 children across all Sandy affected areas).

She currently holds a volunteer position as the Director of the Queens Division of We Care NY, a 501c3 org that provides support and services to disaster victims in areas and times of need. At We Care NY, Ms. Bernowitz is in charge of their relief effort in Queens; which includes but is not limited to transporting supplies, maintaining a hotline for both donors and families in need, attending and participating in community recovery groups; as well as planning and hosting community events to bring services to the people.

We Care New York, Inc. Volunteer Board Members

We Care New York, Advisory Board

Tom Neve

In 1992 Thomas Neve began the Reaching-Out Volunteer which started as a homeless mobile outreach. This van was equipped with a stove for hot meals, along with health-aids, blankets, clothing, and other items for the men and women that lived in the streets. One year later, Tom decided to start a community food pantry for the struggling low income families, and a small storefront was rented for the need of the new pantry. As several years passed, Thomas Neve was not able to accommodate the increase of low income individuals and families that came to the program for help, and had to relocate to a larger facility to meet the demands.

Throughout the seventeen years, Tom had held a full time job with the City of New York. He was able to run the program with the help of volunteers, and after his daily work schedule he was able to help with the program's daily activity and responsibilities. In 2008, the RCS program had once again relocated to a much larger place to meet the never ending increase of low income people who would need to depend on the program for food relief and other social services it provides.

At present the time the RCS program is serving over 4,800 families and is providing various programs such as Food Stamps, Nutritional Workshops, Tax Assistance, Summer Tutoring Classes, and other Social Services to those in need. Mission: Reaching-Out Community Services leads the effort to eliminate hunger in our community by providing food, social services and programs that inspire self-reliance and community empowerment in a dignified manner. Visit RCS website to find out more or help them directly.