By, Rosa Doherty
2 min read
ByRosa Doherty, Rosa Doherty
Yvonne Josse hopes to let more people in on the "the community's best kept secret" as the new president of volunteer organisation the League of Jewish Women.
Founded in 1943 to aid the war effort, the league at one time boasted 6,000 members volunteering within the Jewish and wider community - for example, in hospitals, hospices and prisons.
Today it can call on 2,000 women. But the age profile is high and attracting younger members is challenging.
"I think because we don't fundraise, we don't have a huge profile like the other charities in the community," Mrs Josse, 66, reflected. "But we make just as much of a difference.
"We have been working with a charity called Paperweight, which helps widowed people with the household paperwork that the deceased partner normally dealt with.
"Another project we started recently is Helping Hand, which sees our members visit residents of care homes or hospices to give them a hand massage. It sounds simple but they love it - and so do the volunteers."
League members are also involved in a Norwood scheme offering mums with twins or triplets an opportunity to get together to discuss shared issues while their children are looked after.
The north Londoner has been a league member for 24 years, joining soon after marriage. "My mother and grandmother were part of a club started by the league and both dedicated their lives to volunteering.
"It seemed quite a natural path. My mother did meals on wheels in the East End of London and it was a tradition we all grew up with."
But now the "ethos I grew up with is not so common because the role of women in the family has changed", Mrs Josse added, saying she hoped the league could reach out to career-minded modern woman.
"These days women work and have a family and don't have huge amounts of time.
"So we need to come up with short, sharp projects that wouldn't demand too much of anyone's time.
"One of the things I want to do in the next three years is get younger women to know about the LJW. And to feel like they can join us."
Mrs Josse - who worked as a PA for TV and publishing companies - said that one initiative had been a group doing voluntary work online, utilising professional skills to help a variety of organisations. She hoped that by providing more flexible opportunities for younger members, they would become more involved as they got older.
There were even LJW activities for men. "We have a lads' division and they get signed up whether they like it or not by their wives, girlfriends or mothers.
"Over the years, they have traditionally done the driving and schlepping about."
She also stressed social elements such as LeagueArtz, which arranges visits to exhibitions, plays and concerts.
"Recently we took a group of members to the Vogue exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and they loved it.
"Many members have lost their partners, or their children are far away, so it also helps to combat loneliness."
And when women were no longer able to volunteer, it was not a case of thank you and goodbye.
"We say 'we want to give something back to you because you've given to the community', so it is very much an ongoing thing."