Susan Voelker, left, and Susan Meyer, volunteers at 826NYC, show off the fruit of a recent workshop. If you’re into Brooklyn’s literary scene, you’re likely familiar with 826NYC, a tutoring and writing center for kids tucked behind a secret bookcase in the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. Writer and McSweeny’s founder Dave Eggers founded 826 Valencia in San Francisco in 2002 to provide...

Books Through Bars volunteers Jess Ross and Natsumi Paxton at work on a recent Sunday. In a tiny basement room on 4th Ave in Brooklyn, bibliophiles gather to sort and package books to send to prisons all over the country. This is the home of Books Through Bars, a non-profit, volunteer-run organization designed to provide books that incarcerated people can’t get in their limited or nonexistent libraries. Jess...

If you ride a bicycle in the city but can’t afford to bring it to a bike shop for expensive repairs, you’re in luck. Time’s Up! will teach you how to fix your bike yourself. Mechanic Dustin Wade works on a bike at Time's Up!'s Brooklyn space. On March 1 the volunteer-run environmental action group opened a new space at 99 South Sixth St. in Williamsburg. Time’s Up! offers workshops...

Jeri Barksdale with one of her foster grandchildren at Duffield Children's Center Photo: Jim Flood On Friday Jim and I paid a visit to what may be the oldest human services non-profit in the borough: The Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service. It’s been around since 1866, as a response to the devastation of the Civil War. These days, the BBCS assists over 13,000 people per year with the help of over...

Click here for slideshow I walk down Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg frequently, but I’d never ducked into the City Reliquary Museum until last week - something about the window display with pulleys and ropes just sucked me in. When Lulu, the fabulous woman working at the desk, told me what the Museum is all about, I wondered where I’ve BEEN this whole time. Last night, the Museum had a fundraiser...