MISSION

Community Service Center of Greater Williamsburg (CSCGW), a 501 C 3 non profit organization, provides consultation and advocacy to people who are entitled to, or who may benefit from federal and state safety net programs. We are particularly focused on helping people attain services such as Medicaid, Medicare, Food Stamps and Social Security and mending the gaps for those who would otherwise lose out in these vital programs. We strive to make these systems accessible, understandable and manageable to all.

Therefore, CSCGW has carefully weaved its web to coordinate with a variety of local advocacy groups that will enable all community members and situations to be serviced. We offer assistance in English, Yiddish and Spanish and extend ourselves beyond the South Williamsburg borders to Bedford Stuyvesant, Clinton Hill and Borough Park.

Staying well informed and up to date with federal and state benefits and entitlements is critical to our advocacy efforts. We are active participants in citywide task-force and advocacy groups that address Medicare, Medicaid for the Disabled, Aged and Blind (DAB),and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP). We are deputized and certified agents in these programs.

In addition, CSCGW maintains close dialogue with leading organizations and key figures who protect these vital programs. In this way, CSCGW is the 'local voice' that goes full circle from the people to their lawmakers and back to the people.

BACKGROUND AND ABOUT

Community Service Center of Greater Williamsburg located at 378 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11205 began as a grassroots public-benefit advocacy group in early 2012. Our services were sought after by community members of Hassidic South Williamsburg who recognized our staff's expertise in the major federal and state benefit programs of Medicaid, Medicare, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formally Food Stamps) and Social Security. With early success in the reopening of roughly two hundred local food stamp cases which had been wrongly closed or deferred, community members soon called upon our expertise beyond advocacy to services including health care navigation, assistance and enrollment; retirement planning and social security; and health plan options for the elderly and disabled.

CSCGW’s staff members have been providing social services to the Hassidic Community of Greater Williamsburg for more than fifteen years and are well versed in social benefit and entitlement programs. We have an excellent record of providing these services to people who had previously fallen through the cracks and not received many of these entitlements and benefits that were available to them.

Today, with the many changes in the Health Care Reform we are seeing a sharp increase in the numbers of people seeking our knowledge and assistance in this area, specifically. In response, our staff has prioritized helping people attain health benefits they are newly entitled to. We have become deputized as Medicare agents as well as certified Medicaid Assistance Program (MAP) personnel for the disabled, aged and blind (DAB). Additionally, CSCGW quickly gained recognition as a Human Resource Administration(HRA)partner for SNAP enrollment through the paperless office system (POS).

Demand for our services has quickly exceeded our group's initial size. We work with several local key agencies to that include: RCCS, MEKIMI, BINA, and  REYIM. These agencies provide first step assistance for critically sick clients, Developmentally Disabled kids and adults and the Elderly. CSCGW steps in where these agencies leave off such as obtaining waivers for straight Medicaid, hospital charity care (financial assistance) and third part premium payments.

Most recently, we have  branched out to to offer Navigator assistance for individuals and businesses (SHOP) in the upcoming Health Benefit Exchange which will be in full operation by 2014.