Sign up to volunteer at FABfest, a month-long three-block street festival in Fort Greene featuring fashion shows, reggae and gospel concerts, chef demonstrations, activities for kids, dance parties, author readings, community mural painting, and a tribute to Michael Jackson.

FAB Alliance is hosting this free outdoor festival every Sunday in June from noon to 6:00 p.m. on Fulton Street between Lafayette Avenue and South Oxford Street. Headlining artists include Victor LaValle, Urban Word Poets, DJ Reborn, Jahdan Blakkamore, Geka Jones, and Matt Shadetek of Dutty Artz. We hope to see you there!

Earlier this month volunteers from Fidelity Investments led a Community Design Day at M.S. 354 K in Crown Heights. They worked with students and school administrators to identify pressing concerns and brainstorm on how to transform the school to best meet their needs. We can’t wait to see what they come up with!

New York Cares is partnering with the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged (JASA) for a free conference and volunteer fair for adults ages 50+ on June 16.

Volunteers: Meet representatives from dozens of New York City nonprofits looking for people like you as well as other civically engaged New Yorkers. Learn more.

Organizations: Register for a table at the expo by Friday, May 28, for a discounted fee of $25. The normal fee before the June 9 deadline is $30. Learn more.

Every Friday evening you’ll find a small group of New York Cares volunteers serving dinner at Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) in Chelsea. We appreciate their dedication, and so does GMHC, who recently named them Volunteers of the Month. Special thanks to Team Leader Adriana Kalapodas, Program Manager Chantal Emmanuel, Jabari Dozier, Natannia Cart, Carol Hutter, and Elisabeth Bonilla for accepting the honor.

New York City is home to one of the most diverse populations in the world. Our English conversation and citizenship projects help thousands of immigrants learn English and integrate into American life each year.

Here’s what keeps one volunteer coming back to English Conversation Partners each week, but you should really find out for yourself what a fun project it is:

“My first group became fast friends, and I know they increased their knowledge of both the English language and our American culture. I’ve been unemployed since December 2008, and I cannot tell you what a difference volunteering has made.

Besides giving me something else to focus on, meeting the diversity of people in our city has reminded me why I chose to live here to begin with.” — Kelly Keating

This tax season was our most successful yet: our free Tax Preparation program returned a whopping $16.5 million to low-income New Yorkers!

Let’s give a round of applause to the 225 volunteers who worked tirelessly from January through April to assist with approximately 9,400 tax returns. Check out photos of volunteers in action.

The program grows each year, so we’ll need everyone’s help to make an even bigger impact in 2011. Contact tax.prep@newyorkcares.org to find out how you can get involved.

The weather forecast couldn’t be better for outdoor projects this weekend. Catch some sun and unwind from the work week on a gardening or painting project in special need of volunteers:

• Garden at Added Value Farms (Brooklyn)
• Spruce Up New Vision Garden (Brooklyn)
• Paint a Fence at Horseshoe Playground (Bronx)
• Paint at Safe Horizon (Queens)

Groove With Me is celebrating the end of the spring semester with a dance recital performed by their girls – this time at the Apollo Theatre!

Can you assist these young dancers at recitals on May 15 and June 5? We need female volunteers with solid chaperoning, mentoring, or teaching experience. Contact Rachel Turnowski for more info.

Earlier this week we held a breakfast for our project partners to explore new ways of working with New York Cares. Everyone who attended was eager to start new projects at their organization.

One of the easiest ways we can offer more volunteer opportunities is to expand our programming at each partner agency. It’s a win-win situation for volunteers looking to make a difference and the people that need their help.

That’s why we created a new position to facilitate this kind of growth and offer new resources for our partners. Contact John Jerger, Partner Agency Relations Manager, with any questions about partnership opportunities.

We’re launching a new service program for teens who want to get out into the community and make a difference this summer.

Members will meet up twice a week to learn about social issues affecting New York City and then roll up their sleeves and head into the five boroughs to deal with them. Learn more about how to get involved and apply, and spread the word to any teens you know.