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J-Serve
2007 Projects
Please fill out the following form
to get more information about J-Serve 2007 projects near you.
2007
Projects Listings
Arizona
Phoenix
Jayme David; Raphael Landesman
Jdavid@jewishphoenix.org; rlandesman@aztorah.com
The Phoenix J-Serve group is planning a carnival for Jewish children
and young adults with special needs. They will work very closely
with the Council for Jews with Special Needs in planning this
event. Approximately 100 participants with special needs will
attend and 200 Jewish teenagers will volunteer on the day of the
event. The carnival will include games, face painting, arts and
crafts, obstacle courses, and other booths similar to those found
at a Purim carnival. The event will accomplish a number of goals:
it will provide a wonderful experience for the children and young
adults with special needs and will provide an opportunity for
the typical Jewish teens to interact and become more comfortable
in the presence of the children and young adults with special
needs.
California
Los Angeles
Shauna Naghi, The One Nation project
Shaunaghi@yahoo.com
The Los Angeles service learning project will revolve around
hunger and hunger prevention. Teens will be provided with the
option of volunteering at one of two food banks in the morning.
Before they start, a food bank employee will gives a brief introduction
to what food banks are, how they work, and what they do. After
the service project is completed, everyone will return to the
starting location for a hunger banquet which will give the participants
a more tangible idea of hunger issues in the Jewish community.
Additional information on what can be done after J-Serve to help
the hungry in the Jewish community in Los Angeles and Israel will
be distributed. .
San Diego
Mickie Targum; Stav Cohen mickie@ajesd.org; stavc@lfjcc.com
The Jewish Teen Leaders Fellowship in San Diego is planning their
service learning project for J-Serve 2007. The students have plans
for a number of programs, specifically, to assemble wheelchairs
for disable individuals in under-developed countries; gather food
to bring to low-income military service men, women and their families;
and bring Israel awareness and cheer to the Jewish elderly in
San Diego.
Colorado
Denver
David Adelstein
marty@zimconsulting.net; rmrbbyo.org;
Formal Title: 2007 Mitzvahpalooza
Program explanation:
Approximately 200 teens in and around the metropolitan Denver
area will engage in a day of community service on Sunday, April
22, 2007. The teens will be involved in hand-on service projects
at local area non-profits in the morning and then will reconvene
for an inspirational luncheon/keynote address by a young adult
who is making a difference in helping the world by using his Jewish
values. This keynote will be followed by breakout sessions at
which the teens will develop individualized and personal plans
on ways that they can each make a difference in their community
and the world. The teens will be guided by many of the top Jewish
educators in Denver, and the program will include representation
from every movement and type of Jew, from unaffiliated to Orthodox.
Connecticut
Stamford
Kari Pollack,
kpollack@stamfordjcc.org
The Stamford J-Serve project will offer Jewish teens the opportunity
to provide a needed direct service in a number of fields. Teens
will begin the day at the JCC with an interactive program led
by our Jewish educator, Robert Abrams, on the Jewish tradition
of volunteerism. The teens will then be provided with the opportunity
to choose which service project they want to attend. Project include:
arts & crafts projects and games with the children residing
at St. Luke’s Lifework’s family shelter; teaching seniors how
to navigate the internet at Fairfield Jewish Home for the Elderly;
leading and organizing BINGO games with the residents and their
families at Liberation House/Liberation Programs, a residence
for those recovering from substance abuse; collecting litter and
trash at local parks; organizing food donations and stocking shelves
at the Stamford Food Bank and at a kosher food bank at Jewish
Family Services and more. The project will be a collaborative
effort of the 11 Jewish organizations comprising the Teen Professional
Council of Stamford and Greenwich, CT.
District of Columbia
Washington, D.C.
Maggie Shapiro; Meredith Gettys
maggie.shapiro@shalomdc.org; meredithg@jccnv.org
The Washington DC Jewish Teen Leaders Fellowship, a teen led
committee, will be working with Behrend Builders and the DC Public
School system for their J-Serve 2007 service learning project.
Behrend Builders is a volunteer program that works to repair,
renovate and rebuild Washington D.C. Volunteers will be working
to rehabilitate a playground at a D.C. school in need. In addition,
volunteers will conduct various other renovation projects as the
school requires. The goal is to improve an educational facility
for children, thereby enhancing their learning experience. The
entire group will work together at one site to empower each other
to achieve this goal. The lasting impact on this school and the
surrounding community will be highly beneficial and much appreciated.
The teens will connect with part of Washington D.C.’s underprivileged
community and will make a lasting contribution to the school and
its environment.
Florida
Miami
Alyson Adler; Noah Lang
alsyn1@aol.com; noachl@hotmail.com
Louisiana
New Orleans
Gail Chalew
chalewzim@bellsouth.net
Official Title: J-Serve 2007: Livnot New Orleans
The breaching of the levees by Hurricane Katrina on August 29,
2005 set off a chain reaction of events that turned upside down
the lives of every New Orleans Jewish teen. J-Serve 2007 Livnot
New Orleans will give Jewish teens an opportunity not only to
connect with each other but also participate in a meaningful way
in the rebuilding of their community. The teens will work in partnership
with the Broadmoor Improvement Association (BIA), which has received
national attention for its energetic planning efforts in restoring
its community that was flooded by four to eight feet of water.
The teens will do a landscaping/beautification project at Broadmoor's
Rosa Keller Library, which BIA envisages will serve as a neighborhood
community center. They will also participate in home gutting and
renovation. This work will be the beginning of a long-term partnership
between the Jewish teen community and the BIA.
Maryland
Baltimore
Rachel Wisdom
rwisdom@associated.org
Baltimore’s service learning project will be a collaborative
effort between Jewish Volunteer Connection, the JCC of Greater
Baltimore, and Beth El Congregation. The majority of the projects
will take place in Baltimore’s Reservoir Hill neighborhood, a
diverse neighborhood that has recently begun significant revitalization,
due to the strength of its neighborhood association. Service projects
will include the removal of garbage from abandoned lots, creation
of community gardens, and construction of green spaces for the
community, thereby helping to beautify the area while also converting
abandoned and often dangerous lots into beautiful and useful neighborhood
assets. The work that volunteers and neighbors will accomplish
by working together will create tangible benefits for the neighborhood
and, once the service projects are completed, the neighbors will
be able to sustain and build upon the work that was done for the
benefit of the whole community. The development of community gardens
and parks will also encourage community building among the diverse
residents of Reservoir Hill.
Michigan
Detroit/Ann-Arbor
Emily Wein; Brooke Lieberman
Official Title: Jserve 2007::Friendship Park
Jserve teens will build an outdoor sensory park for the special
needs children that go to the Friendship Circle, in West Bloomfield,
MI. A swing set will allow participants to engage in healthy and
fun activities. It will also build trust building between the
teen volunteers and the children with special needs. A garden
will be a full sensory tool that can be used during the warmer
months, and a bird watching and feeding tower to attract sound.
New York
Westchester, NY
Barry Salter; Abbe Marcus; Debby Smith
barrys@bjeny.org; MarcusA@bjeny.org; SmithD@bjeny.org
Official Title: GREENING WESTCHESTER—ONE MITZVAH AT A TIME
In a countywide effort under the umbrella of the Board of Jewish
Education of Greater New York’s Westchester Center, local youth
groups are working together on an environmentally focused J-Serve
project for the National Day of Jewish Youth Service (Sunday,
April 22). Participants include: B’nai B’rith Youth Organization
Westchester Region, J-Teen of UJA-Federation of New York – Westchester,
Rosenthal JCC, JCC of Mid-Westchester, USY METNY Koach Division,
and the Tikkun Olam Corps of Westchester Jewish Community Services.
A cadre of involved Jewish teens from these organizations is
serving as a leadership team, actively guiding every phase of
the planning and assuming responsibility for many aspects of the
project’s implementation. BJE staff together with youth group
leaders are supporting the teens and providing them with educational
resources and logistical backing. Called “Greening Westchester—One
Mitzvah at a Time,” the initiative seeks to provide teens with
an opportunity to take action against environmental problems confronting
our world; highlight the connections between Judaism and environmental
consciousness; and inspire affiliated and unaffiliated Jewish
teens to get involved.
On Saturday, April 14, J-Serve teen leaders have planned a motivational
night to raise awareness among their peers on the dangers of Global
Warming. To be held at the JCC of Mid-Westchester, the program
will consist of a havdallah service; the screening of the movie
“An Inconvenient Truth,” that deals directly with this issue;
and a teen-led panel discussing environmental issues and Judaism.
This night will help prepare and encourage maximum participation
for the Sunday, April 22nd environmentally-focused J-Serve Day,
when an estimated 150 teens will come together for a day of clean
up and planting in Croton Park along the Hudson River.
Ohio
Cleveland
Jason Stone; Elyse Willen
jstone@ttti.org; edwillen@adelphia.net
Cleveland’s service learning project will be organized by the
Jewish Teen Leaders Fellowship in the area. Everyone will begin
the day at the JCC with a short introduction for the day and an
opening mention of some text and ideas that we would like the
participants to think about throughout the day. Service activities
will start with a fundraising car wash for an organization in
Israel and letter writing to Israeli soldiers. The letter writing
and car wash will demonstrate and encourage support for Israel,
as well as bring the teens together. Although the car wash, letter
writing, and other service activities will continue all day long
at the JCC, some of the participants will be bussed to our downtown
location after about an hour at the JCC. At the downtown location,
we will be cleaning up a park as well as feeding and interacting
with the homeless in our city. We envision our day of physical
and emotional enlightenment to conclude at The Temple-Tifereth
Israel with a small thank you reception, reflection discussion,
and community-wide Yom HaShoa service and memorial ceremony.
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia,
Jennifer Arney; Samantha Papurt;
phillyaza32@aol.com; spapurt@jrf.org
Philadelphia’s service learning project will focus on the issue
of hunger and poverty. They will address the issue by having groups
of teens do one of several service projects: volunteering at a
soup kitchen, physically cleaning up an impoverished area, lobbying
to raise the poverty line through a letter writing campaign, visiting
the underprivileged elderly, and interacting with underprivileged
children. They want to empower people to help themselves. Community
members living in these poverty-stricken areas will be included
and invited to work beside them and hopefully inspire them to
continue helping themselves, which will ultimately result in continuous
improvement of these areas. After the participants complete their
service projects, everyone will join together again for experiential
and engaging reflection through a Jewish lens.
Pittsburgh
Lauren Mendelson
ruby2lm@verizon.net
Official Title: J-serve Pittsburgh: Yad byad (Hand in hand)
More than 200 Jewish teens in the Pittsburgh area will gather
at the Jewish Community Center on April 22, 2007 to donate their
time to those less fortunate. The teens will discuss the importance
of community service with local politicians and relate their service
to their Jewish values in small teen-led groups. The volunteers
will then be bussed from the JCC to a school in an at-risk community
where they will plant, mentor, paint, clean, tutor, and more.
The day will wrap up with an end-of-the-day party at the JCC which
will include music, slideshows, and refreshments.
Texas
Houston
Robin Sheldon; Lewis Sohinki;
rsheldon@bethyeshurun.org; lsohinki@jcchouston.org
Houston’s service learning project will be organized by the participants
in the Jewish Teen Leaders Fellowship. The day will begin at the
JCC Merfish Teen Center with an introductory program to J-Serve
and the day’s activities. Teens will be sent to volunteer with
different organizations around the city (specifics to be decided).
Teens will return to the JCC for a reflection program, BBQ and
social event to end the day.
San Antonio
Rachel Rustin, Coordinator of Youth and Family Services
rustinr@jcc-sa.org
The San Antonio Jewish community’s service-learning project will
pair local Jewish teens with participants from our Inclusion Program
and from the Association of Retarded Citizens of San Antonio (ARC)
for a day of learning and service. Jewish teens will be converging
on the San Antonio Jewish Community Center on April 22 for the
city’s first J-Serve. They will spend the afternoon volunteering
with participants from the Association for Retarded Citizens –
San Antonio at sites such as the San Antonio Food Bank. With participants
from all of the city’s youth groups, the day promises to be rewarding
for both the participants and the community.
Washington
Seattle
Matt Lemchen; Tzachi Litov
mattl@egrbbyo.org; tzachi@h-nt.org
The Seattle Jewish Teen Leaders Fellowship is planning their
J-Serve project to work with different shelters and clinics that
serve the homeless in the greater Seattle area to help make a
significant difference in the lives of a broad range of homeless
individuals and families. Participants will be divided into 6-8
groups and will be transported by bus to individual sites throughout
the greater Seattle area. Service sites are yet to be confirmed,
but will likely include: the 45th Street Clinic, Gospel Union
Mission, Jewish Family Services, Kirkland Teen Center, Boom Town
Café, and Tree House. The teens will be educated about
the work of these organizations and will have the chance to participate
and volunteer at the site. Each participant will receive contact
information for the service site they attended, to allow them
the chance to pursue further involvement.
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