What helps teens tick AND suceed?

In a new study, sent to me by Stefanie Zelkind from the Jewish Teen Funders Network, we can learn some key findings from a study conducted on 15 year olds about their interests. More important, what we can see is that teens are more engaged and able to polish leadership skills with a strong adult mentor in their lives. The study can be found here:
https://www.at15.com/sites/all/themes/at15_v3/_assets/pdf/TeenVoice2010.pdf

Take a look and let me know what you think... especially you teens!

Welcome to Gail Herson!

Please welcome Gail Herson to the Jewish Youth Tzedakah Foundation as the new program director. Gail has been involved in Jewish education in Dallas for many years and is very pleased to be working on the Foundation. She brings great ideas and enthusiasm to her work and is looking forward to being at the helm.

Please welcome Gail!

2010-2011 Foundation Members Accepted

We are proud to announce the incoming members of the Foundation for the 2010-2011 year, the Foundation's third year. Take a look at the right side of the blog homepage and you will see their names listed. We have 23 eager young people signed up to create the Foundation for the coming year. These teens come from all over the Dallas area, from many different schools and perspectives. This year promises to be fun, interesting, thought-provoking, and of course, good for the Jewish community!

We cannot wait to meet you and get started on the year!

Grants ceremony 2010

If you were able to join us on Tuesday evening, then you know how wonderful this Foundation is and you were certainly impressed by their presentations and the decisions they made together. If you were not able to join us, we had a wonderful program that highlighted the accomplishments of these teens and the impact their decisions will make on our Jewish community. You are likely wondering, 'where did they make their donations?!' I am pleased to announce the following decisions:

Jewish Family Service Food Pantry: $3,000

Dallas Hebrew Free Loan Association (College loan program): $6,000

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) (Asylum cases support): $1,000

All of these donations represent the the time and consideration of the teens, who together reviewed 12 grant requests totalling over $100,000! They made these decisions with great care, and special concern for the people who would be impacted by the funds.

I think that you will agree that with these teens as the rising leaders in our community, we are in for a bright future.

May update

It's been pretty quiet on the blog recently... the Foundation has been hard at work to determine where to allocate their funds. May's meeting was our last for this Foundation group, and it was an interesting process! We started reviewing all of the grant applications just to make sure that we all were clear about the organizations and the grant requests. We then moved on to each person casting an anonymous vote for each grant request. Once we tallied up the first round, the discussions began. Interesting views came to light and each person was given opportunities to weigh in as the process moved forward. The group selected three of the organizations rather early on in the process. I personally thought, 'that did not take as long as i thought it would...' but the group was far from done! As they discussed how to allocate the $10,000 to these three organizations, I was very impressed by their reasoning, the respect they had for each other, and the careful considerations of the individuals who would be impacted by their dollars. It was a genuine display of teens with heart and mind focused on the greater good.

I know you are wondering, 'o.k., so where did they donate the money??' My lips are sealed (as it were) until the answers are revealed at tonight's grants ceremony. If you are planning to attend, I know that you will be impressed and inspired by the work the teens have done this year. I know that you will learn something about giving, the Jewish world, and why we should feel good about these teens assuming positions of leadership in our community.

Stay tuned to learn about where the funds were donated!

Kenny blogs on our April meeting

As we approach the conclusion of this year’s Jewish Youth Tzedakah Organization, we must seriously consider how we plan on benefiting the Jewish community. We could devote all $10,000 in support of one cause, or we could divide the funds in order of each grant requests' importance. This decision is not to be made hastily; because of that, we listened as several organizations presented their pitch on why they deserve this money more than others and how they plan to effectively use it.

First, we heard from Marc Jacobson of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) promoting their anti-poverty campaign. Due to the economic recession, Jews need to come together and focus on helping the poor. Jacobson stated that this we need to give special attention to poverty because of our Jewish ethics and values. The next candidate was Dorothy Wolchansky from the Dallas Hebrew Free Loan Association (DHFLA). This organization funds students in need of money for under-graduate through professional level schooling. The funds are paid back without interest and circulate to the next student in need of a loan. The third representative was Amy Walton from Jewish Family Services (JFS). They promoted their direct interaction with clients. Their contributions are, as they stated, “life-changing” with programs such as their food bank for hungry Jewish families. The final presentation was from Doug Edelson and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). This relief organization aids in the asylum of refugees seeking a better life here in America. Their primary focus is on Yemenite Jews and they are very capable as they have an operating budget of $26 million annually.

What would you do with $10?

O.k., around here we think a lot about $10,000... so let's step back a bit and consider what we might do with $10. Or, we could ask someone who has been giving away $10 a day since December... did i mention he is unemployed? Why is he doing this, what has he learned, and what do the recipients do with the 10 bucks he gives to them?

Check it out: http://yearofgiving.wordpress.com/