J.Team
The Jewish Youth Philanthropy Program, or J.Team is comprised of teens from 9th - 12th grade who share a common interest in social action. Meeting monthly over the school year, they will participate in nonprofit site visits and community service projects, while learning about Jewish values of giving.
Finally, J.Team members decide as a group where to donate over $7,000 of community donated funds. The teamwork approach to philanthropic giving makes this program a win-win for our community's teens and nonprofit agencies. The J.Team session begins this fall. Applications for 2010-2011 are currently being accepted until June 30, 2010.
If you have questions or are interested in the 2010 session, please contact Marla Goldberg, Teen Philanthropy Program Manager, at 206 774-2230 or MarlaG@JewishInSeattle.org.
Interested in checking out the experience you could have on J.Team? Take a look at the amazing J.Team YouTube video here.
Download the brochure and application.
J.Team Blog
Maya and Jewish Family Service
I joined J.Team because my mom was helping to create it and I became very interested in the program and all of the interesting things I would learn. This week we discussed Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. We learned what each of the different needs were, and how they are applied to every person of every age. We discussed where each grade level stands on the pyramid, and it was interesting to talk to other sophomores about what we’re stressed about and what we intend to do in the future.
At our visit to Jewish Family Services, we were taken on a tour of the food bank. We learned about all the different people who come to the food bank each month and how much it helps them. We were even lucky enough to see the new food bank, which is still in the works, but will allow shoppers to choose what foods they want rather than give them prepackaged bags. I think that Jewish Family Services is an amazing charity because they offer so many services to a wide range of people. They help struggling families get back on track and they feed thousands of people each month. This organization is truly inspiring.
In my small group, I will be meeting with Northwest Harvest. I am excited and I hope it will be a very interesting visit where I learn a lot.
Madeleine and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
I joined the J-Team because I felt like I was going to have a direct impact on the charity we chose in the end. Sometimes when you donate money to a charity, you never know exactly where your money is going. But with J-Team, you get a satisfaction with meeting real people from these agencies, and knowing in the back of your mind that you could the one to help them with their problems.
This week we talked a lot about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. As a group, we all felt like the needs towards the bottom of the pyramid were things that we could help with immediately, such as food, water, shelter and safety. The higher towards the top were tings that money couldn’t necessarily buy to help someone such as self esteem, family, and respect. Our main example was the earthquake in Haiti.
I learned quite a big from our visit to Jewish Family Services. I didn’t realize how many programs they currently offer and the huge need for them. It really is a great place to go and they seem to make a huge difference in the lives of others.
Sarah’s inspiring thoughts about philanthropy
I joined J.Team because my mom works at The Jewish Federation and told me about it and I became very interested in doing philanthropic things and J.Team was a great way to start out. As a part of every meeting there is a part which incorporates Jewish values, in this meeting we got a long list of values and were told to find the top three that matter the most to us and then were shown how our values could be used to figure out charities that we were more interested in. It was very fascinating to actually figure out what your top three values were from such a huge list, and then to see how you can apply them.
For the meeting we were lucky enough to get a tour around the First Place School which is a "service agency devoted to educating and nurturing children whose families struggle with the risk or reality of homelessness." The First Place School offers education, housing, and support services to help families until they become stable. They do all of this free of charge. When we went to the First Place School , I was truly amazed at how a single place can get all of this done and help so many people without charging money. The First Place School truly inspired me to want to help people in need even more and even made me think of the homeless in a different way than before.
At the end of the session we narrowed a sizable list of charities down to six that we were interested in, although it was a long process, I liked learning about the charities. It made me wonder how with our budget we would be able to help as many charities as we all would like. This was my favorite meeting so far because the First Place School was truly inspiring.
Zoe's Thoughts from J.Team
I joined J.Team because I am interested in gaining more skills to learn how to help improve the lives of those in need. From a young age my parents taught me the importance of Tikkun Olam-Repairing the World. We are obligated to make the world a better place. It starts with us, moves on to our family, our community, and to our whole world. Every human being, no matter what their color, religion, sexual orientation, or nationality deserves to have good health, education, social services for their needs, and a clean living environment.
During our December 13th J.Team session, we talked about values and the importance of using one’s personal values to then assess if his or her values align better with a particular non-profit. Learning about our individual values will greatly help and guide us when we have to pick which non-profits to give grants to at the end of the year. The process of picking my top three values was extremely difficult because there are so many that I live by. In the end, I decided that three of my most guiding values in my life are: 1. Doing righteous acts/charity, 2. Compassion, and 3. Tolerance. The values I picked were not surprising to me because I strongly feel obligated to help others that have not been as fortunate as me. These values all relate to looking outside myself, and finding ways to help others.After leaving the last J.Team session, I have thought about how important it is for everyone to live by and incorporate values when making decisions. By keeping one’s values in mind at all times, it can become easier to make the right decision.I learned quite a bit from the site visit to First Place School. This nonprofit organization seems to make a tremendously positive impact on the homeless children and families they serve.At the end of the J.Team meeting, we narrowed down the nonprofit agency list to finalize the six agencies we will review in order to decide which agencies best meet our criteria. I look forward to the process of assessing the six agencies as well as continue our site visits to nonprofit organizations.
Get connected to the Jewish Community
Featured Event
