Mitzvah Project Ideas

Description of Organization:
VISIONS/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired operates a recreation and rehabilitation site, Vacation Camp for the Blind (VCB), in Rockland County, New York, just 35 miles north of New York City. Each year, the camp serves a diverse population of over 600 people of all ages who are blind or visually impaired. VISIONS offers programs for independent adults, blind children and their families, and adults with additional physical and developmental disabilities. Program activities are specially adapted to meet the needs of the visually impaired population and include swimming, boating, arts and crafts, nature walks, outdoor and indoor sports, adapted computers, Braille lessons, orientation and mobility, rehabilitation training, educational programs and discussions, drama, music and dance.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Collecting wishlist items The child celebrating his/her Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebration could request all guests to bring one or more of the items listed on our wishlist. It could be described as a scavenger hunt for Vacation Camp for the Blind (VCB). The children could be challenged to see who brings the most items. Donations can be dropped off at our NYC office or mailed to VCB - should be stamped "Free Matter for the Blind" in order to be eligible for free postage costs.

Description of Organization:
The Volunteer Center of United Way, a nonprofit organization, has been the Center for volunteerism in Westchester and Putnam since 1949 and is part of a network of volunteer centers across the United States.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Go to www.volunteer-center.org for many volunteer opportunities for children under 18.

Description of Organization:
To provide a meeting space along with material, organizational and moral support for groups and individuals in the greater Westchester Community to organize, educate and work toward peace, justice and a sustainable environment for the planet and for all people.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Our environmental committee can work with youth on various projects: helping to discourage the use of plastic bags, encouraging energy conservation and so forth.

Description of Organization:

WJR is the foremost arm of British Jewry's charitable giving. It works with communities throughout the world, Jewish and non-Jewish, providing them with support across a number of areas ranging from long term welfare assistance to shorter term disaster relief, from general education to specific Jewish renewal. Principle areas of operation are the FSU, particularly Ukraine, and Africa, particularly Rwanda, Sudan and South Africa.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Join hands with a Jewish child in need. Twin your Bar or Bat Mitzvah and change a life today. Are you excited for your special day? Can't wait for the day you come of age? Many children are not as excited as you. They won't be celebrating with a party for all their friends and relatives; they won't have a new outfit to wear, or Jewish books to study from, or get any presents. You can make a wonderful decision today that will affect someone your own age but living a very different life from you. You can give them a gift no one else can, something they will remember for the rest of their lives. Twin your Bar/Bat Mitzvah today and give them a special day all of their own. By twinning, you and your family will be supporting your twin's education for the year, as well as providing food and clothes, Jewish books and a celebratory party they will never forget. Share your special day, join hands and make a difference to a Jewish child in need.

Description of Organization:
Established in Tsarist Russia in 1880 to provide craft and agricultural training for impoverished Jews in the Pale of Settlement, World ORT today is a global organization reaching over 250,000 people. It delivers up-to-date education, skills-based training, and educational resources to tens of thousands of students, young and old, in 60 countries, irrespective of their religious or ethnic background.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Missile attacks are a constant threat for students in schools in Shaar HaNegev and Hof Ashkelon, which are located two kilometers from the Gaza border. Forty percent of students live below poverty line. Many care for their younger siblings because parents are unable to provide adequate attention. Despite every day hardships, the students try to engage with their Palestinian peers in peace dialogues; they strive to perform well in school to have better prospects in life through education; and they don't lose their spirits, regularly participating in extracurricular activities like soccer, painting, or horseback riding. Your donation can give a student at the Gaza border a voucher for things he or she needs most – eye glasses, calculators, sports shoes, books, or drawing supplies – to provide basic items to help succeed in school and to take their minds away from everyday hardships.

Description of Organization:
Yachad/NJCD is dedicated to addressing the needs of all individuals with disabilities and including them in the Jewish community. Our membership is divided into three groups: Junior Yachad (8 to 15 years of age) Senior Yachad (16 - 25 years or age) Rayim Yachad (26 years of age and above) Yachad members participate in several inclusive activities per month. There are Yachad Chapters located throughout the United States and Canada. Yachad activities provide our members with opportunities for personal growth and enriched lives. The 'inclusive design' gives our special population their rightful place within the Jewish community, while helping to educate our community about our members' abilities and strengths.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Description of Organization:
Yad Ezra V'Shulamit is a tzedakah organization that provides 2,500 food baskets every week for impoverished families all over Israel. We also operate 11 Children's Afternoon Enrichment Programs where children receive a hot lunch, help with homework, educational and psychological testing with needed therapies and fun programs. We also distribute coats, blankets and heaters in the winter, and direct monetary assistance for those in dire straits.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Description of Organization:
Yad LaKashish (Lifeline for the Old) is a non-profit organization that offers Jerusalem's needy elderly and disabled residents the opportunity to remain an integral part of society. Maimonides teaches that it is far better to give someone a way to earn his or her daily bread than to simply hand it out. Our
mission is to translate this philosophy into reality. Five mornings a week, nearly 300 elderly and disabled people (mostly immigrants) come to Yad LaKashish, where they work in a variety of handicraft workshops, including bookbinding, ceramics, needlework, hand-made paper,silk-painting, and metalwork. The work is adapted to the capacities of each person, emphasizing acceptance of individuals, regardless of their limitations. In return for their work, participants receive a stipend,a free monthly bus pass, a daily full-course hot meal, dental subsidies, eyeglasses allowances, hearing-aid subsidies, a thrift shop, and monetary gifts for the holidays. All of the high-quality craft and Judaica items created in the workshops are sold in our gift shop. The sale of an item serves two functions at Yad LaKashish: to earn revenue that will go directly into our program, and to provide our artisans with income and a sense of pride for their work.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
How can you get involved?
-Volunteer with Yad LaKashish on your next trip to Israel.
-Teach the message of "helping others to help themselves" in your classroom. Yad
Lakashish will send you a DVD to show your class and provide you with important discussion points and lesson plans to help you share their message. Invite someone who has visited Yad LaKashish (parent, rabbi or congregant) and have them speak about their experience. Teachers can focus on great accomplishments made by different elderly people (there are many examples of this in religious texts) or create a station
rotation activity designed to simulate in class what it is like to be elderly and disabled.
-Encourage your synagogue gift shop to sell items made by the elderly and disabled artisans at Yad LaKashish.

For your Bar/Bat Mitzvah...choose Yad LaKashish as your theme!
(1) Start by selecting
custom-made invitations and place cards designed and created by the elderly in our workshops. Include a letter for your guests explaining Yad LaKashish's "Tzedakah in Action" message. (2) Organize a fair at your synagogue to sell craft and Judaica items created at Yad LaKashish.
(3)Hold a garage sale in your neighborhood to raise money for the work being done at Yad LaKashish.
(4) You can also encourage your guests to make a donation to Yad LaKashish in honor of your celebration, or consider donating a portion of your gift money.
(5) Centerpieces,kippot, invitations, and napkin rings can be custom-made by our elderly artisans for your event (as well as hamsas, key chains, bookmarks, and other small gifts for your guests). Consider using beautiful hand-crafted jewelry, hand-painted silk scarves, knitted purses or other items as dance prizes.
(6) You can order your Bar/Bat Mitzvah talit to be handmade by the artisans at Yad LaKashish.
(7) In the past, many students have talked about the mitzvah of respect and dignity for the elderly in their dvar torah. Literature about the organization can be distributed to guests, and a short video about Yad LaKashish can be shown. (8) As a culmination of your experience, come visit Yad LaKashish's workshops in Jerusalem and meet the elderly artisans with your friends or family!

Description of Organization:
Yad Sarah is Israel’s predominant volunteer-staffed organization, providing a vital array of compassionate health and home care services for people of all ages. Yad Sarah’s free services are delivered by over 6,000 volunteers in more than 100 branches, and bring hope and help to the frail elderly, the homebound, victims of terror attacks, and children with special needs.

Though best known for lending durable medical and rehabilitative equipment such as wheelchairs, crutches and oxygen machines, Yad Sarah volunteers drive the injured to medical appointments, help adults and children recover and restore independent functioning in our Day Rehabilitation centers, provide in-home geriatric dental care, and advocate for victims of elder abuse. More than 380,000 people received help last year.

As Yad Sarah receives no government assistance, volunteers helping Yad Sarah use every donation right where it is needed now, service.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
(1) Tour Yad Sarah House in Jerusalem, including Yad Sarah’s unique Play Center for Special Needs Children, Toy Library, and the Day Rehabilitation Center.
(2) View a brief video and learn how Yad Sarah’s 6,000 volunteers have helped more than 380,000 people in Israel last year.
(3) Assemble a walker: Volunteers at Yad Sarah’s Lending Service distribute walkers to the frail and the injured.
(4) Sponsor a child and his/her family for a year in Yad Sarah’s Play Center. Enable children with special needs to learn and play in a safe environment and to visit Yad Sarah’s unique Toy Library.
(5) Design and create holiday or birthday cards for homebound older adults in Israel through Yad Sarah’s 15 Homebound Projects Centers. You choose the region in Israel for Yad Sarah volunteers to share your cards!
(6) Adopt a client in the Day Rehabilitation Center. Help children and adults learn to be independent once again.
(7) Bring support and comfort to an isolated older person with the installation of an emergency alarm system.
(8) Organize an equipment drive in your community and collect used wheelchairs, walkers and other items for use in Israel.
(9) Dedicate a wheelchair, walker or an oxygen machine. Invest in medical equipment to help children (and families) such as infant scales, baby car seats, lower arm crutches and reclining bath chairs. Volunteers will lend this equipment, your gift can reach people in Israel over and over!

Description of Organization:
Yaldeinu (Our Children) is an international charitable organization dedicated to preserving the traditions and ideals of Judaism by providing formal and informal education to a myriad of Jewish children in various parts of the world. Yaldeinu's activities are divided into two categories: Jewish day school education and Jewish camping. Scholarships are granted to underprivileged children in conjunction with the most reputable Jewish educational institutions in such parts of the world as the Former Soviet Union, Latin America and North Africa. These scholarships are distributed to children whose parents cannot afford day school tuition in their countries of residence. Yaldeinu's camping program generates lifelong memories by sponsoring children from foreign countries to participate in Zionist summer camps. Through our partnerships with the various camps, Yaldeinu funds child delegations, from specifically targeted cities, immersing them in specially-created camp sessions complete with integration programming. Yaldeinu's camping program seeks out communities with tiny Jewish populations where day schools do not exist because it is these communities who are most at risk of assimilation. Examples of such communities are those of Sub-Saharan Africa and some parts of Latin America.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Projects: "A unique B'nai Mitzvah giving opportunity" How about using your Bar or Bat Mitzvah gifts to realize your first true mitzvah as a Jewish Adult? Through Yaldeinu's B'nai Mitvah Mifgash Program you can! The program will allow you to send someone your age, in a developing country to Jewish day school, or to bring him/her to Canada or the US to attend your summer camp this summer! You can also sponsor the campership of an Israeli victim of terrorism at overnight camp this Summer! Even make a connection and forge a relationship with a Jewish kid your own age though Yaldeinu's pen pal program.

Description of Organization:
Every donation goes straight to the soldiers. They have programs for combat soldiers, which include visiting their bases and determining needs. They donate a tremendous amount of winter clothing, small appliances, and work closely with the commanders to ascertain the voids. Lone soldiers, and injured soldiers are also a top priority of Yashar Lachayal with numerous projects going on simultaneously.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Projects can include adopting a unit of soldiers and working together to fill a certain need.

Description of Organization:
YCP is the largest food pantry and soup kitchen in the city. They serve breakfast Monday through Friday and dinner on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, serving about 300 people per meal. They also serve over 1200 families through their food pantry each week.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Monday volunteers can come in to help clean the pantry. Tuesday is their stocking day and volunteers can come and help restock their pantry shelves. Thursday and Friday are their pantry distribution days and volunteers are needed to pack and distribute pantry bags. Monday, Wednesday and Friday volunteers can come from 2-6:30 to help prepare and serve dinner. Times vary by day. Call to schedule a time to volunteer.

• CHECK US OUT ON:
• Face Book
• Twitter
• Linked In
• Change.org
• You Tube
• Blogger