EN
APRIL 3 | 2 ניסן
Since 2005, J-Serve has provided teens with a unique opportunity to band together through service as a united global network committed to fulfilling the Jewish values of gemilut chasidim, acts of loving kindness, tzedakah, just and charitable giving, and tikkun olam, the responsibility to repair the world. Every year, Jewish teens worldwide join each other on this special day and throughout the spring to make their community and the world a better place.
J-Serve is a collaborative effort run by BBYO in partnership with Good Deeds Day, Jewish Teen Funders Network, Repair The World, and YSA's Global Youth Service Day. The initiative is generously underwritten by The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, among others.
In an effort to empower a growing number of communities around the world to participate and expand their program efforts, we are excited to announce that community grants are now available for J-Serve 2021! All grant applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. If you have any questions, feel free to email us.
Available Grants for J-Serve 2022 include:
Up to $500 USD
Open to all J-Serve projects engaging 10+ Jewish teens (grades 6-12) in partnership with at least one other local community movement/agency.
Up to $1,800 USD
Open to all J-Serve projects led by new or returning agencies that can demonstrate 2+ established community partnerships and whose programming will reach 100+ Jewish teens (grades 6 - 12)
Up to $2,500 USD
Open to all J-Serve projects led by new or returning agencies that can demonstrate 3+ strong community partnerships and whose programming will reach 200+ Jewish teens (grades 6 - 12).
Just because you're home doesn't mean you can't make a difference. Explore ideas to take your J-Serve projects online this year.
While we may not be able to work together in person, that won’t stop us from supporting the immediate needs of those in our communities, near and far. This year, we have the opportunity to redefine what service looks like, making a direct impact on those issues that affect our communities the most in new and innovative ways. Feel free to use the ideas below as inspiration for a J-Serve project, whether or not you had one previously planned. These can be done in small groups, with your chapter or organization, or as part of a larger community campaign—get creative and have fun!
Education Equity: Tutor students in a subject you love, especially students from under-resourced schools. Reach out to a local school to find out what their needs are, or check out TeensGive.org, where you can get virtually tutor a student from a Title 1 school.
Collect Donation Items: Gather grocery and toiletry supplies for food banks and homeless shelters and arrange for drop-offs or donation pick-up with welfare agencies for local families impacted by closures. Find a local organization to work with or get inspired by the organizations listed here.
Connect with your Local Asian Community: Over the last year, there has been an uptick in anti-Asian sentiment due to myths associated with the Coronavirus. Reach out to your local Asian community to show solidarity, offer support, and build cross-cultural connections.
Fold at Home: Use the power of your computer to help solve infectious diseases by becoming a part fo the Folding@home network.
Get Hyper Local: Find out about community needs by subscribing to Nextdoor—a virtual hub to connect with your neighborhood. Neighbors have been posting about things they need help with, like meal pick-ups, grocery runs, yardwork, and fundraisers for causes they care about.
Go Green at Home: Actually recycle (and know what’s actually recyclable—every community is different), pick up trash when you’re walking through your neighborhood, or use your time at home to begin composting. Order seeds online and plant a garden in your yard or window boxes. Thanks to photosynthesis, even one plant can remove carbon dioxide (which contributes to climate change) from the atmosphere.
Host a Cooking Show: Record yourself cooking/baking your favorite recipes and donate the meal to a neighbor, friend, or community member in need.
Senior Citizen Love: Many senior citizens live alone or independently at nursing homes and retirement communities, and at this time they may not be able to receive visits from family and friends. Offer local senior centers the opportunity to have conference calls and/or video calls to provide some fun, energy, and connection to area residents. You can also do this with individuals who you know who are elderly or immunocompromised and would be up for a virtual visit. This can also be done in the form of email, written letter, or e-card if virtual is not an option.
Support the Sick or Quarantined: Check out this resource from our partners at Repair the World and Amplifier which provides guidance on supporting those who are sick.
Virtual Volunteer Opportunities:
Explore these opportunities via Good Deeds Day, and official partner of J-Serve 2021, that you can do from anywhere!
Points of Light, an organization dedicated to creating the world’s largest volunteer community, also has an extensive guide to volunteering virtually to support a range of causes, from disaster relief to wellness to literacy to veterans’ affairs, and everything in between.
Youth Service America has a round-up of service projects that meet immediate needs during the COVID-19 crisis.
DoSomething has lots of online service projects to choose from—all you need is an internet connection.
You can launch an entire advocacy campaign without ever leaving your couch. Through conversation, persuasion, and education you and your friends can advocate for change on causes that you’re passionate about, whether it’s encouraging legislators to implement a certain policy or educating the public on a certain topic you care about. There’s no better time to stand up for those who need your support.
Connect with your Local Asian Community: Over the last year, there has been an uptick in anti-Asian sentiment due to myths associated with the Coronavirus. Reach out to your local Asian community to show solidarity, offer support, and build cross-cultural connections.
If you’re looking for a good read, and want to learn more about the discrimination Asians have faced, we recommend the novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. There are even discussion questions at the end of the book if you’d like to start a chapter book club.
Get Inspired by Other Teen Advocates: 2019 was the year of the “Youthquake” -- let’s keep that momentum going into 2021. Learn about the journeys of notable young activists from March for Our Lives and the Sunrise Movement.
Letter Writing: Start a letter-writing campaign to elected officials on various issues or causes that you and/or your friends care about.
Run a BBYO Chapter Initiative: BBYO Chapter Initiatives are high-quality plug and play programs that are fun, educational, and help make a difference in the world. Created by our members and inspired by our interests, these programs take on hot topics and teach you how to become an advocate for some of our world’s most pressing issues -- from supporting refugees to Israel advocacy to advocating for people with disabilities.
Take It to Social Media: Launch a social media campaign on a topic that you’d like to raise awareness around. Design catchy graphics with Canva, recruit your friends, and make a plan. For inspiration, check out this PSA, combatting sexual assault and domestic violence from Oakland BBG #2 of Central Region West.
Anyone can raise funds and donate to a cause they care about, but making intentional decisions around what your community needs and what causes your Jewish values lead you to support is what makes philanthropy so powerful. That power is multiplied when we come together as a community, and this year we are this year to support important organizations making a difference around the world right now.
Guiding Questions for Decision Making: Make informed decisions about the issue areas and types of organizations that you’d like to support
Host a Pop-Up Giving Circle: With friends and family, pool money together in order to make collective values-driven donations to organizations that you care about. Download Amplifier Giving’s participant workbook and facilitator’s guide, which walk you through this interactive, 90-minute exercise.
It’s All About ISF: Virtual ISF Fundraising
Pet Party: Host a Video Conference Pet Party with competitive games for teams of teens-and-pets to raise funds for local animal shelters.
Philanthropy Values Chart: Use Jewish values to drive your decision-making
Show Some Love for Lone Soldiers: Lone Soldiers are those serving in the IDF without immediate family in Israel, often those who’ve made Aliyah. You can donate to the Lone Soldier Center, so that they can purchase items Lone Soldiers need, like jackets and toiletries.
Unpacking Philanthropy: Guide your research as you decide what organizations to give to
The Vaccine Appointment Network is a new initiative stewarded by Repair the World—and a featured program model of J-Serve 2021—to scale up efforts to help older adults make appointments to get the COVID-19 Vaccine. Read more about it and sign up your community to participate below.
J-Serve continues to include all forms of meaningful social change. Participating communities—including all grant applicants—are encouraged to explore new opportunities to engage a broader range of local Jewish teens by highlighting the value and impact of philanthropy, advocacy, community organizing, life skills training, and more in connection with/instead of traditional direct service. Potential project ideas open for exploration may include (but are not limited to) hands-on direct service, advocacy trainings, philanthropy events, community organizing rallies, first responder trainings, charity rides/runs/walks, dance marathons, lobbyist trainings and/or outings, and more!
“Since J-Serve is the International Day of Jewish Youth Service, we feel more connected to the projects because we’re all young people ourselves. Through hands-on service projects, we hope to help as much as we can...The best part is we can inspire everyone to continue to serve their communities beyond J-Serve!”
— Rebecca M., Orlando Project Leader
For J-Serve 2020, Jewish teens from 50+ countries and the Jewish Teen Funders Network launched the world's largest Jewish teen giving experience. Together, we fundraised for four organizations that are doing important work in our communities near and far. Be sure to visit our J-Serve 2020 crowdfunding site, powered by Givebutter, for chapters, communities, and teams to band together and raise important funds.
A committee of teens worked together to research and select four organizations that are addressing the spread and impact of COVID-19 near and far. The funds raised were allocated across these four important organizations.
It's never too early to start dreaming bigger and better for J-Serve 2021 and beyond! Review our comprehensive J-Serve Project Planning Toolkit—brought to you in partnership with our friends at Repair the World—to help elevate your program, designed to help translate passions into a project vision that speaks to teen interests, skills, and creativity, and develop a plan to bring big teen service ideas to life by raising awareness about a project, creating a meaningful experience for participants, and keeping in touch with everyone involved.
Broken down into five main sections (Visioning > Planning > Promoting > Hosting > Follow Up) to support you throughout the process of building your J-Serve experience—plus an Appendix w/ handy tables and charts—we hope this resource will serve as a useful reference guide for teen project coordinators and professional staff alike. Dive in, bookmark it, share it with friends... enjoy!
Before you dive into the planning process, be sure to learn what's important to the success of your event. Review the goals and parameters of the initiative you're working toward, and understand key opportunities for innovation to elevate your experience from good to WOW.
What is the purpose of this initiative?
How can you maximize creativity and innovation in working toward stated goals?
How can this effort be layered into your programming calendar to enhance your funnels?
What does success look like for this experience (including metrics tied to program engagement, quality, innovation/risk, etc.)?
How will achieve that success?
Once you clearly understand the task at hand, IDEATE together with teen and staff leadership to build a unique experience that will best serve your community's needs within the context of the initiative. Do a community mapping exercise, clarify key responsibilities, and establish ambitious (and attainable!) goals.
What are the unique opportunities (and challenges) afforded by your community - including people, places, experiences, etc. - and how can you take full advantage of them to elevate your event?
What responsibilities are key to the success of this experience, and how will you divide the work (among specific teens and staff) to define expectations and share the load, while also leveraging individual skills?
Set SMART Goals
What specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals will enable you achieve your stated objectives to maximize success?
With a clear vision to guide you, take time to STRATEGIZE everything you'll need to enable success. Solidify basic logistics, design your program budget, seek out partnerships, outline a clear marketing strategy and swag, designs, all while further elevating your program plan to produce a truly 'high res' experience.
What are the key Who, What, When, Where and Why components of your event?
What program plan will you use to drive progress toward your desired outcomes?
How will you push your event concept beyond the status quo to build an experience that is as inclusive as possible and that will defy all expectations?
How can you get creative to maximize your experience while minimizing dollars required?
Where might you apply for additional funding to go above and beyond for your program?
Considering the nature of your event, what local/national organizations can you engage as community, program, and/or brand partners?
How can you leverage parents, alumni, and other stakeholders to help?
What steps are required to turn your program idea into a reality?
What tasks and support are needed to make that happen, and along what timeline?
How will you leverage your network using all available communication channels to promote your event far and wide?
Who will own each touchpoint, and along what timeline?
What relevant, sophisticated, and desirable swag will you offer before/during/after your event to surprise and delight your guests?
Where are there opportunities to bulk order items to keep costs low?
Good things come to those who HUSTLE. Use branded templates and an all-in approach to promote your event early and often. Create smart online systems to stramline registration. Dig deeper to recruit more teens across all social circles, and make sure the press (and the Order!) hear about what you have planned.
How can you leverage (and customize) available promotional items to build major buzz about your event through a variety of digital, print, and live sharing platforms?
How will you use BBYO's online registration portal to promote your event and encourage pre-registration for planning purposes?
What other fun information could you collect to inform surprise-and-delight opportunities?
How can you activate your recruitment plan in a way that builds real FOMO among your target audience, and what exciting incentives can you offer to encourage hustling toward pre-registration?
Engage the Press
How can you pitch the community impact of your event (to elevate BBYO's brand) in a way that will attract local/national media to take note and either attend or cover the experience?
Celebrate Internally
What information can you share about your event to help BBYO build a strong global narrative touting the reach and impact of our Movement's most influential programs?
As you gear up for the big day, get ready to EXECUTE. Send out final reminders, walk through the event with your steering committee, prep supplies and swag for distribution, and BBYO-ify your venue. Steward prospects (and members) with intention, and surprise and delight your guests to leave a lasting impression.
What unanswered questions remain, and how will you address them?
How can you use final pre-event reminders and confirmation messages to enhance overall buzz throughout your network?
What program moments should be scripted in advance (versus free form), and how should leadership team members plan to handle any issues as they arise?
How can you use branding and signage, as well as lighting, A/V, risers or other fun seating options, reserved VIP areas, and other venue elements to bring your space to life and enhance its fullness?
What expectations can you set and systems can you put in place to easily identify prospects (and under-active members) to ensure that all new attendees are well taken care of from the time they arrive to when they leave?
What fun surprises, snacks, and/or other program enhancements can you offer to ensure all attendees leave eager for more BBYO?
How will you share upcoming event information so everyone knows what's next?
Take advantage of the shared energy and momentum from your event while it's fresh to make sure attendees keep coming back for more. Coordinate an individualized follow-up plan to gather input to inform future programs, say a heartfelt thanks to all involved, and close out the MRIHA model by making the Ask!
How can you use technology and/or individualized outreach to gather input from prospects and other attendees to help improve your community's WOW programs in the future?
How can you customize available branded templates to personalize your follow-up outreach to all key guest segments (prospects, members, parents, partners, stakeholders, etc.)?
How can you coordinate targeted 'Ask' outreach to invite all prospect attendees to join BBYO in a timely and effective manner?
Branding
Utilize the J-Serve Brand Kit to get the word out about your event! The Brand Kit includes digital flyers, Instagram story templates, letterhead, header, footer, service certificate, share squares, slide templates, thank you note, values slides, and zoom backgrounds. We've linked some of the examples from the kit below. Get creative and let us know if you need any help. You can access the designs via Google Drive or Canva (contact your local staff about Canva access).
Access Templates
Toolbox
Share all of your J-Serve posts with the hashtags #JServe2021 to showcase all of the incredible events happening around the world. Maybe if you're lucky you'll get a shout out from @BBYOInsider.
