The Hands On Tzedakah Community Service Program gives high school and college school students the opportunity to use their initiative to design and implement community service projects. Hands On Tzedakah provides the “start-up” money for the students’ projects, and when necessary, will assist monetarily in continuing to subsidize projects. Our goal is that these experiences, in addition to serving the community today, will result in the students becoming caring and philanthropic members of society. Some of the projects already funded are:
- Child Abuse Prevention Program (college students through various campus ministries, working one on one with young children at-risk)
- College students working to help the flood victims in Iowa
- El Salvador Alternative Break Initiative (college students traveled to El Salvador and performed community rebuilding volunteer work)
- Responding to Needs in the Ukraine (college student leaders traveled to the Ukraine to do community service with the commitment to bring home the “story” and continue advocacy for this work)
- Project Rebuild New Orleans (college students spent their winter or spring breaks)
- Community Living Renewal (college students work with the city and businesses to cleanup blighted neighborhoods)
- Leading up North (college students did short-term service projects in parts of Israel affected by the war with Hezbollah)
- Transportation and lodging for a college student to spend two months in Uganda assisting a local organization working against poverty, hunger and disease.
We expect to be funding an “up to $3,000 grant” to students at the Hillel of Broward and Palm Beach to cover the printing cost of a cookbook that will be the amalgamation of recipes and stories of elderly women living in a Jewish Senior Center. The proceeds of the book, which will be sold to non-students, will be donated to the Senior Center. But more importantly the senior's will feel purpose and companionship, and the students will learn from the past and learn how meaningful a small investment of their time.
We would like our donors to designate $20,000 to cover (i) the transportation and/or lodging costs of college students while traveling to help others during their breaks from school, and (ii) other projects students bring to us over the next 12 months.