Volunteering Opportunities for Bar/Bat Mitzvah and their families February 2015 Edition “Putting the V in Mitzvah” Welcome to the JVN guide to volunteering opportunities for Bnei Mitzvah and their families! We know that preparing for your Bar/Bat Mitzvah takes up a lot of your time – leining, invitations, writing speeches – and it would be great if you could include some volunteering in your preparations and beyond. You can make a meaningful contribution to your community as you take your place as a Jewish adult. We’ve made it easy for you by sorting the opportunities into different categories. Just choose something that you’re interested in and we’ll do the rest. Please contact the JVN Youth Co-ordinator ([email protected] / 020 8203 6427 ext.314). We’ll be happy to advise you and point you in the right direction. Please be aware that some opportunities listed here will require adult supervision. Check back regularly as we are constantly updating it with new and seasonal opportunities! 1 Contact the JVN Youth Co-ordinator if you’re interested in one of the opportunities here [email protected] 020 8203 6427 ext.314 Contents Click on a section to jump straight to it! Fundraising 3 Collecting 3 Packing 4 Visiting Local Care Homes 4 Working with People with Learning Difficulties 5 Cooking 5 Become an Ambassador 6 Volunteering Outdoors 6 Caring for Animals 7 Working in Museums 7 JVN Contact Details 8 2 Contact the JVN Youth Co-ordinator if you’re interested in one of the opportunities here [email protected] 020 8203 6427 ext.314 FUNDRAISING Fundraising is possibly the most popular volunteering opportunity out there. You don’t need any specific skills to do it, and all charities need funds to do what they do best. If you want a bit more freedom as to which charity to volunteer for and what you can do, fundraising is a chance to pick your own activity where you can get sponsored – sponsored walks, runs, cycles, silences, car boot sales, bake sales and loads more are commonplace – or collect donations in a public place. They can also advise you if you want to do something more adventurous for them. And this is something you can get your friends involved in too, or maybe even your whole school or youth group. You can fundraise for pretty much any charity – take a look at the list on the JVN website at www.jvn.org.uk/our_network to find the one that is right for you, and then get in touch with us to make the connection. If you find a charity you would like to fundraise for, a great way of learning about it and experiencing first-hand what it does is by volunteering for it. For example, Kisharon actively encourage fundraisers to do just this. COLLECTING This is a fairly easy opportunity to get involved in, but it makes a huge difference to the lives of people in your community, around the UK and all over the world. Contact your family and friends and make a collection of much- needed goods for various organisations – take your pick. Or you could see if your school or synagogue can hold a collectathon. Think about how you might publicise it, and make sure you arrange with the charity how they can get hold of what it is that is being collected. Toiletries for Jewish Women’s Aid Clothing for charity shops such as All Aboard Books for the charity Book Cycle Stationery for World Jewish Relief Toys for Camp Simcha 3 Contact the JVN Youth Co-ordinator if you’re interested in one of the opportunities here [email protected] 020 8203 6427 ext.314 PACKING Many organisations collect food, goods and other things for charities – you can find examples of collections you can help with on page 3. But what happens to it after it has been collected? In order to distribute the food and goods to those who really need them, charities rely on volunteers to come along and pack them in bags and boxes. Because they collect so much they need people to volunteer their time, otherwise it would never all get packed. Thursday evenings and school holidays, packing food for local needy families at GIFT warehouse VISITING LOCAL CARE HOMES One of the key groups of people who can benefit from your time is the elderly. People are living longer now and old age homes can struggle to care for their residents without the support of dedicated volunteers. Elderly people can often feel lonely or isolated – some have no family, or the family they do have is a long way away – and so they just need someone to talk to or play games with. Many of them have lived long, full lives and have interesting stories to tell. Care homes also need people to help run activities and entertain residents by playing music. Sage Nursing Home Hammerson House There may be someone from your shul who lives just around the corner from you who would love a visit. Maybe you could teach them how to use a computer, or take them some chicken soup on a Friday afternoon. You could interview them about their life for your shul magazine – what did they do for their Bar/Bat Miztvah? Contact your shul before you do this! We are also working on creating new opportunities with Jewish Care, the country’s largest provider of Jewish care homes 4 Contact the JVN Youth Co-ordinator if you’re interested in one of the opportunities here [email protected] 020 8203 6427 ext.314 WORKING WITH PEOPLE WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES You have probably come across someone with some form of learning disability in school or your synagogue. Helping people with learning difficulties and disabilities is one of the most rewarding things you can do, but requires a specific type of personality: you must be patient, able to adapt to different situations and, above all, be able to listen and follow instructions from trained professionals. Norwood can offer you the chance to volunteer with a parent by befriending one of their young residents. COOKING Cooking is a fun activity, especially if you do it with friends, and it helps people who cannot afford food or homeless people who do not have cooking facilities. Join a cooking club and cook for the homeless with Tikun Jewish Care has cooking facilities in their Amelie House, Golders Green. They would be happy to help organise a cooking session with their elderly residents that you could help run. Learn how to make challah with Challah for Hunger and “bake a difference” (their pun, not ours!) for people in your local community. You could form your own cooking club at home with your friends (ask your parents’ permission first!) and prepare something tasty for those in your community who might be in need. 5 Contact the JVN Youth Co-ordinator if you’re interested in one of the opportunities here [email protected] 020 8203 6427 ext.314 BECOME AN AMBASSADOR One of any charity’s main aims is to raise awareness of itself and the work it does. If this is done successfully then the charity can raise more money, attract more volunteers and ultimately help more people. If you are a confident speaker then a young ambassador role could be just the volunteering position for you. It also gives you an opportunity to learn about a great charity and make friends with people passionate about the same cause as you. Become a Youth Champion for Holocaust Memorial Day www.hmd.org.uk/page/youth-champions Alternatively, check the network of charities on the JVN website – www.jvn.org.uk/our_network – and offer to become a young ambassador for an organisation you really feel passionate about. VOLUNTEERING OUTDOORS Volunteering is all about being active – and what better way than by exploring the great outdoors! We are working with parks across London to find green activities you can get involved in. Please contact us for more details. CARING FOR ANIMALS When you volunteer, it is not just people who can benefit. If you love caring for animals, contact your local city farm as they are often looking for help over the weekend. You will need to have someone older with you. Belmont Children’s Farm Lee Valley Park Farms Hackney City Farm Freightliners Farm 6 Contact the JVN Youth Co-ordinator if you’re interested in one of the opportunities here [email protected] 020 8203 6427 ext.314 WORKING IN MUSEUMS Museums are important places where people can find out about history, culture and religion. All sorts of people in society benefit from visiting museums and many organisations conduct organised trips – from schools to old people’s homes. The Jewish Museum is looking for young volunteers to work alongside existing older volunteers over the weekend. This will give you the chance to see behind the scenes and experience the museum in a new way. If you haven’t found anything to inspire you here, don’t worry – just call us and we can work together to find something for you. JVN CONTACT DETAILS It is very important that you get in touch with JVN to arrange your volunteering. We’ll need to know where you want to volunteer, how you will get there, when you’d like to do it and how often, who will be accompanying you (where necessary), whether your accompanying adult has a DBS check (where necessary) and sometimes specific information relating to the opportunity.