Service and Learning Travel Programs provide opportunities for teams of teens, college students, families, and adults to meet existing community needs through intensive programs across the United States. The Spark Center develops projects in partnership with local organizations including grantees, community development institutions, and partner organizations. Participants gain important skills while learning about and reflecting on relevant historical, social, and political issues through the lens of Jewish ethics and values.
- Service Sites
- Program Details
- Current Service Opportunities:
- Alternative Break
Baltimore, Gulf Coast, or Los Angeles
Winter or Spring
- Family or Teen Service and Learning Travel program
Baltimore, Gulf Coast, or Los Angeles
Throughout the year - dates customized for each partner organization.
- Alternative Break
For more information on any of our Service and Learning Travel Programs, please contact Jamie Beran at jberan@jewishjustice.org or 212-213-2113x35
Service and Learning Travel Programs are currently running in Baltimore, the Gulf Region, and Los Angeles.
Baltimore
Baltimore is emblematic of dozens of American cities – the manufacturing base evaporated,
taking jobs with it. Families and young people have left the inner city in favor of the suburbs.
Urban poverty overwhelms the schools, housing, and health care systems, most dramatically in East
Baltimore.
Yet Baltimore can boast about one of the country’s most innovative strategies in fighting poverty. Through Tzedec: The Jewish Partnership for Communitiy Investing, JFSJ has a plan to redevelop crumbling East Baltimore neighborhoods and improve thousands of lives.
JFSJ provides Jewish leadership in this venture to create opportunities for low-income Baltimore residents to build lives of promise for themselves and their families. The Spark Center’s service learning programs in Baltimore contribute to this leadership and are the context for participants to gain an in-depth understanding of a new philanthropic tactic to combat poverty in Baltimore.
The Gulf Coast:
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were the most expensive disaster in the history of the United States.
Despite $7.5 billion of federal funding, Louisiana's Road Home program, which makes grants to help
homeowners rebuild, delivered funds to only 2.5% of the 115,000 applicants they attracted in January
2007. 80,000 Mississippians are still living in FEMA trailers. Billions of dollars allocated for relief
and rebuilding are stuck at the state level, not making into the hands of those who need it.
At the same time, the outpouring of time and money from the rest of the country sets a new standard for how community service makes a difference. With the help of volunteers, entire houses are gutted and re-built, clinics are run, and hope is brought to Gulf residents.
Service learning trips to Louisiana or Mississippi provide insight into the scope and breadth of the disasters, an opportunity to hear stories about what happened there and why, and the chance to make concrete change to improve people’s lives, all in the context of Jewish community and values.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles County is large – 10.5 million people - and has the fastest growing income gap in the
nation, with 250,000 millionaires and 1.6 million poor people, the largest poverty population of any
metropolitan area in the nation. Los Angeles faces urban problems at a scale unimaginable in most other
cities and, simultaneously, is home to some of the most innovative strategies to make LA a more just
and equitable community.
Surprising coalitions, unusual investments strategies, vibrant community organizations, and fresh
policy proposals are only the beginning.
JFSJ travel programs offer a 360-degree view of the city, the issues it faces, and the array of solutions, from hands-on service to new philanthropic strategies to unprecedented community organizing. Service learning travel programs examine the interlocking issues of housing, immigration, and economic justice by volunteering at community shelters and schools to see the problems clearly and up close; learning about efforts to preserve affordable housing through a community land trust; meeting with some of the most innovative and exciting leaders working to alleviate poverty and economic injustice in Los Angles today.
Alternative Break
Jewish Funds for Justice's Alternative Breaks are a hands-on way of getting your students involved in the critical issues facing our country. We invite Hillels and Jewish student organizations to travel with us to Baltimore, Los Angeles or the Gulf Coast during winter or spring break to address the interlocking issues of housing, environment, immigration, and economic justice. Our program will provide an opportunity for students to address existing community needs through an intensive service project. Participants will gain important skills while learning about and reflecting on relevant historical, social and political issues through the lens of Jewish ethics and values.
The cost of the program is $299 plus travel for each participant and staff member.
Eligibility: New York State campuses are eligible for Gulf Coast programs over spring break. All other campuses are eligible for Baltimore or Los Angeles programs over winter or spring break.
Click here to apply online.
Interested in an international alternative break? Check out American Jewish World Service.
Family or Teen Service and Learning Travel Programs
JFSJ's family and teen programs provide opportunities for teams of teens, families or adults to address existing community needs through intensive service projects across the United States. Participants gain important skills while learning about and reflecting on relevant historical, social and political issues through the lens of Jewish ethics and values. JFSJ partners with synagogues, day schools, youth groups, JCCs and other Jewish institutitons to bring this exciting opportunity to communities across the country.
Our current service placements are in the Gulf Coast region, Los Angeles and Baltimore. Programs vary in length, with a standard program lasting one week, including a Shabbat. We will customize the program length and experience for you and your group.
Click here to apply online.
