Friday, June 24, 2011

The Challenges of Giving . . .

One of the biggest challenges I have when working with B'nai Mitzvah students is helping them with the Community Service Project requirement.  At Congregation Beth Israel, we ask students to complete 18 hours of community service during the year before the date of their ceremony ... to some kids, this is easy, while it feels impossible to others.

I encourage families to start working on this requirement early, since this is only 1.5 hours a month if you start a year ahead of time ... but this doesn't always work.  Other challenges include kids who have huge ideas about what they want to do, but no idea how to accomplish it (they always have great intentions) ... but the problems I find hardest to explain to 12-year olds is the impact of collection projects.

Many kids want to set up a collection bin and then donate items to their favorite charity ... because this can seem more like facilitating someone else's mitzvah (which is also an important thing to do), we really try to encourage our kids to do something hands-on, with the direct beneficiaries whenever possible.

Another challenge when working with kids is the difficulty of getting them to understand the possible negative effects of collection/giving projects.  I loved this article about responsible giving programs ... hope you enjoy it, too.   : )

http://www.good.is/post/buy-one-give-one-businesses-like-toms-can-make-real-difference/

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