Leadership Training & Enrichment
This program offers some 100 volunteers each year with extensive weekly sessions of lectures in a variety of subjects such as Israeli society, Judaism, critical thinking, arts, leadership and more, as well as hands-on workshops and edifying field trips. The program is open to other organizations working with volunteers in their gap year, and is operated completely by Bakehila's professional staff. The participants receive a variety of diverse enrichment content that will correspond with their daily volunteer activities, some of which count towards college credits. They reflect on their day-to-day work using the theoretical tools provided by the lecturers and workshops. Volunteers are encouraged to incorporate their leadership experiences and development that they receive within the framework of this program in their work as positive role models and mentors for the children they work with as a part of their activities with Bakehila.
Additionally, the frontal lectures take place in the Beit Avi-Chai building, which in the heart of Jerusalem's urban center, allowing the participants to get to know the streets and people of central Jerusalem and not just the neighborhoods in which they work.
Community Volunteer Work
Bakehila's 50 carefully selected Year-of-Service (YOS) volunteers defer their mandatory military service and instead dedicate an entire year to intensive and demanding work within Jerusalem and Rishon Letzion's most needy neighborhoods.
The YOS volunteers, spend their mornings in schools providing academic assistance to children who are not receiving the additional attention they need to succeed; their afternoons running enrichment centers, tutoring kids and acting as mentors for children who seek positive role models; and their nights running youth clubs for teens to provide a safe alternative to the streets. The YOS volunteers also work to empower local neighborhoods by working hand-in-hand with the residents organizing community events throughout the year.
Bakehila's YOS volunteers live inside the neighborhoods in small teams and work as a group throughout the year to create positive experiences for the children and communities in which they work.
Year of Service Alumni Fellowship Program
Bakehila brings YOS volunteers alumni back to Jerusalem to take an active role in Bakehila's programming once they have completed their military service. These carefully selected alumni fellows mentor and tutor youth who have participated in Bakehila programming as younger children, ages 15-18, from the neighborhoods in which we operate. Given the fellows' older age and life experience, they are better equipped to work with youth of these ages who may still require structured support and guidance beyond the target age of Bakehila's flagship programming. This program provides more of a continual framework for Bakehila's most disadvantaged participants and ensures long-term, sustained impact on neighborhood youth.
Additionally, the Returning Alumni Program aims to help revive Jerusalem's population by attracting Bakehila's former "stars" from their year-of-service, and apply their skills and motivation for social change to more of Jerusalem's disadvantaged youth. The Fellows live inside the disadvantaged neighborhoods and participate in monthly training and enrichment workshops, all while creating their own "community" of social leaders.
Garin Nachal Bakehila
In partnership with the IDF, Bakehila now offers its YOS volunteers an opportunity to continue with their social activism while completing their required three year military service.
Volunteers, males and females alike, get drafted as a group after their year-of-service, and serve in the army for a year and a half in either the combat unit of the Nachal Brigade or in the Education and Youth Core. The soldiers then get deployed into various organizations for social change throughout Israel, to complete their remaining year and a half of army service as social activists.
This is an innovative program model designed to maintain and foster the young idealistic spirit throughout the demanding military experience, while still providing a hand-on response to the harsh social reality in Israel.
Year of Service Alumni Enrichment
In 2014, Bakehila launched its YOS Alumni Enrichment program aimed at maintaining and cultivating the network of young emerging leaders which had begun in their gap-year at Bakehila. This program provides continuous communication and leadership training and enrichment, open to all of Bakehila's YOS alumni. It includes monthly enrichment workshops in which alumni participate in guided discussions of current events, arts and various other topics, as well as weekly communications from Bakehila's executive staff and an outlet to bring creative ideas to the table.
This platform allows for multiple years of volunteers to merge together and share past and present experiences of social activism with eachother, rapidly crafting together a network of strong and talented individuals who believe in social change.
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84% of alumni wish to continue their involvement in social change.
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81% of alumni wish to return to Jerusalem after their military service.
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94% of alumni claim that their experience with Bakehila has deeply impacted their lives.
Fostering young leaders; building a network of social activists; strengthening Jerusalem's young adult community.
" During basic training in the army I served as some sort of arbitrator...they consulted me. It was because I had the tools and skills to deal with conflicts from my experience with Bakehila."
- YOS Alumnus
What is a Year-of-Service
Volunteer?
(video in Hebrew)
Fast Facts
"Israel society needs social leaders just
like it needs commanders in the IDF"
- MK Erel margalit, Founder
