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Teen Foundation


Temple Sinai’s Teen Foundation is an exciting initiative exclusively for eighth graders. It is built upon the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Project experience and helps to bridge the Bar/Bat Mitzvah experience to our Youth Program for high school students.

This select group of eighth graders spends the year learning about local nonprofit organizations and the importance of philanthropy through site visits to local organizations, hands-on service and group discussions. Once they learn about the issues facing our community, the teens select one issue as a focus of their philanthropy. They solicit grant proposals from organizations that work on this issue, review those grant proposals, and award grants to the organizations of their choosing. Grant monies are comprised of personal contributions from the teens and their families, and funds the teens raise through a fundraising event for their peers.

The program meets twice a month from October to May, typically on Sunday and also on Friday afternoons to conduct site visits to local nonprofit organizations during their hours of operation.

 
Teen Foundation at Bergen Family Center

Program Components

Participants in the program will:

  • Explore issues facing our community and how we can help solve them
  • Organize their own fundraising event
  • Visit and volunteer at local organizations
  • Make grants from their foundation to groups or organizations of their choice

Financial Commitment

  • For the Foundation to have funds to distribute, we ask each participant to contribute $360 to the collective grant making pool.
  • We encourage students to contribute at least some of this money themselves, if possible.
  • If this contribution is at all difficult for your family to make, there are donors supporting the program who will provide scholarship money. Contact Rabbi Millstein – no one will be turned away for inability to contribute.
  • For more information, contact Rabbi Millstein at rabbimillstein@templesinaibc.org.
Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784