Second Helpings Atlanta (SHA) and Creating Connected Communities (CCC), the host organization for Amy’s Holiday Party, are both the recent recipients of opening grants of nearly $10,000 from The Good People Fund (GPF). Their efforts focus on the power and teaching of social responsibility, teen philanthropy and an investment in tzedakah. GPF both discovers and supports small, effective tzedakah initiatives in the U.S. and Israel dedicated to tikkun olam that might otherwise fall below the radar screen of larger charities.

In 2004, SHA was founded by congregant Guenther Hecht as a social action project of Temple Sinai in Shady Springs. Today, several hundred volunteer families and individuals have rescued and distributed more than 3.5 million pounds of food.

Right down the road, CCC provides leadership training for teens to work with vulnerable children receiving services from Atlanta’s local agencies. As a capstone project, they plan and host Amy’s Holiday Party for more than 700 underprivileged children from the Greater Atlanta area. The grant will underwrite increased busing to bring additional children to CCC events as well as costs involved in their Spring event.

At the age of 12, Amy Sacks Zeide was devastated after watching a TV news report where someone had stolen all the presents from an Atlanta homeless shelter just before their annual holiday party, leaving the children with nothing. Amy then donated her time and the money she received from her Bat Mitzvah to throw a holiday party for the children at a local Atlanta shelter. She is now the Executive Director of CCC. Both Hecht and Zeide have instilled their Jewish values into the organizations they founded.

The deep rooted values that SHA and CCC promote are also shared by the mission of this micro philanthropy The Good People Fund, a true tzedakah initiative. In the coming months, Naomi Eisenberger, founding director of the Good People Fund, will visit the Atlanta area to catch up with Guenther and Amy.

Editor’s note: Rachel Litcofsky is the Public Relations Consultant for The Good People Fund. For more information about The Good People Fund, visit www.goodpeoplefund.org.

atlantajewishtimes.com/two-atlanta-nonprofits-receive-grants/

Julie Leven takes classical music to a place where it has never gone before in Boston: homeless shelters.

Leven, who is Jewish and lives in Arlington, plays the violin with the Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra and tours with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. But although she has performed with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Aarhus Symfonieorkester in Denmark, and in music festivals all over the world, she believes that classical music not only belongs in gilded concert halls, but also has the capacity to thrive in the unlikeliest of places.

That simple idea inspired Leven to launch Shelter Music Boston, a nonprofit organization that brings professionally trained classical musicians to homeless shelters in the Boston area. The organization, which began four years ago after Leven read a news story about a similar nonprofit in New York City, now works with seven area shelters including the Pine Street Inn Shattuck Shelter in Boston, the Community Day Center of Waltham and others. The musicians play concerts at each of the seven shelters once a month. After one of her performances at a homeless shelter, a woman came up to Leven and said the music felt like “water for my soul when I was thirsty.” After another concert, two men got into a friendly argument about which composer was better: Beethoven or Dvorak. Just a short while before, these men “did not know they could talk about music with each other,” Leven noted. But her concerts brought them and many others together.

In an interview with The Jewish Advocate, Leven said no one should be excluded from classical music. She believes access to music is just as important for survival as food and a roof over one’s head, and works in concert with the work done by psychiatrists and social workers at the shelters. She said it gives people without a permanent home a sense of dignity. Many audience members tell her that at the end of a difficult day on the streets, coming to a shelter and listening to classical music has an uplifting and calming effect.

One of the unique features of Leven’s nonprofit is that the musicians, who mainly perform in duos and trios, receive pay for their work in the shelters – which, Leven explained, encourages them to be more committed to their relationship with Shelter Music Boston. And in order to be able to pay the musicians, Leven raises money for her organization.

Shelter Music Boston, since its conception, has raised about $100,000 from various philanthropies and individual donors. This fiscal year, Leven’s budget is $75,000. A significant portion of that funding comes from the Good People Fund, a philanthropic organization run by Naomi Eisenberger out of her home in Millburn, N.J.

The Good People Fund, which provides financial support to about 65 to 70 organizations in the United States and Israel, was founded on the Jewish principles of tzedakah and Tikkun Olam. In the course of six years, Eisenberger has raised more than $6 million, which went toward charities that alleviate poverty, hunger, disability, mental illness, trauma, social isolation, and other societal and personal ills.

In order to qualify for a grant from the Good People Fund – which, in addition to funding, also supports nonprofits with guidance and mentoring – an organization must have a budget less than $500,000. But most importantly, “There has to be the presence of a good person or good people; there’s got to be an individual who is responding to something – either something personal in their own life or something in this world that they feel passionately about and feel they need to change,” said Eisenberger. “It’s the story of the individual that guides us – that’s the first piece.” The Good People Fund’s donors, the majority of whom are Jewish, range from family foundations that give hundreds of thousands of dollars, to individuals who contribute one dollar a month, to Hebrew school students who send their tzedakah money to the fund.

The Good People Fund supports some of the nonprofits in the United States that are not oriented toward specifically Jewish causes, such as Shelter Music Boston. Eisenberger met Leven through Root Cause, a Massachusetts-based organization that serves as an incubator for nonprofits. After a 15-minute conversation with Leven, Eisenberger said, “This is a no-brainer for us. It’s such a creative and unusual program. [Leven] could have been a poster child for the Good People Fund.”

Leven, who has a strong connection to the Jewish principles of charity and social justice, said the work done by the Good People Fund resonated with her. With the grant from the fund, Leven’s organization was able to begin performing at two new shelters.

And Eisenberger, who attended a recent Shelter Music Boston concert, said, “It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”

She added,“I cannot imagine what it would be like to report to a shelter every night in order to have a place to sleep. It was a moving experience and I came away even more pleased that we had decided to work with [Shelter Music Boston] and help them grow.”

Visit sheltermusicboston.org and goodpeoplefund.org for more information.

jewishadvocate.boston

A man who escaped Darfur as a teenager spoke to students at Northwestern University. Below is the release:

Guy Josif escaped the destruction of Darfur as a teenager. Staying in refugee camps en route he ultimately made his way to Israel. Last night at Northwestern University he shared the moving and powerful story of his journey from genocide in Darfur to freedom in Israel and now the U.S., where Guy is currently a college student in Chicago and has filed papers seeking political asylum here.

To a crowd of students and community members, Guy presented his story with a purpose, to educate others about the oppression of his people, and the problems that still exist in Darfur today.  The program was an effort co-sponsored and organized by NU Hillel, Challah for Hunger and NUCHR.

Guy was introduced to the event organizers through his connection with the Good People Fund (www.goodpeoplefund.org), a US organization which provides financial support, guidance, and mentoring to charitable activities of modest proportions that are undertaken by Good People acting singly or in small groups.  The Fund has helped to underwrite Guy’s education in the US. Guy is currently studying at Lake County College outside of Chicago and plans to continue his education and go on to one day study law and international relations.

http://evanston.suntimes.com/2014/05/29/student-shares-journey-survival-northwestern-university/

Eleven Local New Jersey Social Service Agencies To Benefit from Colorado Woman’s Good Work

(May 1, 2014) Ranya Kelly, founder of the Colorado-based Redistribution Center will return to Millburn on May 5th, 6th and 7th with a ton of supplies to be sorted and donated to area social service agencies. Kelly has made the cross-country trip to the area several times.

Just last year, The Good People Fund, a Millburn-NJ based non profit that supports grassroots organizations founded by inspiring visionaries, joined forces with Congregation Bnai Israel and Ranya’s Redistribution Center for a second effort to bring more materials as well as moral support to the rural Appalachian community of McRoberts, Kentucky.  This year, the Good People Fund and B’nai Israel have teamed together to bring Ranya to Millburn and are looking for local volunteers to unload, sort, and distribute the materials to eleven area agencies. Volunteers from Temple B’nai Jeshurun will also be on hand to help out.

Interested families and individuals should contact the clergy office at CBJMillburn@aol.com or 973-379-3811 to get involved.

Ranya has been rescuing new merchandise to help families in need for over twenty years. Her work began after searching through a dumpster for a carton to mail some gifts. It was there that she discovered over 500 pairs of brand new shoes discarded by a nearby store. Her discovery led to the formation of the Redistribution Center, which has since rescued over 700,000 pairs of new shoes and millions of dollars worth of brand new, perfectly usable clothing, bedding, building supplies and more from local and national retail outlets. What was destined for a landfill is now filling the needs of impoverished people not only in the Denver area but also other parts of the United States.

Ranya first made her connection with New Jersey as a grantee of the Good People Fund (www.goodpeoplefund.org). The Good People Fund supports grass roots nonprofits led by inspiring visionaries like Ranya’s that respond to significant problems such as poverty, disability, trauma and social isolation.

For more information on how to get involved with this community social action initiative, contact CBJMillburn@aol.com or 973-379-3811.

http://thealternativepress.com/articles/founder-of-the-redistribution-center-in-colorado

New Grants From The Chronicle

Among the highlights:

The Herb Alpert Foundation has awarded $150,000 to the Good People Fund to help grass-roots nonprofits find inventive ways to address issues of poverty, hunger, illness, disability, and well-being.