Maya_Politis: When people wanting to do good come from the “outside,” problems can occur from cultural differences/insensitivity.
Rachel_Olstein: Engaging in projects that make us, the volunteer or service provider, feel good, without assessing the impact on the service recipient. #FOOD DESERTS @p.30
Maya_Politis: Problem of good intentions. A lot of social action is done in the name of “doing good,” but it is much more complicated to actually impact. Anya_Manning: A lack of coordination in connecting skilled (or unskilled) volunteers to people and organizations in need. #MARLA’S VENTURE @p. 9
@Rachel_Olstein’s interest in social justice began in 1999 when she volunteered for a year with AmeriCorps. She went on to receive her bachelor’s from Vassar College in urban education and French and spent two years teaching second grade at an inner-city school. She then spent several years teaching and leading outdoor education programs at the Teva Learning Center and as a wilderness guide for service trips in Ladakh, India and the Azore Islands. Rachel received her master’s in community leadership and nonprofit management at Hebrew University, focused on international development and volunteer organization. As part of her studies, she spent two months working on a rural banking project in rural Ghana. Rachel is the director of volunteer services at Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village.
@Simone_Abel
Anya_Manning: Making effective use of a volunteer takes time, effort, and thought; nonprofits need to be trained how to manage volunteers.
Simone_Abel: Where issues of human rights and Israel overlap, how to weigh in without alienating your support base, or conversely, losing credibility? #JEWISH SOCIAL ACTION FORUM @p. 21
Maya_Politis: The public’s apathy.
Mollie_Gerver: The What-About-Your-Own-People Fallacy: Facing critics asking, “Why are you helping them, not your own?” #NEPAL @READ IT ONLINE
Maya_Politis: The real work can get overshadowed by political and bureaucratic challenges. #ISRAELI ACTIVISM @READ IT ONLINE
Maya_Politis: Many activists have great passion but aren’t business-oriented. Projects lose steam as they lose $/much smaller impact than if sustainable.
Mollie_Gerver: Investing time in fundraising without it being at the expense of reaching the types of goals that would justify fundraising.
David_Russell: Where to find/draw the boundary
between dedication to a cause, making change, and the personal, to avoid burnout. #MEDITATION @p. 42
Mollie_Gerver: Being hopeful enough to keep fighting, cynical enough to keep questioning, and practical enough to keep working, all at the same time.
6
issue thirteen 2011
is director of RenéCassin. Previously, she worked in the New York office of Human Rights Watch (HRW), and prior was an attorney at leading law firms Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, New York, and Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Sydney. She also worked as a journalist for the Australian Jewish News. Simone holds a BA/LLB and is currently completing a Masters of International Law at the University of New South Wales. She is a graduate of the Centro de Estudio del Espanol, Buenos Aires, and has lent her skills to the Migrant and Refugee Rights Project, the JewishCare Prison Outreach Program, Room to Read, the Downing Center Duty Solicitor Scheme, and the National Indigenous Project.
@Maya_Politis
completed her MA in International Development at The Institute of Development Studies in the UK in 2009. Currently she works as a consultant at Tel Aviv University and the Academic College of Jaffa, building academic programs in topics such as social entrepreneurship, community development, and migration. She has been teaching yoga for four years and is involved in different social/cultural projects in Tel Aviv. Maya made aliyah to Israel a year and a half ago.
@David_Russell is Director of Survivors Fund (SURF), a UK-based international nonprofit organization which represents and supports survivors of the Rwandan genocide. As Founder of The Social Enterprise (in 2007), David also continues to advise social ventures including A Slim Peace, which brings together Israeli and Palestinian women from across the Middle East divide with a shared goal of losing weight, and the Specially Produced Innovatively Directed (SPID) Theatre Company, which develops artistic programs with urban youth in London.