Spring Learning Resources
Kindness Kits and Pencil Cases Service Project Kits
Learn more about these projects
Thank you for participating in our Service Project Kit initiative! The project selections this spring are kindness kits and pencil cases. These two projects provide recipients with items needed to thrive in and out of the classroom. This exemplifies the Jewish value of community, which in Hebrew is kehillah. Members of our greater community experience homelessness and oral hygiene poverty and by making these kits, you are able to make them feel seen, cared for, and prepared for whatever their day takes them.
Did You Know?
Facts About Homelessness
- Approximately fifteen percent (about 47.5 million) of US citizens are living in poverty right now. About one third of the US population currently experiencing poverty are under the age of 18. (Repair the World’s Facilitator Toolbox)
- 13% of Jewish Baltimore utilized some kind of public assistance which included programs like SNAP, subsidized housing, SSI, utility assistance, etc. (The Associated 2020 Community Study)
Facts About Educational Achievement Gaps
- Achievement gaps occur when one group of students (e.g., students grouped by race/ethnicity, gender) outperforms another group and the difference in average scores for the two groups is statistically significant. (National Center for Education Statistics)
- White students are more than twice as likely to meet or exceed expectations on 4th grade reading and Algebra I than both Black and Latino students, and the achievement gap is bigger among higher income students. (Inequities in Opportunity and Achievement in Maryland, The Education Trust)
- A student living in poverty is 13 times less likely to graduate on time. Less than 50% of students who graduate from high school are able to proficiently read or complete math problems (Repair the World’s Facilitator Toolbox)
A Jewish Lens
Reb Nachman of Breslov was a Hasidic rabbi in the late 18th Century, who taught that all Jewish people could speak to Gd as they would to a friend in everyday conversation. He is still greatly revered as a teacher in both Hasidic and non-Hasidic Jewish communities today.
It is a good thing for friends…to give encouragement to each other.
-Reb Nachman of Breslov
By putting together these kits, we are expressing the Jewish value of Community (Kehilla) into action by providing for our friends and neighbors who may be experiencing difficulty accessing basic needs.
Consider…
- What does community mean to you?
- How do you like to be encouraged?
- In what ways can you build community with others?
Go Deeper…
Check out these books from PJ Library:
- I Can Help by David Hyde Costello
- How to be a Mensch by A. Monster
- The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc
Check out this book from the Jewish Library of Baltimore:
- The Amen Effect by Rabbi Sharon Brous