MLK Day of Service

MLK Day of Service

“Our ultimate end must be the creation of the beloved community”
– Martin Luther King Jr.

Welcome to JVC’s Annual MLK Days Of Service! We are proud to be able to engage so many people in our community, even during these challenging times. Since we cannot gather together as in years past, please watch this brief “Welcome” video from our MLK Day Chair, Beth Steiner, and The Associated Chair of the Board, Beth Goldsmith.

We also encourage you to engage with others in the community through our Padlet online conversation boards over Sunday and Monday. Click on the links below to let us know:

 

Join JVC as we move forward Dr. King’s vision of the Beloved Community. Volunteers can engage virtually in provocative learning experiences and a variety of service projects from home, as well as meaningful and physically distanced volunteer projects in the community. By exploring service and racial justice through a Jewish lens, each participant will grow and connect in ways that will carry beyond this national day of service.

From the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr., programs will explore how the “beloved community” statement relates to the concepts of loving one’s neighbors and tikkun olam.

Volunteer opportunities that meet vital community needs are available for all ages, abilities, schedules, and comfort level. Participants will have three different ways in which to engage over the course of the two days of service, January 17 & 18, 2021:

  • SERVICE “TO GO”: Volunteer Projects To Do From Home
  • ON-SITE SERVICE: Volunteering Throughout the Community
  • VIRTUAL EXPERIENCES: Online Social Justice Learning and Service Project Gathering

ATTENTION STUDENTS: Need to complete community service hours for school or other programs? JVC can provide community service hour completion forms to students participating in MLK Days of Service offerings, whether done at home or on site, to give them credit for their volunteer time. Please contact jvcbaltimore@associated.org for further information.

ATTENTION PARENTS: Looking for ways to teach your kids about racial justice issues but don’t know where to turn?  Raising Race Conscious Children | Resource for Talking About Race & Diversity is a resource to support adults who are trying to talk about race with young children. The goals of these conversations are to dismantle the color-blind framework and prepare young people to work toward racial justice. 

Additional MLK Day events are being coordinated through other community partner agencies. Please check them out at the lower part of this page.

 

SERVICE “TO GO”: Volunteer Projects To Do From Home

DONATION KITS FOR PURCHASE

JVC is featuring three (3) Live With Purpose projects as part of MLK Days of Service. Please note that pick-up of the kits is by contactless curb-side service. Project kits will be available for pick-up starting, Tuesday, January 5th, and completed kits may be dropped off starting Tuesday, January 19th during specified JVC hours (details will follow orders placed).

No-Sew Fleece Blankets: Help children and families stay warm this winter by creating a no-sew fleece blanket. We provide two pieces of fleece, sharp fabric scissors, an instruction sheet, and a conversation guide to explore why this project is important. Blanket recipients include Baltimore Child Abuse Center, Manna House, The Grace Foundation, and Franciscan Center.

Notes of Encouragement: This project is sold out due to high volume of orders! We will be donating 2,000 laundry kits. Decorate cards with encouraging messages. These notes will be included with students’ meals served by Baltimore Hunger Project. We provide specially-designed cards and crayons, and you color the cards and add a handwritten message of support. A conversation guide to discuss the project and its impact with the whole family is also included.

Laundry Kits: This project is sold out due to high volume of orders! We will be donating 1,000 laundry kits. Assemble laundry kits for veterans supported by The Baltimore Station, a therapeutic residential and outpatient treatment program supporting veterans who are overcoming obstacles to regain self-sufficiency. We provide individual detergents, dryer sheets, laundry bags, and laundry instruction sheets, and you put them together into kits for each veteran. We also provide simple instructions and a conversation guide to learn more and go deeper.

Please allow 3 business days after you place your order for us to process and prepare materials.
Our ONLY weekly pick up options are:
Mondays 8:30-11:00am
Tuesdays 12:30pm-3:30pm
Thursdays 3:00-6:00pm
Project supplies should be picked up from the Early Childhood doors—the entrance just before the main entrance of the Park Heights JCC.
Please pull up along the curb and call 410-843-7476.
A JVC staff member will bring these items out to your car.

 

NO COST OPTIONS

Prepare Art Supplies for Students Provided by Art with a Heart
Register by Monday, January 11th, must be completed by Tuesday, January 19th
Art with a Heart – 3000 Falls Road, Mill No. 1, 21211

Help put together art supplies for upcoming art enrichment activities of students in Baltimore city! Volunteers are needed to help fill paint cups and tape them closed.
The supplies need to be picked up from Art with a Heart January 11th-14th, and the filled paint cups returned to Art with a Heart by January 19th.
Volunteer Capacity: Limited to 20 Households *PROJECT FULL*
Volunteer Restrictions: Must be able to pick up and deliver supplies within the time frame listed above

 

 

Bunches Of Lunches
Tuesday, January 19th –  10:30am-12:00pm
Weinberg Park Heights JCC, 5700 Park Heights Avenue, 21215

Join JVC in preparing bagged meals to be donated to organizations throughout Baltimore. Make the lunches safely at home and drop them off with us on Tuesday, January 19th from 10:30am-12:00pm. Meals will then be delivered to recipient organizations. Visit jvcbaltimore.org/lunches to learn more and register.


ON-SITE SERVICE: Volunteering Throughout the Community

 

Serve Lunch at The Helping Up Mission
Sunday, January 17th, 12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
1029 East Baltimore Street, 21202

Volunteers are needed to help serve a meal for the clients of The Helping Up Mission. The Helping Up Mission is both a long-term residential recovery program and an overnight shelter for men in need.
Volunteer Capacity: 3 *PROJECT CANCELED*
Volunteer Restrictions: Age 13+, with a parent if under 18

 Serve Dinner at The Helping Up Mission
Monday, January 18th, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
1029 East Baltimore Street, 21202

Volunteers are needed to help serve a meal for the clients of The Helping Up Mission. The Helping Up Mission is both a long-term residential recovery program and an overnight shelter for men in need.
Volunteer Capacity: 3 *PROJECT CANCELED*
Volunteer Restrictions: Age 13+, with a parent if under 18

 

VIRTUAL EXPERIENCES: Online Social Justice Learning and Service Project Gathering

 

Teen Service Council Pop-Up: Factuality, The Game
Sunday, January 17th, 1:00-3:00pm (Zoom link will be provided after registration)
Partnering Organizations: 4Front, Elijah Cummings Youth Program, Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, Achshav, Oheb Shalom Har Sinai Congregation, Beth Israel Congregation

JVC and 4Front, in partnership with several other organizations, invite teens to participate in a unique and enlightening service learning program: Factuality, the Game, a crash course in structural inequality in America.

FACTUALITY is a facilitated training, crash course, and virtual game, all in one, that simulates real life… in America. Participants assume the identities of a group of characters, rich in diversity, encountering advantages and limitations based on the intersection of their race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, faith, and income. How will structural inequality impact each character? How will structural inequality impact YOU?
Session Capacity: 100
Participant Restrictions: This program is geared to Teens in Grades 9-12


Children’s Intro to Social Justice, a Book Discussion – “What Can A Citizen Do”
Sunday, January 17th, 10:00-10:45am (Zoom link to be provided after registration)

Families will join in a reading and facilitated discussion about the book, What Can a Citizen Do? by Dave Eggars. Engage in conversation and explore what it means to be an active citizen and how youth can support a cause and make positive change in the world.
Session Capacity: 20
Participant Restrictions: This discussion will be geared towards Elementary School aged children, to be joined by a parent


Facilitated Book Discussion – “So You Want to Talk About Race”
Sunday, January 17th, 4:00-5:00pm (Zoom link to be provided after registration)

Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy — from police brutality to the mass incarceration of Black Americans — has put a media spotlight on racism in our society. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. This book guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to “model minorities” in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.

You are encouraged to get and read this book before the event. Chapters 1-5 will be explored during this provocative interactive discussion. In this New York Times bestseller, So You Want To Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo offers a hard-hitting but user-friendly examination of race in America.

Where to get the book So You Want To Talk About Race (blue cover version):

Session Capacity: 20
Participant Restrictions: This discussion will be geared towards mature participants


Make No-Sew Fleece Blankets Together-Apart!
Monday, January 18th, 10:00-11:00am (Zoom link to be provided after registration)

Just because we are distant, doesn’t mean we can’t still do some good together – have a friend sign up too! Join us for a virtual party with a purpose as we learn how to, and make, no-sew fleece blankets to be given to children and families in need to stay warm this winter.

Orders for fleece blanket kits must be placed by Tuesday, January 12th and picked up from JVC by Thursday, January 14th at 6:00pm in order to have materials in time for the virtual event.
Party Capacity: 20
Volunteer Restrictions: Children should have adult supervision and assistance


 “Lunch and Learn”- Racial Justice Through a Jewish Lens
Monday, January 18th, 12:00-1:00pm (Zoom link to be provided after registration)

Why should we see working to dismantle racism as part of our obligation as Jews? Join Repair the World Baltimore’s Executive Director, Rabbi Jessy Dressin, for a text study and discussion to begin to answer that question and explore the relationship between anti-Semitism and racism.
Session Capacity: 20
Participant Restrictions: This discussion will be geared towards participants ages 16+


“Understanding White Privilege to Deconstruct Racism” – Presented in partnership with Baltimore Jewish Council
Monday, January 18th, 7:00-8:30pm (Zoom link to be provided after registration)

Have you ever had to meticulously think about what your plan is if you are stopped by the police? Have you ever worried about ending up in a news headline as a result of a police interaction? Baratunde Thurston has, and as he explains in his Ted Talk, by better understanding what “living while black” means we can work better to understand what it means to have white privilege, and how we can use it to deconstruct racism.

Join Jewish Volunteer Connection and the Baltimore Jewish Council for a facilitated conversation with Dr. Andrea Davis, founder of Scholarly Pursuits. Participants will view Baratunde Thurston’s TED Talk How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time together then participate in an interactive discussion, breaking down the points that resonate most with the group and facilitator.

Session Capacity: 50 *SESSION FULL*
Participant Restrictions: This discussion will be geared towards participants ages 16+

Please click here if you want to be added to the Wait List

 

Community Partner Agencies – Additional MLK Day Offerings

 

MLK Day Mitzvah Morning with PJ Library and Har Sinai Oheb Shalom Congregation
Sunday, January 17th, 11:15am-12:00pm on Zoom

Have fun creating a puzzle for seniors in our community, listen to a story, get to know new friends, and learn about the mitzvah of honoring the elderly. Supplies for the project will be provided for $5 per family- must register by January 13th.
Volunteer Restrictions: This program is geared towards children ages 3-8


Remington Area Community Clean Up with Repair the World Baltimore
Sunday, January 17th, 1:30-3:30pm
2801 Sisson Street, 21211

Join Repair the World and the Greater Remington Improvement Association (GRIA) to beautify the neighborhood! Volunteers will meet at the Repair the World office (2801 Sisson St.), learn about Remington, and then disperse throughout the neighborhood to pick up some trash. Bundle up and join Repair for this exciting event!
Volunteer Restrictions: Repair the World Baltimore’s programs focus on connecting Jews in their 20s and 30s to direct service, though volunteers of all ages are welcome for this opportunity.


“Yesterday To Today: Legacies Of The Civil Rights Movement”
Presented by Repair The World
Sunday, January 17th, 7:30-8:30pm (Zoom link to be provided after registration)
Join Repair the World for a conversation with Dr. Susannah Heschel, daughter of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Repair the World national board member, Yosef Webb-Cohen and Rabbi Jessy Dressin, Executive Director of Repair the World Baltimore. The conversation will include reflections and memories by way of story about the friendship and work done between Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. The conversation will consider the work of civil rights and social justice in their time and the work that calls us to join in today, the way the work has changed and also the opportunity for leadership of Jews of Color in this work.


Making Herb Kits with Great Kids Farm and Repair the World Baltimore
Monday, January 18th, 10:00am-12:00pm
6601 Baltimore National Pike, 21228

Join Repair the World and Great Kids Farm to pack herb kits for 2nd graders attending city schools! Help give students in our community the chance to access experiential learning in gardening. To attend, you must wear a mask. Participation will be limited for this event so that those present number no more than 10 people, and will complete the kits while physically distanced.
Volunteer Restrictions: Repair the World Baltimore’s programs are geared towards volunteers in their 20s and 30s


Baltimore Food Access Phone Banking
Monday, January 18th, 5:30-6:30pm
**Virtual**

The U.S. is facing the most severe food insecurity crisis since the Great Depression: As of November 2020, 54 million Americans are at risk of food insecurity, a 70% increase since the start of the pandemic. However, the operating hours of food pantries are changing frequently due to the impacts of COVID-19. There are over 50,000 food assistance sites across the country, and many are temporarily closed. GetFoodUSA is a searchable directory of locations offering free food assistance to the public. This MLK Day, join Repair at GetFoodUSA to call COVID-19 food assistance sites to confirm info about food access in Baltimore. Your phone calls will help ensure that people in need of food go to the right place, at the right time!

Volunteer Restrictions: Repair the World Baltimore’s programs are geared towards volunteers in their 20s and 30s


B’More Inclusive Teacher Training: “How to Weave Disability Awareness and Appreciation of Diversity Throughout Your Classroom – In Person and On Zoom”
Presented by CJE Baltimore
Monday, January 18th, 7:30-8:30pm (Zoom link to be provided after registration)

February is JDAIM: Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month. Get ready to start the conversation in your classroom this February and all year long with B’More Inclusive: A Disability Awareness experience with a Jewish lens. B’More Inclusive is always interactive and engaging. Whether you teach history, science or literature, Halacha, Mishna or Parsha, there are so many ways to incorporate these important Jewish lessons through modelling and curriculum connections.


 

Thank you to our 2020 MLK Days of Service Sponsors and Partners!

 

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