Volunteering is eVOLve-ing....

JLGB were delighted to have the Chief Rabbi officially launch their new and hotly anticipated youth volunteering initiative, evolve, in January. For the first time ever, evolve brings together all key stakeholders from across the community to ensure that social action becomes more accessible and more rewarding for young Jewish people than ever before.

Chief Rabbi Mirvis said: "evolve is an outstanding initiative which represents everything that is sacred in our tradition and in our faith... our youths will be involved in voluntary activities which will enable them, and enrich their lives, and the lives of those in their midst. Their parents and their grandparents as well, members of family will become an active part of their activities, and also schools and teachers will become actively involved; synagogues will be connected with their projects; youth movements, charities, businesses, employers, all stand to gain."

Over 2000 Jewish young people sign up for national volunteering awards each year but 65% of them struggle to find faith sensitive volunteering placements that meet Jewish cultural or religious needs. With the ambition to overcome this barrier, evolve (funded by the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation) is a collaborative communally-focused strategy for Jewish youth volunteering, and forms part of JLGB's Step Up To Serve pledge. JLGB have developed an innovative system for creating online volunteering profiles that can be matched to age appropriate and faith sensitive volunteering opportunities as well as national achievement awards and qualifications.

The Chairman of The Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation, Professor David Latchman, said at the launch: "evolve allows all parties to create online volunteering profiles in different fields of interest to help match young people with volunteering services, awards and qualifications and also highlight the skills they can develop for later life. Having a meaningful volunteering experience in the formative years ensures continued engagement in later years. By investing in an initiative like this we hope we are helping to pave the way for the next generation of philanthropists and community members who are committed to making a difference in the world."

To learn more about unlocking the potential of youth volunteers, email: evolve@jlgb.org for information and are excited to roll the initiative out to all Jewish young people from September 2014.