Yahel Social Change Program: The Grassroots Israel Experience

I spent a summer with Yahel’s Jerusalem service learning trip and it was an incredible experience. We had a home base in a big building in Kiryat Yovel, where we all worked in different capacities in community service. I worked for the most part in manual labor projects with teens from the community. Despite the language barrier, I learned so much from them and from the program and felt amazing about the physical impact we had on our environment. We did everything from gardening to picking up trash to painting houses. As a program, Yahel also took us on amazing excursions to meet all kinds of people and we discussed our intended impact for social change in sessions as a group. I loved every second of it.

For the last seven months, I've been volunteering in Israel under Yahel. It's been a complete and total blast. I'm doing a lot of volunteering for the local community of Rishon LeZion, mainly teach and tutor kids English. I also had the chance to learn Hebrew, meet some great people both inside and outside my program, and explore Israel in new and exciting ways, like learning all about the Ethiopian-Israeli community.

I'd highly recommend this program for anyone who just graduated from university and is looking for a great way to spend the year.

I had a great time as a participant on the Yahel Social Change Program! As a member of the Lod Cohort, I volunteered in schools, an after school program for Ethiopian-Israelis, and led an English club for Arab high schoolers, however everyone was really able to shape their experience and volunteer with whatever type of organizations inspired them.

Our apartment was a beautiful two story space with a giant porch that wrapped around and all the amenities one could hope for. The neighborhood was close to the center and a mixed population. While Lod wasn't the safest city in the country, the program did a good job of keeping the participants safe while still showing us lots of sides of the country we wouldn't have otherwise had the opportunity to see.

The staff did a good job of helping out when we needed it and keeping their distance when we could figure things out on our own.

Overall would highly recommend.