Courage to Care launches young leadership program
Thanks to a generous grant from the ORAH Project, Courage to Care has launched a program targeted at Jewish children and youth leaders in our community aiming to empower the future generation of youth to become ‘upstanders’ not ‘bystanders’ as well as attempting to make a difference whenever possible in the world.
Another objective of the Jewish Youth Leadership Program is to engage with young people so that they remain connected and involved with the Jewish community beyond their youth movement years.
For the past 20 years, Courage to Care has been teaching Australians vital lessons from the Holocaust – that every individual can make a difference by standing up to racism, discrimination and bullying.
In July Courage to Care attended the Netzer Winter Camp in Taree and ran a tailored workshop for 50 students and 8 leaders. Attendees were introduced to the concept of upstanders and bystanders and listened to the testimony of a Holocaust survivor, and how, with the assistance of a ‘rescuer’, an ‘upstander’, they were able to survive. The students and teachers then had the opportunity to reflect on this story and how parts of the testimony resonated with them personally. Discussion followed about different types of discrimination and bullying as well as ‘the bystander effect’ and why it is so hard to speak up. Participants were also asked to reflect on ways in which they could be an upstander in the future and make a difference.
Overall the program resonated with the children and youth leaders; it demonstrated to them how lessons from the Holocaust can be applied to modern-day issues.
Courage to Care thanks the Pillemer family and the ORAH Project for their wonderful support.
Chairperson Juliet Seifert said: “We look forward to sharing many more successes with the Youth Leadership Program as we endeavour to bring this initiative to other Jewish Youth groups in the coming months.”
Courage To Care is an initiative of B’nai B’rith.
