New Spirit

Yakir Segev, Chairman of HU Student Union
January 2nd, 2006
Student efforts to develope business and culture in Jerusalem

New Spirit, 2000 - the largest student organization in Jerusalem. Operating mostly through donations, New Spirit Functions with 8-9 part-time employees, and 15,000 involved students.
Jerusalem is Israel's poorest city. In addition, not only is the perecentage of Jews decreasing in the city, but is also loosing 1% of its total popluation every year.

To address these issues, New Spirit came up with the idea to give academic credit for voluntary work within Jerusalem. Intially without university support, the project itself was a complete failure. However, the project idea spawned the birth of a group that would be dedicated to rebuilding the city.

To get students involved, New Spirit allowed students to try for one week without a further commitment to the program.

They got their break when a Jerusalem entreprenuer believed in their idea and supported the groups cause. They realized they should not just be like every other student group requesitng assistance, but actually be a facilitator of creating student connections to businesses. This was achieved by creating Israel's first internship program, dedicated to integrating student needs with business development.

Sagev mentioned that he believes that one goal of New Spirit is to break through the mentality that NGOs do not need to be monitored or efficiently improved. Many times, you have the same businesses fighting for the same customers and resources without being organized about their efforts.