metro

PeerCorps Detroit Works

Beyond the typical mitzvah project.

Vivian Henoch

Special to the Jewish News

T

o get to D-Town Farms in Rouge
Park, you have to know where you're
going. No use looking for a sign on
the road or its address on West Outer Drive.
Take the U-turn on Orangelawn, and you
find there's ample parking off the road, along
the grass.
Following the cues of other volunteers, we
find the entrance; D-Town Farms is 7 acres
devoted to year-round food production and
a composting operation run by the Detroit
Black Community Food Security Network
This year, the farm is also one of the des-
ignated service sites chosen for PeerCorps
Detroit, a yearlong mentorship program that
pairs teens and b'nai mitzvah students seek-
ing meaningful ways to give back to the city.
An initiative of Federation's Alliance for
Jewish Education, in partnership with Repair
the World and area congregations, PeerCorps
Detroit is conceived to answer the challenge:
What to do for the mitzvah project?
In most congregations today, the mitzvah
project is de rigueur — a required element of
the bar or bat mitzvah experience. Though
intended to provide b'nai mitzvah students
with meaningful opportunities for service
to the community, these projects tend to fall
short. All too often, once the mitzvah project
and bar or bat mitzvah is accomplished so,
too, is the student's Jewish education.
"The PeerCorps experience offers an alter-
native says Ben Falik, Repair the World's
manager of Detroit Service Initiatives.
"PeerCorps is an investment in congrega-
tions and communities on the premise that
the b'nai mitzvah experience is a beginning,
not an end:'

Planting Seeds, Taking Root

On the morning of our visit to D-Town
Farms, we meet Andrew Diaminah, who is
working with four of the first 20 PeerCorps
students recruited to work in pairs: Emily
Zonder and Noah Brooks are both 16 and
sophomores at Berkley High School; they are
paired with their mentees, Dahlia Wilson-
Welsh and Violet Twomey, both of whom are
b'nai mitzvah students at Congregation Shir
Tikvah in Troy.
As PeerCorps students learn at D-Town
Farm, there's plenty of work to go around.
Beyond getting their feet wet and hands
dirty, the ultimate goal of the program is
to dig deeper — planting the seeds of new
friendships, growing to know the city beyond
their own neighborhoods and gaining new
skills through meaningful service to the

8 January 2 • 2014

Above:
PeerCorps
mentors Noah
Brooks and
Emily Zonder

with mentees
Violet Twomey
and Dahlia
Wilson-Welsh

Right:
Nora Feldhusen,
PeerCorps
coordinator

community.
"Mentee: It may sound like a made-up
word, but the mentor-mentee relationship
is key to the program. It's what makes the
experience unique for every participant:' says
Nora Feldhusen, PeerCorps coordinator.
Unlike many other service projects,
PeerCorps is a niche program structured to
be an immersive, team-building experience
where b'nai mitzvah students connect with
Jewish high school students who work with
them to complete about 20 hours of commu-
nity service. The program follows the school
calendar. Mentors are assigned for the year
to one of five service sites in the city; men-
tees commit to a three-hour session twice a

Quick Facts

PeerCorps has been funded through
a generous grant from the Hermelin
Davidson Fund for Congregational
Excellence.
PeerCorps is now recruiting b'nai
mitzvah students for its winter and
spring cycles.
Each cycle kicks off with a Gesher
Day, a three-hour learning experience
led by mentors for students and their
families at a Downtown location to be
determined.
• Winter Gesher Day: Jan. 12, 2014;
cycle runs through March 15.
• Spring Gesher Day: March 23, 2014;
cycle runs through May 31.
• Eden Garden Block Club: Sunday

Volunteer Dahlia Wilson-Welsh with
Andrew Diaminah of PeerCorps

express the beginning of a deeper commit-
ment to community service, Judaism and
their relationship to Detroit."
Jeffrey Lasday, executive director of
Federation's Alliance for Jewish Education,
says, "For too many young people, becoming
b'nai mitzvah is an end goal rather than a
start or continuation of Jewish learning.
"Our hope is to create more dynamic
partners in Jewish learning, working closely
with congregations to creatively convene
members from two age groups, b'nai mitz-
vah students and high school juniors and
seniors, each at a critical juncture in their
Jewish identity,' Lasday adds. "We want to
provide our b'nai mitzvah students with
accessible role models, Jewish teen mentors
who have opted to stay involved in Jewish life
even after the completion of their bar or bat
mitzvah:'

Lasting Impressions

month for two-and-a-half months.
"It's a big commitment:' Feldhusen
says. "It takes a whole family to get
behind the idea, starting with an ori-
entation we call Gesher Day. Gesher is
the Hebrew word for bridge ... and what we
do at the beginning is to explore the bridges
we can build as we bring ourselves to new
places and experiences in the city:'

The Bereishit Project
One of the goals of the PeerCorps program
is to encourage students to bring their own
interests, skills and creativity into the process
by completing a project that serves as a cap-
stone to the cycle. "We call it our Bereishit
[beginning] Project:' Feldhusen says. "The
idea is for students to document their learn-
ing in some way — through their photos,
videos, artwork or writing — as a means to

afternoons, twice a month for three
hours; some Thursdays in the spring.

• Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue:

Sunday afternoons, twice a month for
three hours.

• St. Joseph's Healthcare Center:

Sunday afternoons, three times a
month for two hours.
• D-Town Farms: Sunday mornings/
afternoons, twice a month for three
hours.
• Clark Park: Weekdays from 4-6 p.m.
Three times a month for two hours.

For more information, email
peercorpsdetroit@gmail.com , visit
peercorpsdetroit.tumblr.com or call
Nora Feldhusen at (313) 355-3417.

Starting small, designed to grow, PeerCorps
currently has recruited 10 mentors who are
working in pairs with 10 b'nai mitzvah stu-
dents. With three Sunday morning sessions
under their belt since the start of the cycle in
October, the four teens in the field at D-Town
Farms have become fast friends. Each tells a
story of being pulled into the program.
Emily heard from a friend and came
into the program first, then encouraged
fellow Tamarack camper and Berkley
schoolmate Noah to join.
Dahlia, 12, will celebrate her bat mitzvah
at Shir Tikvah in January and is quick to
share, "My mom made me do this; so I called
my friend Violet, and here she
Emily says, "It's been great. This is not
your typical 'come-down-and-volunteer
and sorta do something for an hour or two
We are here actually doing real work and
affecting more people than I ever thought
possible:'
With his love of the outdoors and inter-
est in agriculture, Noah is thrilled to work
at D-Town Farms. "Bee farming, that's the
first thing we did. I never thought I'd be in
a bee suit; it was awesome! Our goal here is
not only go get community service hours —
we're out there to have fun, too:'
Adds Feldhusen, "So much of life is about
learning wherever you are. Our hope with
PeerCorps students is for them to learn how
to enter different communities around Metro
Detroit and understand how they are part of
the story that's woven into the fabric of the
region:'

❑

Vivian Henoch writes for www.myjewishdetroit.
org, where this story first appeared.

