About the Campaign

Youth Renewal Fund invites you to join us in a collective effort to walk, run, hike 10,000,000 steps to bring awareness and funding for hundreds of students in the periphery of Israel. Come together with the Darca students and get mobile to help them achieve social mobility!

Unlike a traditional race, the YRF Virtual Walk Run takes place where you are and when you want, anytime between May 1st and May 30th, registration begins April 19th. 

All funds raised will go directly towards supporting Darca schools and providing our students an innovative education as a means to improve social mobility. As you may know, Israel currently faces one of the largest and fastest growing gaps in educational achievement between rich and poor. An under-educated population puts Israel’s predominantly knowledge-based economy at risk. However, through Darca schools, Israeli children discover and harness the power of education as a means to improve quality of life for themselves, their communities and their country.  Darca provides Israeli high school students in lower income communities—regardless of ability, religion, birthplace, geographic or socio-economic status—an excellent education designed to improve social mobility. 

Be part of the first-ever YRF Virtual Walk Run and help us celebrate Darca Schools. Join a team to support one of these really important initiatives! Your participation, whether you register, sponsor, donate or spread the word, makes a positive impact on Israel’s most underserved communities. JOIN A TEAM – GET ACTIVE – MAKE AN IMPACT!

Teams

English Fluency

In today’s world and especially Israel’s international high tech economy where many of Israel’s young professionals find opportunity for success, English Fluency is vital. It opens doors setting up students to be integral members of professional endeavors. For this reason Darca invests significantly in English Fluency education. 

The program’s goal is for students to graduate with English fluency that is relevant and useful to our 21st century world. Darca’s 21st century English program elevates students English fluency to the necessary level, ensuring they feel comfortable persuasively and publicly speaking in English, maintaining complex English dialogue, always with multi-cultural sensitivity and all of this at the highest levels.

Healing Hearts

In the spirit of social responsibility, Darca together with YRF seeks to establish the new Healing

Hearts for Hope program. Darca is looking to partner with educational institutions in the United States and through this cooperation build a transatlantic community of scholars (students) and mentors (teachers) in Israel and the United States committed to developing solutions to today’s complex dilemmas and effecting positive change.

Teacher Training 

The Darca network truly believes that by empowering the teachers they are setting them up to, in turn, empower the students. Darca focuses on providing its teachers with optimal skills to make the most significant educational improvements. A teacher who is motivated, has a strong support network, utilizes 21st century teaching techniques, leads an effective classroom and makes a difference in dozens of students’ lives. 

Darcas teaching training programs and conferences are a proven method to ensure teachers are performing their best, looking to innovate in their classroom and reach new educational heights. 

Welfare Support

The majority of the areas where Darca schools operate are ranked on the very low end of the socioeconomic scale. Even before the 2020 Covid Crisis a number of students in these cities required additional welfare support. 

Research has shown that it is extremely difficult for students to do well in school when they are hungry or lack basic necessities. In order to truly give all children a chance at excelling, Darca’s work must extend beyond the classroom. Through Darca’s welfare program,  Darca provides a welfare budget in each of our schools, so that no child will be left behind due to a lack of food, clothing, or school supplies. A welfare budget in a Darca school costs an average of $30,000 per year. Given the impacts of Covid this past year and unemployment rates at troubling levels, Darca has received a record number of welfare requests to support the students and their families.

STEM Education

STEM skills are critical for 21st century innovation and advancement. In Israel’s geosocial periphery many schools lack the resources to offer these programs leading to significant disparities. 

Darca’s STEM program opens the door for students to engage with the fascinating world of today’s science and technology featuring integrated technology learning that helps students to solve realistic challenges and design their own prototypes. It also gives them the ability to learn creativity and build critical thinking skills. This program increases science literacy and participation in honors math, science and physics, serving as a springboard to accelerate social mobility and increase diversity in STEM professions.

Model UN Program 

Darca’s Model UN program teaches students valuable lessons about democracy, debate, creative thinking, and overcoming differences to work together toward a common goal. These lessons come in handy well beyond the framework of school, and go hand-in-hand with the values and ideals that constitute strong, democratic leadership.

This program, based on actual proceedings of the United Nations, is a demonstration of global relations at its finest. Students research global topics and then have the opportunity to present and debate their findings in a supportive and constructive environment. Darca is the only network in Israel to lead a Model UN, as this privilege is usually reserved for students from affluent communities.

Awards

You and your team members will work towards achieving the overall fundraising and fitness goal while competing against the other teams!  At the end of the campaign, there will be prizes for our individual and team winners!

Throughout the campaign look out for other fun challenges/incentives for an opportunity to win raffle prizes!

Our Goals

• Our collective goal is to raise more than $1,000,000 and reach a total of 10,000,000 steps!
  • This $1 Million will help to support the following initiatives in our schools
    • English Fluency
    • Healing Hearts- Social Justice for racial inequality
    • Teaching training program
    • Welfare Support/Covid Relief
    • STEM Education
    • Model UN Program
• Join one of our teams each raising money towards one of these initiatives!