Benny S., National Director, Springboard

Meet Benny and learn about his role as National Director of JDC's Springboard initiative.

Benny serves as National Director of JDC's Springboard initiative, which assists immigrant youth aged 16 to 21 years old of the Kawkazi and Ethiopian communities; before, during and after their military service. Army service is the key to successful integration into Israeli society for all youth, and the Springboard program helps ease the way for immigrant youth and their families, who would otherwise struggle to succeed.

Benny got an early start in a career dedicated to social service. After serving in the Israeli Defense Forces as a combat fighter in the Nachal unit, Benny was a local youth leader at Kibbutz Dafna, and since 1994 worked as a youth leader at the Manof Youth Village. There, he served as coordinator for the boarding school until 2000, when he moved on to pursue higher education and work on several other exciting projects focused on youth development.

In 2001, Benny earned his bachelors degree in social work from the University of Haifa, with a focus on community organization. He is now in the process of earning a masters degree in social work with a focus on social management at the University of Haifa. In addition to this extensive study, Benny has taken more than 600 hours of supplementary courses and continued education classes at various colleges and training schools throughout Israel. These courses have provided training on how to be a counselor for youth-at-risk, or covered topics such as youth and adolescent development, encouraging reading for enjoyment, and approaches to educational treatments.

Benny has also served as a family caretaker at the Kibbutz Daliah Welfare Center, as a counselor for the autistic population at the "Chofim" hostel, and as a mentor in the "Friend for a Kindergartener" project organized by the Union for the Advancement of the Student in Haifa University. From 2003 to 2004, Benny served as the manager of a post hospitalized rehabilitation center for youth in Carmiel.

During his graduate studies, Benny served as an assistant in a course on the "Basics of Intervention" at the School of Social Work in Haifa, where he also served as the project manager for a social intervention program for schools. As a teaching assistant for several courses at the university, he taught intervention methods and strategic planning of welfare services in Israel.

Before taking on the role of Director of JDC’s Springboard program, Benny served as a program associate for the National Headquarters of the City without Violence initiative, where he guided the development of local authorities in all branches of the program. For the last two years Benny also worked in services development for children and youth in risk at the National Insurance Institute.