Last Friday (1st of June) three of the LJY-Netzer movement workers, Adva (our Shlicha), and two others went down to Ravenswood Village to run an interactive and musical Kabbbalat Shabbat. Ravenswood Village is a collection of homes which care for adults with severe learning difficulties. It is run by Norwood and has 13 residential homes on the site, each caring for up to 15 adults. Ravenswood is about an hour outside of London, meaning that it doesn’t get the same stream of volunteers that many London based charities do. On Friday we took down guitars, shaky instruments (artfully made on the train down out of plastic cups, chick peas and tape), challah and wine and ran a 45 minute service at the site’s synagogue. It contained a mix of classic Jewish tunes along with some ‘bangin’ LJY-Netzer anthems with additional shaky instrument input from the residents. All involved had a fun filled Shabbat experience.
This is the second time we have gone to Ravenswood in the last few months. LJY-Netzer organised a very special seder, at which 27 young members from LJY-Netzer, RSY-Netzer and Habonim Dror went to Ravenswood Village by coach and ran a memorable evening, complete with lots of singing, dancing and rattle shaking. This project enabled many people who otherwise would not have celebrated the seder this year to take part in and enjoy a vibrant seder with lots of enthusiastic young people.
LJY-Netzer has chosen Norwood as its Social Action Project of the year, the aim being to provide practical opportunities for our 
members to volunteer as well as the more traditional fundraising activities we carry out for charities we support in Israel. On many of our events we have been making instruments and writing letters for the Ravenswood village. We hope that this event is the springboard for many more activities with Ravenswood and other Norwood areas. The day itself was a massive success, with residents and volunteers both having an incredible time. Please get in touch if you have any questions or want to know about how to get involved with future LJY-Netzer Social action activity.