Published: 29 April 2022
Last updated: 4 March 2024
NOMI KALTMANN meets a dedicated cohort of young Australian Jews who are creating meaningful experiences and work for young people with a disability
DANIELLE WAKERMAN LOVES a good challenge. As the manager of the JCA The Choice Foundation, a Sydney-based charity for people with a disability, she loves looking at complex problems to understand the best way to address them.
Each year, the foundation she manages accepts applications for funding from people who are keen to improve lives of persons with disability in five key areas: social, respite, housing, vocation and education.
“What we fund has to be an innovative idea. We are not interested in doubling up. Our main mission is to create more opportunities for persons with disability,” says Wakerman.
The innovative approach taken by JCA The Choice Foundation, a charity founded in 2018 by Sydney philanthropists Taryn and Andrew Boyarsky, has paid dividends within the Australian Jewish community. The foundation caters to thousands of participants across their programs, and focuses on funding Jewish organisations, but the hope is that those programs impact the wider community.
Droves of young people flock to the foundation with their best ideas, keen to receive funding to create solutions to longstanding problems in the disability space.
But it’s not just the foundation that is benefiting. Across Australia, some of the best and brightest minds of the Jewish community are creating programs, organisations and solutions to some of the most complex issues facing persons with disability.
Wakerman finds the influx of creativity and energy in the space exhilarating. “We are trying to be innovative and creative in a space that has been in existence forever. But in recent years, it has taken off and become a freshplace for young people to work in,” she reflects.
“While we have captured the attention of young people, we want to tap into their minds and use their creativity. This development has been very exciting!”
