Established in 2010, the Shahaf Foundation – Philanthropic Partnership for Promoting Young Communities, is a unique collaboration between foundations, organizations, and private donors from Israel and abroad who joined together to promote young mission-driven communities and help turn this phenomenon into a national movement.
These communities comprise young members that are ideology-driven, who view their life mission to live permanently within Israel’s geographic and social periphery, making it their home by working together with the local residents to reduce social differences while developing the local community from the cultural, educational, and welfare aspects.
The communities are diversified, and represent the full scope of Israeli society, including religious Zionist, immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union, and youth from both the Jewish and Arab sectors.
270 of these youth communities across Israel operate to advance and develop the areas and neighborhoods in which they live, while collaborating with the local residents and the authorities in dedicated projects they run in a wide range of fields, including centers for local sustainability, social business initiatives, programs for developing local leadership, youth clubs, after-school centers, and more.
The communities operate in partnership with one another, both on a local and national scale, and are members of the same parent organization.
The Ted Arison Family Foundation chose to support the Shahaf Foundation, with a long-term grant of nine years, from 2012 to 2020, totaling $1,304,000.