Partner with Tivnu for Service Trips and Immersive Learning Experiences
Multi-day Trips Built Around
Hands-On Service and Fun
If you’re responsible for planning service trips for your synagogue, school, or camp, Tivnu is here to help. We design 3-10-day group trips that explore social justice through a Jewish lens, putting people to work alongside trusted community partners addressing challenges such as food security, homelessness, and environmental stewardship.
During Tivnu trips, participants also have time to explore and enjoy their destination, whether that’s Portland, Philadelphia, New York City, or Nayarit, Mexico. These educational trips for high school students, middle schoolers, families, and adult groups make it easy to offer well-organized, unforgettable programming rooted in Jewish values — with lessons and experiences that stay with participants long after the trip ends.
Choose from Volunteer Trips and Immersive Learning Experiences for Teens in the U.S. and Mexico
From Portland to Philadelphia and New York City to Nayarit, Mexico, Tivnu’s trips combine hands-on service with engaging Jewish education and time to experience each unique place. With multiple options available, you can choose trips that best fit your group and your goals.
Portland: Housing and Environmental Action
Portland is Tivnu’s home base and flagship location, offering two distinct trips that combine hands-on work, Jewish learning, and outdoor adventure. Both options include opportunities to enjoy the Pacific Northwest’s natural beauty, from hiking forest trails to getting splashed by waterfalls, with seasonal options such as whitewater rafting or cross country skiing. Time spent outdoors, hands-on learning, and exploring a new city leaves groups with impactful new connections to each other and our world.
Service learning trips centered on housing justice
Learn from community members and organizations working to ensure people have access to food, housing, dignity, and more. Groups take part in safe, meaningful construction projects in tiny house villages with people who have experienced homelessness and food insecurity. All of this is supervised by professional construction trainers and staff with longstanding connections to the villages. Our trips are framed with discussions of Jewish values and historical experiences. This blend of first-hand learning and hands-on service enables groups to see how their work directly addresses crucial community needs.
Service trips focused on environmental action and stewardship
Using the Pacific Northwest as an outdoor classroom, groups engage in environmental service and learning through hands-on projects such as habitat restoration, regenerative agriculture, and wildlife surveys. They study Jewish texts and Indigenous traditions that emphasize protecting the earth and valuing its resources, connecting those teachings to conversations with environmental innovators about biodiversity, climate change, and local solutions. By combining time in the lush forests of the Columbia River Gorge with exploration of vibrant Portland, this trip offers a memorable encounter with old-growth forests and new ideas.
Philadelphia: Democracy & Civic Engagement
In Philadelphia, the birthplace of American democracy, participants examine how democratic systems are built, challenged, and sustained — and what it means to be an active participant in civic life. They also explore how Jewish sources and history inform our understanding of civic responsibility. Through conversations with local leaders, site-based learning, and service opportunities with trusted community partners, participants connect what they see and hear to meaningful civic action and consider their own role in public life.
Philadelphia is a walkable city rich in history and energy. With knowledgeable and dynamic guides, groups visit iconic landmarks like the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall and lesser-known, off-the-beaten-path historic sites, reflecting on how each connects to the challenges and questions of today. By weaving together fun, history, and guided reflection, the trip experience strengthens peer connections and deepens participants’ commitment to civic responsibility.
New York City: Immigration, Identity & Jewish Life
New York City is one of the great Jewish cities of the world and an unmatched classroom for exploring immigration, identity, and Jewish history. On this Tivnu trip, Jewish experience, past and present, comes to life through interactive walking tours, storytelling, and select service opportunities for teens.
Participants explore how waves of Jewish immigration shaped life in NYC and how communities organized for dignity and better living and working conditions. With this historical framing, participants will be able to contextualize our conversations with New Yorkers most affected by immigration today.
In addition to exploring historic sites of the Sephardic community of colonial New York and classic Jewish neighborhoods like the Lower East Side, groups visit iconic sites such as Central Park and Chinatown.
Nayarit, Mexico: Sustainability & Community
Visit the vibrant region of Nayarit, Mexico*, through Tivnu’s only international volunteer trip. The region’s dramatic landscape and rich biodiversity set the backdrop for a trip designed to balance service and learning with cultural exchange and fun.
Participants take part in hands-on volunteer work on an organic farm, working alongside local partners to learn how land is cared for, how food is produced, and how community members support one another. Meetings with inspiring innovators, along with Jewish learning and reflection, are built into the program.
Groups will also experience why Nayarit is known as the “Jewel of Mexico,” with time on the beach, snorkeling in clear waters, whale watching, and enjoying the region’s natural beauty together.
*We closely monitor regional conditions and plan travel with safety as our top priority.
Tivnu for Adults
Tivnu doesn’t just offer volunteer trips and immersive learning experiences for teens. We also design unforgettable trips for adults who want to engage in hands-on service and explore issues of social justice through a Jewish lens in New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, and Nayarit, Mexico. Whether you’re part of a synagogue, Federation, nonprofit, board, staff team, Hillel, or other community organization, Tivnu can build a program that aligns with your mission and priorities.
Trips are developed in partnership with trusted local organizations. Participants take part in direct service that responds to community needs, as well as Jewish learning and thought-provoking conversations that connect the work to larger social issues. Programs also include time to share great meals and experience the local culture and natural features together.
If you’re ready to plan an immersive Jewish experience for your adult community or staff team, we would love to begin the conversation.
What to Expect from Tivnu’s Service Learning Trips for Teens
When Tivnu hosts your group, we partner closely with you from the planning process through the final day of the trip. Before your trip, we’ll work with you to:
- Learn about your group, goals, and timeline
- Determine the focus and appropriate length of your trip
- Identify service opportunities with trusted community partners
- Design a schedule that balances service, learning, and time to bond as a group
During your trip, we’ll take care of:
- Leading the daily program and managing logistics
- Facilitating service work and site-based learning
- Guiding group reflections connected to the work
Before leaving, we help students process what they’ve experienced and think intentionally about how to keep learning and engaging together in their home communities.
With careful planning and steady on-the-ground leadership, your trip will be expertly led from start to finish.
Some of the Groups We Have Worked With
- Beth Emet Synagogue, Evanston, IL
- B'nai Keshet, Montclair, NJ
- Camp Tawonga, Groveland, CA
- Chizuk Amuno Congregation, Pikesville, MD
- Congregation Beth Am, Palo Alto, CA
- Congregation Ohr Shalom, Summit, NJ
- Congregation Shaare Emeth, St. Louis, MO
- Frankel Jewish Academy, Detroit, MI
- IKAR, Los Angeles, CA
- Jewish Community High School of the Bay, San Francisco, CA
- Jookender, Framingham, MA
- Kehillah Jewish High School, Palo Alto, CA
- Mem Global, International formerly Moishe House
- San Diego Jewish Academy, San Diego, CA
- Society for the Advancement of Judaism, New York, NY
- Springboard, Chicago, IL
- Tarbut v'Torah Community Day School, Irvine, CA
- Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills, CA
- Temple Sinai, Summit, NJ
- Westchester Jewish Center, Mamaroneck, NY
- Yavneh Day School, Los Gatos, CA