Feasibility study and blog

From September to December 2010 my task is to research and write a feasibility study for the Pears Foundation, exploring the possibility of setting up a new Jewish communal living and social action project in London, based largely on AVODAH Jewish Service Corps, which has been running in the United States since 1998.

I will be using this blog to record my progress and capture thoughts and issues as they come up. I don't expect anyone else to read this, except maybe Steve Miller, my mentor on the project, but do hope it will be a useful resource towards writing the feasibility study, more ordered and thought through than a set of personal notes or even a journal, but less structured and formal than the final paper itself. I intend to update the blog each time I discover something new, have an important or interesting meeting around the project, or need to think my way round a problem or set of issues.

I anticipate the feasibility study will cover three main areas: mapping existing projects and organisations similar or related to the one I and my colleague Andrew Munk are proposing to establish, describing what else is out there in the Jewish and non-Jewish world, both in the UK and abroad; scoping the potential for our new organisation, identifying the main issues, financial, operational or otherwise; and setting out a blueprint for action, making specific proposals and recommendations to the Pears Foundation and JHub, who are sponsoring this study.