About the project
The Neve Ya’acov Community Center operated out of two public schools beginning in the late 1970s. The Jerusalem Foundation supported early center activities, such as creation of a new immigrant club to integrate new immigrants, particularly the large number of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, into the social and cultural life of the neighborhood. (The club was built on the successful model of the Joseph & Caroline Gruss Community Center Branch for Immigrants from the former Soviet Union.) The Foundation continued to support activities for children, youth, adults and seniors, when the center completed its own facility in 1983, and when it became one facility within the larger Petrie Civic, Education & Sports Center in 1986. In 1995, the Jerusalem Foundation completed a major expansion of the facility, and rededicated it as the Shein-Davidoff Community Center.The $2.5 million construction project included a preschool, an afterschool learning center, computer room and seniors club for the 3,000 residents who use the center each week. Since then, the Foundation has undertaken smaller-scale projects including renovation of a youth club and creation of the Intel Clubhouse, a computer center that is part of the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, a project of Boston’s Museum of Science and the MIT Media Laboratory, in 2001.
