Press
JSitter.com plays matchmaker between Jewish families and Jewish sitters for baby, pet or home
The Tampa Jewish Community Center and Federation
J-sitter is a new networking website/service, providing a safe, easy and convenient site for Jews to find sitters in their local area and for sitters to find job listings, as well. For employers: create profiles, post job offerings, access database for your area. For potential employees: create profile and search job postings. J-Sitter advises sitters to meet potential employers in a public place and that both provide references. Plus, an agency who performs nationwide background checks promotes their services on the JSitter site. Read entire article...
Sitting Pretty
Rochelle Eisenberg
Jewish Times
This weekend, Owings Mills resident Lauren Shapiro, 23, is launching JSitter; a national online service matching Jewish baby-sitters, pet-sitters and house-sitters with Jewish families. A Beth El congregant, Ms. Shapiro received her bachelor's degree in business from Stevenson University and is completing her master's degree in education at Towson University. Read entire article (PDF)...
JSitter: Connecting Families with Reliable Sitters
Allison Margulies
Young Money
Twenty-three year old Lauren Shapiro had a full-time babysitting job, so when families would call and ask her to babysit she would refer her friends. “I noticed there was a huge need for not only sitters looking for jobs, but families searching for a reliable sitter in their area.” stated Shapiro. Her response was J-Sitter, a new website which allows families to search for the perfect babysitter and vice versa. Although, the “J” in J-sitter does stand for Jewish, it’s not necessarily intended for Jewish families and sitters. Anyone is welcome to use the website. I recently sat down with Lauren to ask her all about J-sitter. Read entire article...
JSitter Has Arrived
Mitzah Market
Finding babysitters in Baltimore
Abby Weinstock
examiner.com
The brainchild of Towson graduate student and Baltimorean Lauren Shapiro, J-Sitter plays matchmaker between Jewish babysitters with Jewish families. Shapiro says of her site, "Much like the J-Date model, I wanted to give families and sitters a level of comfort to know that they are matched with an individual that shares their beliefs and values. I realized with the market out there, I needed to create a niche, which led to the development of J-Sitter.
J-Sitter is about creating a level of comfort and satisfaction, knowing it is a network of people who share similar values." The business is scheduled to launch in October 2009. Until then, interested families and sitters can enter their email address on the site to receive notification of its upcoming “live” status.
Sitters can prepare profiles for the website for free; member families are charged based on their membership plan (e.g., monthly, annual). There are a number of compelling aspects of this matchmaking service that justify the fee. First, sitters are required to provide resumes, references, and availability to member families. In addition, families can opt (for an additional charge) to have a background check run on a prospective sitter. Two-way reviews will be included—meaning that both the sitters and the parents/families can provide reviews of the other party. Sitters can also indicate their experience in caring for multiples on their profile. In addition, if a family prefers to have a Jewish sitter (for example, if the family keeps a strictly Kosher home and prefers to have a sitter with exposure to the rigors of maintaining the rules of Kashrut) – J-Sitter is clearly an ideal option.