In 2012, BBYO, Inc. (BBYO) added three Directors of Jewish Enrichment (DJEs) to its field management structure. With professional backgrounds and graduate training as Jewish educators, these full-time employees were brought into the organization in an effort “to deepen the Jewish experiential learning offered to [BBYO’s] teen-led community and prepare Jewish teens for a lifetime of Jewish involvement.” The three DJEs are in place for a three year initial pilot project, from 2012 to 2015, with the understanding that a second cohort of three DJEs would be added, provided that the grant criteria for the pilot phase were achieved.
Growing out of a 2011 study of BBYO’s impact, the DJE Initiative is part of BBYO’s broader intentions to strengthen the potential for teens’ Jewish enrichment and deeper “meaningful Jewish experiences.” BBYO’s new Educational Framework, now called “Kivun,” was also developed in response to BBYO’s impact study. Kivun outlines BBYO’s goals for teens’ Jewish growth, outcomes related to those goals, and indicators of teens’ Jewish growth. The DJEs are meant to help BBYO implement this new Educational Framework in order to achieve the articulated goals.
Enhancing Capacity for Jewish Enrichment: An Evaluation of BBYO’s Directors of Jewish Enrichment Pilot, March 2015
In 2013, about a dozen funders from across the U.S. began meeting together to better understand how to develop and invest in local opportunities to educate and engage Jewish teens. Convened by the Jim Joseph Foundation, members of the group were already supporting teen programming but seeking ways to do it better in order to significantly expand teen involvement in active Jewish life. By the end of 2014, the group had developed into a Funder Collaborative in which at least half of the members were in the midst of or ready to begin grantmaking to support comprehensive, innovative and sustainable new community-based teen initiatives. Ultimately, the Collaborative hopes its work will reach beyond the initial participating communities, leading to adaptations of the pilot experiments in other communities across the country and in the offerings of national providers of Jewish teen education and engagement experiences.
Internally, the Funder Collaborative intends for this examination to help inform the ongoing growth and functioning of the group, which expects to continue until at least 2018. Externally, by documenting the lessons learned from this unique Funder Collaborative, they hope to inform future co-funding and shared learning efforts, both within and outside of the Jewish philanthropic community.
Finding New Paths for Teen Engagement and Learning: A Funder Collaborative Leads the Way, January 2015
Press Release on Finding New Paths