News & Blogs Category: Guest Blog

Editor’s Note: More than four years ago, Mechon Hadar—an educational institution that empowers Jews to create and sustain vibrant, practicing, egalitarian communities of Torah learning, prayer, and service—received an infusion of investments that helped catapult it from “start-up to second-stage.” Since that time, Mechon Hadar experienced dramatic increases in programming, impact, and organizational sustainability, with an expanded donor base and number of students. As a result, it is a leading institution in the Jewish non-denominational educational space.

Earlier this year, Mechon Hadar completed a strategic planning process to outline a growth plan moving forward. Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, President and CEO of Mechon Hadar, offers reflections and lessons learned from that process:

If infancy was about surviving, and second-stage was about growing, what comes next? What do we do with investments in our organizational growth? Create more programs? Reach more students? Add more staff? While we certainly strive to answer affirmatively to these questions, the most important part of our current growth has been a focus on long-term strategic planning, a first for our organization.

Our experiences, lessons learned, and subsequent paths forward we believe offer important insights for any organization considering, or about to undergo, a similar process.

How We Arrived at This Point

Mechon Hadar was founded in 2006 to empower a generation of Jews to create and sustain vibrant, practicing, egalitarian communities of Torah learning, prayer, and service. In the first three years, Mechon Hadar’s budget grew from $240,000 to $660,000. In its third year, Hadar received four multi-year grants: a three-year signature Covenant grant ($153,000), a three-year AVI CHAI Fellowship award ($225,000), a renewable $150,000 grant from the UJA-Federation of New York, and, most significantly, a five-year $1,375,000 challenge grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation. Following a 3-year renewal from Jim Joseph totaling $600,000, Hadar received a $150,000 grant from the Foundation for the explicit purpose of strategic planning in 2015.

At the time, most of the start-ups emerging into second-stage space had not invested significant dollars in strategic planning, and Hadar was no exception (The newly launched Project Accelerate, of which Mechon Hadar was a grantee, is starting to change that trend). Without the Jim Joseph Foundation grant, Hadar’s board would never have approved such a large (relative to our budget) expenditure for planning. But the significant investment allowed Hadar to work with top-tier consultants from TCC Group, and the impact was significant. Following the plan adoption, board members started to increase their gifts significantly—not just in terms of dollars, but also length of time. They finally felt excited and confident enough about the organization’s future to make multi-year gifts, often for the life of the four-year plan.

But the planning process was far from smooth, and we want to offer three ways in which the production of the plan and its eventual adoption was surprising:

1. We told the consultants that a large part of the visioning around strategic planning was done before they arrived. Indeed, we had devoted multiple board sessions, plus focus groups with staff and alumni, on what (we thought) was a very clear choice of three distinct pathways. The original goal of the plan was to flesh out the path on which we had settled. But after a few weeks of working with the consultants, we learned that our key stakeholders— both lay and professional—did not have clear buy-in on this direction. Our prior planning efforts did not mean we could bypass any of the stages with the consultants. This was a bitter pill to swallow, as it meant going back to the drawing board on practical decisions, and forced us to question our own perceptions of our leadership prior to the formal planning process. The consultants were not overly surprised about this development, and they were willing to re-formulate the engagement (while keeping the cost constant) to retread some of the bigger picture work. Once we finished the plan, our key stakeholders really understood the decisions we made—what was left on the table, and what we decided to press forward with. For other organizations embarking on a strategic planning process, consider engaging all stakeholders from the beginning and be open to wherever the planning process may take you.
2. Our second learning was about staff involvement. Often, strategic planning is done at the highest staff levels (with perhaps a single representative from non-senior staff, if that), and the rest of the staff is interviewed but not brought along in the process fully. This is how we began the engagement as well. But soon after a full-staff focus group (without senior staff present), it became clear that the larger staff needed to be more involved in the process. This is true to our culture, where staff—especially faculty—have shaped the development of our growth over the previous ten years. We expanded our planning group to include more staff, effectively doubling staff representation. This made for a large (sometimes unwieldy) group of 20. But the consultant was masterful at facilitating such a large group, and when it came time to adopt the plan, the staff had significant buy-in because they had been involved in the process.
3. Related, senior leadership, many of whom had been with Hadar from inception, realized in this process that not all of their ideas—especially the most aggressive (some said: unrealistic) gambles—would be a part of Hadar’s plan moving forward. The experience with this reality was generally positive: senior staff accepted this, understanding that the decision-making process in 2016 was far different than it was in 2006—and this was a sign of progress made. The flip side is that the board really found its voice in this process.
4. Finally, one of the most significant unintended outcomes of this process was the space it offered for some staff members to shine. Individuals who would not have normally stepped forward to play a role in organizational direction exhibited creativity, foresight, and, of course, strategic thinking. This is especially important because, as we learned, even with expert consultants, board and staff still have to do much of the heavy lifting. Moving forward, Hadar will look to utilize individuals in ways that both advance their careers and add value to the organization as it implements the strategic plan.Following the passage of the strategic plan last summer, Mechon Hadar attracted additional multi-year investments, including a $2.15 million grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation, and, more recently, a $900,000 grant from the Maimonides Fund, both through 2020. These investments are two examples of the power that real strategic planning can have on the possibility of growth.

Final Thoughts

Of course we recognize that the success of a strategic planning process is not the quality of the report but the degree to which its recommendations and insights can be put into action. It is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. And so, while these reflections share some of the deeply valuable lessons learned and insights we gained through this process, the real test begins now. Can we build on these lessons? Can we effectively implement our plans? We hope—and are confident—that our actions will answer these questions with a resounding “Yes.”

Rabbi Elie Kaunfer is President and CEO of Mechon Hadar

In the year 5778, the future, it seems, is now. If someone 50 years ago time-traveled to today and saw the myriad technologies and devices that make possible working virtually, she would be amazed, to say the least. She would see a professional environment for many where video conference, shared screens (of all kinds), emails, texts, and other virtual communication are the norm. Wow.

In many regards, we are fortunate to operate with these options. Geography, and sometimes even budgets, suddenly become nearly irrelevant as people around the world can collaborate, learn from each other, and trouble-shoot challenges either in real-time or as soon as they’re able to check their smart phone. The timing and place is entirely up to the individual.

Yet, with this flexibility and the advantages that come with it, we also have experienced its limitations. The value of traditional in-person workspaces that provide face-to-face interactions remains an important balance to today’s technologies. In our capacities as implementers of Jewish teen initiatives at Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston and The JCC of Greater Baltimore, supported by The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, we’ve taken steps to facilitate opportunities for youth and teen professionals to come together in communal spaces. We’re doing this on limited budgets, so thinking strategically, and creatively is a must, as is experiencing the genuine impact in-person work environments have on these professionals, the teens with whom they work, and each of our communities’ landscape of teen Jewish experiences.

Going Against the Virtual Workplace Norm

Economics combined with the nature of responsibilities of a “regional” position means that many Jewish professionals, especially those who serve youth and teens, work out of their homes or are constantly on the road. They don’t have the traditional office and the natural interactions and environment that come with that. We know how common it is for these professionals to work remotely, floating from their home to coffee shops and elsewhere.

As anyone who has worked like this knows, it can be a lonely experience. Beyond that, there are elements of support systems, creative brainstorming, and knowledge-sharing that are lacking from the face-to-face, office workspace.

With this premise, we each looked for ways to create a communal workplace for professionals serving Jewish teens in our communities. We went about this in different ways, but have both seen positive results.

What’s Old is New: How to Bring People Together Today

In Boston, Margie regularly opens her home as a work space for anyone who is a youth or teen professional. It’s not surprising that professionals who have no offices come. What has been more surprising is that professionals who work in an office but not with others serving youth or teens come too. Why? Because we are building a community of youth professionals of which they want to be a part.

In fact, a collaborative grant proposal between local synagogues, a camp, a day school, and a community organization emerged directly from talks in this communal work environment.  This proposal, which recently received funding from CJP, includes a teen engagement professional who shares her time with several of these organizations.  Moreover, when people are together in this house, they help each other with marketing and publicity–both developing materials and simply knowing what other organizations are offering—troubleshooting challenges, brainstorming for programs, and simply turning to one another for professional development advice.

In Baltimore, 4Front—the name of the Jewish teen initiative—has office space that has become a hub of teen-focused activity. It’s a physical gathering space for teens and for the adults who care about them, which has strengthened relationships among professional colleagues and fostered collaboration. BBYO, for instance, has historically had an office at the JCC.  It now sits intentionally in the same space as the 4Front staff in order to spark conversation and collaboration. A summer camp that needed to conduct teen interviews also has been invited to set up shop in 4Front, while part of the office is designated as a “swing space” for any youth or teen professional to come in and have a place to work. Additionally, one day a month, beginning this October, will be designated as an open and collaborative day where professionals know they can come to the office and interact with peers working there that same day.

From In-Person to Real Results

We’ve heard from the professionals themselves how much they look forward to these in-person opportunities. They recognize that building a community of peers working in their field contributes to their professional growth. And while professional development is an integral part of all of the community initiatives within the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative these interactions are different than learning a specific new approach or skill. These interactions offer support and foster connections that lead to professional success and positive feelings about one’s choice of work.

Importantly, there also are tangible results. Here’s how the teen Jewish landscape, and the professionals within it, have been positively influenced by working in the same physical space:

• Professional collaborations have developed around programs, marketing, and more—all efforts that occurred because professionals built trust and discussed their plans in ways that only happen in person.
• When these teen professionals come together around the table, literally and figuratively, the conversation is very congenial and collegial. This hasn’t always been the case. But being together and establishing some basic ground rules makes a real difference.  One rule in Baltimore, for example, is that, when we gather together, no one can use the term “my teens.” This helps set the tone that every organization is in the same boat and reinforces the idea that we are collectively responsible for the welfare and engagement of all local Jewish teens.
• By bringing people together, professionals gain a better understanding of the entire landscape of teen Jewish experiences. They are able to help teens connect with the experiences and programs that best fit them and their interests.
• 4Front actually has entered into organizational relationships because it shares space with specific organizations. For example, it is hosting a NFTY event at the JCC, and NFTY is making use of 4Front’s staff and Jewish educators so they can interface with their teens as well. Soon 4Front also will begin a peer consultancy, where professionals can present a challenge they have in their work to the group, which then consults on that issue. Clearly this model only will work if each professional views peers as trusted, informed, and valued resources.

Traditional Models in a New Age

We are excited by these results and the relationships and collaborations created. Moving forward, we want to strengthen more of our community organizations so they can provide the highest quality and deeply meaningful Jewish experiences for teens. We do that by strengthening professionals and the connections between them. And while technology has a large role to play to that end in today’s work environments, it’s important not to lose sight of the value of face-to-face interactions. We have learned and already seen results that come from sharing space and engaging in-person. It’s simple, but powerful. Trust and sense of unity among professionals goes a long way.

Margie Bogdanow, LICSW, is a Senior Consultant for Teen Education and Engagement at Combined Jewish Philanthropies. Rabbi Dena Shaffer is Executive Director of 4Front Baltimore, the Teen Engagement Initiative at JCC Baltimore, which is supported by The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.

Five years ago, Foundation for Jewish Camp, with the support of the Jim Joseph and AVI CHAI Foundations, launched the second cohort of Jewish Specialty Camp Incubator. With the conclusion of the grant period late last year, an independent evaluation (viewable as Executive Summary and Full Report), conducted by Informing Change, shows many of the same important, positive outcomes as were seen in the first incubator: Incubator camps attract middle and high school youth who wouldn’t otherwise attend Jewish camp; The camps’ specialties drive camp enrollment and help keep campers coming back; With Incubator staff guidance, the four camps quickly developed the infrastructure necessary for organizational growth and stability; Incubator camps infuse Jewish content into the camp experience in many ways and shape the lives of campers regarding their Jewish growth, specialty growth, and personal growth; among other outcomes.

We don’t want to focus on these positive outcomes here, as excited as we continue to be about them. Rather, we want to share some of the insights from the evaluation that are relevant not just to the incubator camps, but to the broader field of Jewish camping, and even to the overall field of Jewish education and engagement.

1. The Importance of “New”

The opportunity for a “new” experience is especially appealing to Jewish teens. Teens have many competing interests for their summer time: school, work, internships, spending time with family and friends. To make camp appealing to them, Incubator camps need to continue marketing their newness, both to first-time campers and returning campers who want to do something different from last summer – what we call an “aspirational arc.” As an example, URJ Sci-Tech Academy not only has added new specialty tracks each year – such as Forensics; Bio-Zone: SciTech MD; and Earth and Sky: Astronomy and the World Above” – but also builds in new elements to its existing specialty tracks as campers progress from youth to teen sessions. These strategies help to counter an attitude of “been there, done that” that returning campers may have as they age and run out of summers to have new experiences before they leave home for college or to start their careers. This challenge is as present for camps as it is for any organization engaging this audience.

2. The Value of Data

Similar to existing organizations, new organizations (camps included) need data of many types to inform strategic decisions and monitor early activities to identify strengths and weaknesses for course correction. And while start-up organizations have many demands pulling on their time, data collection should be prioritized. The Incubator provided camps with data from their campers and families, benchmarked against the other Incubator I and II camps, as well as other Jewish camps in the field. In addition, Incubator staff and camp stakeholders measured each camp’s organizational capacity semi-annually to ensure that progress was being made, so the camps are on track to exit the Incubator out of the startup stage, on a path to sustainability.

3. The Importance of Filling Out Staff

Directors need staff support, especially from a strong assistant director, early on. Starting any business can be a lonely (even with the support of a cohort) and challenging endeavor; bringing together a professional team early in the process provides a much needed support system. Incubator II camps benefitted from having an assistant director selected well before the first camp summer so both the director and assistant director could participate in Incubator activities as they developed the camp concept into reality. This support was invaluable to the directors and facilitated many of the organizational development achievements in the early years.

4. Get the Campers

Any organization with an earned income model must make recruitment among its top priorities even when the program is not fully developed. Focusing on enrolling campers in early years allows for quick and efficient testing of the program elements and operations; this focus also is the best path to quicker sustainability. Camps with lower enrollment in the first year never quite caught up with their own initial goals and with the other camps. Campers from the first year or two also help with word-of-mouth recruitment, as seen with many parents deciding in later years to send their children to camp after hearing about it from a friend or family member.

5. Integrated Jewish Learning

Nearly all Incubator campers and their parents say that camp had a positive influence on campers’ Jewish lives. The way Incubator camps approach integrating Jewish learning,values, and reflections into their programming is working, regardless of whether the Jewish content is fully integrated with the specialty throughout the entire day, or partially integrated at select times. What is most important is to find a model and tailor the Jewish curriculum to meet the end user at their level so they better engage with it.

6. A Business Model Designed for Sustainability

For long-term sustainability, a new Jewish camp – specialty or not – needs to enroll, at a bare minimum, an average of 80 campers per week during their summer season. Camp leaders need to be mindful that giving away camp for free – or at deeply discounted rates – is not the way to reach this enrollment goal. Scholarships and discounts may help bring campers early on, but can also set the camp back on its journey toward financial sustainability. Finding the right balance of enrolling campers and making a profit is crucial for new camps and organizations.

7. Location Matters

Location affects recruitment and the camp experience. Incubator camp directors identified locations to support their specialty and fit their budgets. The financial implications of location include the facility costs, operating costs of running that site, and recruitment costs of traveling from that site to meet with new families. Simply, the location needs to be attractive and accessible to enough of the target market that they enroll.

With these positive outcomes and insights, specialty camps have created an exciting spark in the Jewish camping field, pushing all Jewish camps to think creatively and to maximize their reach and Jewish learning. In fact, traditional camps are beginning to create and implement specialty tracks within their regular offerings in an effort to retain older campers and to attract campers who may want to specialize in a particular activity. Some traditional camps also are rethinking session length influenced by the Incubator camps’ models, recognizing that shorter sessions may attract campers who have a “packed” summer. And more and more camps of all kinds are beginning to gather data to inform their marketing and fundraising strategies.

Already, the experiential Jewish education curriculum and training protocols designed by the Incubator team are the basis of and being used by FJC’s Hiddur initiative – which helps camps become more effective at delivering Jewish educational experiences to their campers and staff – and by the Jewish Coaching Project targeting day camps funded by UJA-Federation of NY. We are confident that other funders and organizations in the field will make use of these and other resources emanating from the Specialty Camps Incubator, and the insights and learnings presented here. With Incubator III underway, the structure of the initiative continues to be fine-tuned, taking an already strong and proven model to even greater heights. We will continue to be transparent in our learnings and outcomes, with the heartfelt belief that the entire field of Jewish education and engagement will benefit.

Michele Friedman is Director of New Camp Initiatives at Foundation for Jewish Camp. Ellen Irie is Principal at Informing Change, a strategic learning firm dedicated to increasing the effectiveness and impact of people who are working to make the world a better place.

originally appeared in eJewishPhilanthropy

In 2015, Moishe House (MH) began implementing a new pilot program designed to explore a model for engagement. Premised on peer-led retreats, Jewish young adults attend a weekend training called Retreatology: The Art of Jewish Retreat Making. Following their training, they then facilitate their own Jewish learning retreat—grounded in Jewish learning, Jewish values, and personal interests—for a group of their peers. MH provides facilitators with a mentor and a grant for up to $5,000 to create an immersive learning experience to assist in the planning and execution.

MH and the Jim Joseph Foundation, one of MH’s major funders, recognized the program merited a more substantive evaluation than just the standard feedback survey, but MH lacked the capacity to hire an external evaluator. Fortunately, the Foundation also wanted to learn from this program and has a member of its team with previous research experience. Thus, the two organizations embarked on a new experiment: a small-scale program evaluation conducted by a representative of the Foundation on behalf of the grantee.

Building and Maintaining Trust Between Funder and Grantee Partner
The two organizations maintained close and open communication throughout each step of the process, from determining the methodology to drafting the final report. Undoubtedly, MH staff had questions and fears as it related to handing the reins of its evaluation over to an important funding partner. Would it be awkward for interviewees to speak directly with a representative from the Foundation? How would it feel for MH to have its funder collecting feedback, both positive and negative, directly from its participants? Would the funder lens stifle the ability to generate actionable recommendations? What are the funder’s expectations of the findings? Due to the strong preexisting relationship between MH and the Foundation, both parties felt comfortable discussing these questions and hesitations openly and honestly, enabling the partnership to move forward.

The Evaluation Process
The Foundation conducted a review of existing formative assessments including: evaluation surveys (internally conducted via SurveyMonkey) and grant reports. Following the collection of this information, the Foundation drafted an interview protocol, which was reviewed by MH and the Maimonides Fund, the program’s visionary and primary funder. MH provided names and contact information of Peer-Led Retreat facilitators with varying levels of MH engagement. Over the course of two months, the Foundation contacted these facilitators and conducted five phone interviews, along with two additional interviews with retreat participants. Following the interviews, the Foundation analyzed the data and prepared a preliminary report of highlights and insights.

Substantive Learnings
The collaborative process not only provided MH and the Foundation with programmatic feedback, but many of the looming questions and hesitations regarding the process’s impact on the funder-grantee relationship had been easily identified and resolved due to the open communication and mutual respect the organizations shared.  It should be noted that this relationship had developed over eight years of relational grantmaking and this history plays a crucial part in the success of this experiment.  Without a solid foundation of trust, the organizations’ ability and willingness to be bold, yet humble, in facing the harder topics would have been a much greater challenge. Key learnings included:

• Interviewees were happy to participate and felt comfortable providing honest feedback. Interviewees appreciated the opportunity to speak directly with funders of an organization and program to which they are committed.
• Hearing directly from the participants helped increase the Foundation’s understanding of and appreciation for this program and the opportunity it presents for MH.
• The Foundation appreciated the opportunity to speak directly with its grantee’s program participants instead of through the veneer of a grant report.
• The process strengthened the funder-grantee relationship at different levels of each of the organizations. The strength of this relationship is significant and can have important ramifications for both parties when working together, especially when involving multi-year grants.

Partnering on this evaluation brought about several recommendations for program improvement, as well as questions for MH to consider when adapting and scaling the Peer-Led Retreat program. As a result, MH has spent more time investing in the following projects: financial streamlining, international access to Retreatology trainings, creating a cohort of Peer-Led Retreat mentors, exploring value propositions, and telling the Peer-Led Retreat facilitators’ stories. For those who are interested, we are pleased to share the report here.

Conducting this small-scale program evaluation brought MH and the Foundation into uncharted waters, but ultimately proved to be a beneficial experience for both organizations. When funders and grantees are able to develop open and honest communication, both the relationship and their programs are strengthened by new and shared insights. Following this experiment, both organizations realize the significance of this partnership and are looking forward to exploring other ways to collaborate and combine their respective expertise.

In 2009, Jewish Teen Initiative – Boston (JTI), then known as the North Shore Teen Initiative (NSTI), launched in the 23 cities and towns just north of Boston as an innovative, first-of-its-kind program aimed at addressing the alarming trend of teens disconnecting from their Jewish faith and community after Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Now, a little more than eight years later, JTI has become a national model for Jewish teen engagement, with lessons learned being adapted in communities around the country. Created and launched in partnership, and with 100 percent grant funding from the Jim Joseph Foundation, JTI is now independent and building a path toward sustainability – with bumps, bruises and ultimately valuable lessons learned along the way.

Utilizing a combination of community organizing and design thinking, JTI has built a community framework that lowers the barriers for Jewish teens to stay engaged, or re-engage, with their tradition. By collaborating with synagogues, day schools, JCCs and other community agencies, JTI has created an ever-expanding menu of teen-centered, local, regional and national programs grounded in the many experiences that comprise Jewish life. It introduces teens to Jewish learning and leadership experiences that promote life-long commitment to Jewish values.

Here are a few highlights from JTI’s first eight years:

• Built relationships across Jewish agencies in 23 cities and towns on Boston’s North Shore while supporting existing programs, maximizing connections and increasing/diversifying program offerings for teens
• Engaged 900+ Jewish teens in meaningful Jewish growth and learning experiences. Many of these teens would not otherwise have been involved in Jewish life
• Partnered with 50+ organizations, strengthening connections between local Jewish agencies, synagogues, youth groups, day schools, JCCs etc.
• Offered 200+ program opportunities either in conjunction with community partners or alone – each customized to local needs

Today, JTI is expanding its reach at the request of Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies and launching a new sub-region in the city’s western suburbs. Most recently, JTI has pioneered a partnership with Hillel International, to adapt its highly effective campus peer engagement program to be used with high school students. This fall will see close to 40 peer leaders connecting with nearly 1,000 Jewish teens throughout these two regions.

Challenges Moving Forward

JTI’s main test today is maintaining financial sustainability. For eight years, the Jim Joseph Foundation provided generous support, which diminished over time, including matching grants in the later years. This support helped lead JTI to a place where it can sustain and expand its work.

However, the transition away from the Foundation funding has been difficult.

“Becoming comfortably sustainable is the ultimate challenge facing this remarkable teen initiative. Recognition and appreciation of these teen experiences by parents, grandparents, community members, and others needs to lead to continued support at every level, especially if we are to continue to connect our teens to the meaning, importance and relevance of their Jewish heritage.”
Jerry Somers, JTI Founder and Board Member, and former Board member of the Jim Joseph Foundation

While we at JTI are in the midst of building our path towards sustainability, we can take an honest look back at two particularly valuable lessons learned, which hopefully can inform others who embark on similar efforts:

• Get Early Community Buy–In. While the Foundation’s seed money made JTI possible, it is now clear that launching with 100 percent funding negatively impacted community buy-in, making fundraising more difficult today. Many potential donors did not want to play second fiddle to the Foundation; some people want to have skin in the game right from the beginning. In hindsight, JTI would have benefited by bringing donors to the table from the outset.
• Invest in Fundraising. In retrospect, it would have been beneficial for JTI to use some of its early funding on philanthropy training. As the executive director since JTI’s inception, I was hired for my strengths in making connections and creating programming, along with a knowledge of Judaism. The organization would have greatly benefited if I had worked with a fundraising coach early on to build an expertise in this important area. However, with full funding, JTI had no urgent need to start professional fundraising. We were solely focused on establishing a model and path toward success. It wasn’t until year four that the JTI team started to think about fundraising.

In part because of these early “mistakes,” there have been some important developments more recently: More than half of my time now is spent on fundraising; The Foundation has connected JTI with large local funders, including Combined Jewish Philanthropies; and the Foundation also has also helped JTI pursue individual donors who have been positively impacted by the program, such as parents and grandparents of teens.

To date, we have raised 80% of our annual campaign goal and early indicators are that we are tracking to a place to be sustainable locally without the Foundation’s involvement. The ongoing discussion and challenge will focus on our ability to have a larger community impact without a national partner.

A Partnership that Led to Success

Today, as we fundraise, JTI continues to thrive and engage more Jewish teens. The Foundation played a large role in the success of the model, guiding our evolution and growth each year.

From day one, Foundation leaders provided direct input and involvement with JTI professionals and Board chairs. They helped with staffing models, evaluation processes, training, coaching, and brainstorming. They opened doors not just to funders, but to program partners and resources.

For our part, JTI has remained committed to innovation. In the eight years that we’ve existed, we’ve never stepped back. No two years have really been the same. While our overarching goal did not change, we were never constrained to maintain a specific approach if we could see it wasn’t working. We had a commitment to flexibility.

All of us with JTI have learned the importance of being responsive to our community – to always ask questions to learn what people want; to pilot, test, and have a risk-taking mentality. Over eight years, we have built deep and meaningful relationships with teens, families, and congregations in our community. While the road ahead is not without challenges, we are confident that JTI will continue to help support and create vibrant Jewish life for many.

Adam Smith is Executive Director of Jewish Teen Initiative – Boston.
Originally appeared in eJewishPhilanthropy

“Continuing Conversations on Leveraging Educational Technology to Advance Jewish Learning” is a project of Jewish Funders Network, the Jim Joseph Foundation, and the William Davidson Foundation, and is cross-posted in eJewishPhilanthropy. For an in-depth look at opportunities in Jewish Ed Tech and digital engagement, read Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy. Later this year, Jewish Funders Network will launch a new website to help advance the field of Jewish educational technology.

Read all the blogs in the series below:

Ubiquity, Access, & Availability: How EdTech Can Transform Schools, Homes, & Anywhere In Between, Michael Cohen, The Tech Rabbi

Jewish EdTech: If You Build It, Will They Come?, Jarred Myers and Nicky Newfield

Augmented Reality in Jewish Day Schools, Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg

Building Jewish Identity Through Engaging Video: A Developer’s Perspective, Sarah Lefton

Open is a Winning Strategy for Technology Investment, Brett Lockspeiser

Questions for Funders – Nurturing an Ecosystem to Embrace Technological Advances for Jewish Education, Jarred Myers and Nicky Newfield

Scale-Up Nation, Jarred Myers and Nicky Newfield

EdTech Training: Up, Up and Away, Smadar Goldstein with Stan Peerless

Digital Promise: Learning Jewish, Online, Chana German

A History of the “Future of Jewish Education,” Russel Neiss

Procuring the Proper Software, Hardware and Teacher Training for Successful Educational Technology Integration – A Funder’s Perspective, Amy Amiel

Making the most of technology in Jewish education, Lewis J. Bernstein and Shira Ackerman (originally in JTA)

Introducing “Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy,” Kari Alterman and Josh Miller

Some of the most powerful memories from childhood are associated with summer: the riotous sound of crickets at night; a first sighting of the Milky Way; the hot sensation of a campfire on one’s face; or for those not able to get out of town, the intrigue of long hours left to one’s own devices. These moments gain their special force from breaking with the chores and routines of the school year.

For many Jewish adults, summer is associated with their childhood experiences of overnight camp. For six weeks or even longer, their foremost task as campers was to release the stress and constraints of school in the company of peers. Such programs might have recruited only a small portion of Jewish young people, but for many educators and parents they still constitute a kind of gold standard for immersive education and experience. Camp modeled an alternative society, and sometimes an explicitly Jewish one too.

In recent decades, these cultural patterns have dramatically changed. Overnight camps have been offering ever shorter programs. An increasing number provide 12-day/2-weekend experiences. Providers are being squeezed by diminished patience for multi-week programs, by a shrinking public’s ability and willingness to pay the fees associated with a full summer program, by the pressure teens increasingly feel to utilize summer experiences to enhance their resumés and by their interest to engage in a range of activities over the long stretch of the summer.

Against this backdrop, the New York Jewish Teen Initiative was launched in 2014. This ambitious effort to create new models of summer programing for Jewish teens, and to increase the numbers participating in Jewish experiences, is a partnership between UJA Federation of New York and the Jim Joseph Foundation within the framework of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, which includes national and local funders from ten communities. The Jewish Education Project serves as lead operator of the Initiative, which is being evaluated by a team from Rosov Consulting. Ahead of a third summer of programming, it is appropriate to take stock of what we’ve learned so far. A full report is available here.

Over its first two years, the Initiative incubated a cohort of eight new summer programs for teens. A second cohort of six programs will be launched this summer. The first cohort was extremely diverse in its offerings. It included a service learning trip to the South, a pop-up/design-thinking catering initiative to serve seniors, Jewish surf camp, a theater camp, and different internship programs. Perhaps the only common feature was that these were not overnight camping programs. They included daytime programs in the New York area, an Israel experience with a vocational twist, and a challenging service learning program out of the city.

For all their diversity, there are some general learnings to be derived from these first two years of activity, about teens, Jewish teen programs, and the teen summer program ecosystem.

Stretching and Breathing: The summer marketplace may have changed, but in important respects teens have not. They seek opportunities to make friends and have fun with friends. At the same time, they want to be challenged, learn new skills, make the most of their time, and find meaning, (at least that’s the case for these young New Yorkers). When teens reflected on what they most enjoyed about these experiences they highlighted how the programs provided a chance both to learn AND to have fun. These programs demonstrate the promise of a model where intensity and relaxation, what we call “stretching and breathing,” can be experienced at the same time.

By offering something different from regular summer experiences, the programs provide teens with frameworks that speak deeply to their own personal interests, and that enable them to find themselves. As one teen told us, “that was the most myself I’ve ever been.” And – no less important – teens have a chance to find others. Paradoxically, by taking participants out of their comfort zones, the programs enable them to connect and form new friendships with other Jewish teens who share their interests. This relational core is compelling especially when accompanied by a sense of authenticity, self-worth and achievement.

Programs finding a Jewish voice: In their first year, program-leaders were anxious about being perceived as too Jewish in their messaging and content. In the second year the programs found their Jewish voice. On the one hand, they did so in diverse fashion: by infusing social action work with Jewish texts or Jewish role models; by developing modes of Jewish spirituality and religious meaning; or by broadening their participants’ encounter with the global Jewish community. On the other hand, the programs did develop a common Jewish ethos, one captured succinctly by a program director as helping “teens discover the extent to which Judaism is a framework for teens’ lives.” None of the programs promoted a particular ideological or denominational vision of Judaism. But, they did all share the same aspiration to demonstrate to teens that Judaism, and being Jewish, has potential to be relevant.

This is no small matter. Even while reaching out to and engaging a diverse group of teens – with varying levels of prior Jewish experiences and commitments – the programs demonstrate that it is possible to conceive of Jewish education in terms that are broad, inclusive, and meaningful, and to publicize this fact.

Startups in a legacy market: The cohort of new programs incubated by the New York Jewish Teen Initiative face an additional challenge. They are competing in a space where the dominant players are either legacy programs that have been in operation for years, and often generations, or are programs that recruit returnee-participants year after year. With the exception of one program, the Initiative’s programs are not designed for returnee participants. Even when the programs are housed at brand-name institutions or are led by well-known organizations, their challenge is to gain attention and traction for new offerings and experiences in a highly-congested general teen summer marketplace. These circumstances mean that recruitment has been the greatest challenge the programs have faced. Some of the original cohort have fallen by the wayside. Only now as Year 3 begins can the first cohort say that they have really found their market. And, even then, the intense work of meeting families and gaining their trust continues.

Evidently, it takes a few years to achieve the kind of traction programs seek, especially when the day-program model that most offer is itself a departure from the overnight norm for this age group. At a time when stakeholders often seek rapid returns on their investments, these teen programs demonstrate that, like so many other memorable summer experiences, good things take time.

Dr. Alex Pomson is Managing Director at Rosov Consulting. Melanie Schneider is Senior Planning Executive, Jewish Life Department, at UJA Federation of New York.

originally appeared in eJewishPhilanthropy

Four years ago, Effective Strategies for Educating and Engaging Jewish Teens was released, a report that brought to the fore promising models and practical ways for communities to engage teens in Jewish experiences that enrich their lives and help them grow. On the heels of the report, national and local funders representing ten communities took action, coming together to study the findings, commission additional groundbreaking reports, and to design responsive local teen engagement initiatives. Ultimately, the group evolved into a robust community: the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative.

The Funder Collaborative is an innovative philanthropic experiment – a network of funders working together to develop, fund, support and grow new teen initiatives that draw on the collective strength of local organizations. Co-funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation, the community-based initiatives are multi-faceted approaches designed to reverse the trend of teens opting out of Jewish life in their high school years. Members have become valuable peer resources, each of whom are at different points in their initiative process.

Concurrent to the community-based education and engagement initiatives, the Funder Collaborative embarked on a process of enhanced research into teen Jewish engagement, learning and education. Outcomes for experiential and immersive Jewish education, as well as other research, informs our view of programming toward the whole teen. With a commitment to openness and transparency, the Funder Collaborative shares its hard-won lessons with others to increase knowledge and tools which may advance the entire field of Jewish teen education and engagement.

Today marks the launch of a new website designed to become a vital resource for anyone seeking to benefit from these lessons, models and research: teenfundercollaborative.com. Here we will share highlights of the work in each of our communities, as well as the deep research and rigorous evaluation that helps shape our efforts. We will also house detailed model documentation on specific initiatives exploring the structures, partnerships, risks, and more that have led to successes and “fail forward” moments for learning.

Learnings from the Funder Collaborative

While we are excited to share these resources, we also recognize we don’t hold all the answers to the challenging and complex issues surrounding meaningful Jewish teen engagement. Yet together – as we learn from and build on the knowledge of those who been active in this space before us – we are charting a positive course forward, helping to amplify and expand upon the important work of others.

We hope, too, to make some new discoveries which contribute to the field. Already we are poised to share the early results of interventions and other evidence-based understandings of:

• the urgent need to address the whole teen, recognizing that teens often do not delineate between one’s Jewish and “secular” identity;
• the paradigm of relationship-based engagement that places the teen at the center where we contribute and respond to them, not vice versa;
• the critical role of developing the talented professionals and adult volunteers who engage teens and who advocate for supporting teens’ increased involvement in Jewish life and learning;
• local communities’ role in weaving and publicizing a tapestry of meaningful opportunities for teens;
• and the desire of teens to feel empowered to create experiences for themselves for their peers, and to grow through leadership and skill development.

Two new publications from Rosov Consulting also released today highlight key learnings and encouraging results from this new form of collaboration.

1.) INITIAL OUTCOMES ACROSS COMMUNITIES: First Fruits from the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative

The Funder Collaborative invests heavily in evaluation: each local initiative engages independent consultants and, importantly, a Cross-Community Evaluation enables us to analyze outcomes across communities and identify the most promising practices. The insights we glean can have wide-ranging implications for any community engaged in this work.

The CCE presents an honest and rich picture of early learnings of four of the initiatives, as well as the challenges of attempting to evaluate varied approaches, programs, partnerships and staffing structures. Results show we are beginning to “move the needle” in important ways.

Many communities attribute early programmatic successes to their participation in the collaborative and its steadfast commitment to knowledge-sharing. The evolution of the collaborative itself is central to creating an environment that fosters risk-taking, experimentation and ongoing reflection.

2) PREPARING TO DEEPEN ACTION: A Funder Collaborative Finds Its Way is the second installment in a series of case studies documenting the collaborative (the first released in 2015) and the result of 15 months of observations and interviews. It offers an informative and pragmatic examination for any organization considering the merits and challenges of such large-scale collaboration.

“Being part of something bigger than our community, to have the national support, intelligence and research and show that we are trying to change the conversation has helped me to justify and validate what we are doing.” – Local Funder

The Collaborative has evolved into a healthy mix of local and national funders and implementers who continue to come together to discuss, dissect and address shared areas of interest. In fact, this model of creating space for a Community of Practice across communities is echoed within many of the local initiatives, which themselves seed and nurture a thriving ecosystem of educators and youth-serving professionals to strengthen and sustain their models.

The Future of the Funder Collaborative

Now, around the country teens are benefiting from new and diverse models of meaningful learning and engagement that address the ‘whole teen’; communities employ better prepared and more well-trained and connected youth professionals; and there is a rising sense that teens themselves hold a special place on our communal agenda.

We invite you to be a part of this growth; to explore what we share; and to question, learn and experiment with us. Please be in touch ([email protected]) with your thoughts and feedback, and visit teenfundercollaborative.com to sign up for our quarterly newsletter.

Sara Allen is Director of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative.

This blog appeared originally in eJewishPhilanthropy.com.

This is part 2 of the series in eJewishPhilanthropy, Continuing Conversations on Leveraging Educational Technology to Advance Jewish Learning. The series is a project of Jewish Funders Network, the Jim Joseph Foundation, and the William Davidson Foundation. For an in-depth look at opportunities in Jewish Ed Tech and digital engagement, read Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy. Later this year, Jewish Funders Network will launch a new website to help advance the field of Jewish educational technology.

In 1911, William Inglis, writing for Harper’s Weekly profiled Thomas Edison’s latest invention that he guaranteed would, “make school so attractive that a big army with swords and guns couldn’t keep boys and girls out of it.” The technology was Edison’s filmstrips, and the promise was that it would reduce costs and create a more engaging and effective educational experience for students.

Anyone who has sat through an educational filmstrip knows of course that this claim was overstated. Yet, the fact remains for over a hundred years folks have sought to ascertain the potential impact of technology on education. Unsurprisingly, the same promises that were made with filmstrips, radio, television, CD-ROMS, laser-disks, and the internet, are the same being made for 1:1 laptop programs, blended/personalized learning, and a wide range of other technologies. Before attempting to ascertain the potential impact on educational technology for Jewish Education today, it behooves us to look to the history of these technologically driven future visions of Jewish education from the past. They offer us tremendous insight as we look forward in our current time and place.

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the Jewish educational world did not ignore Edison’s technological innovation. Gratz College, Yeshiva University, the NY Bureau of Jewish Education, the Reform & Conservative movements and others had active audiovisual departments producing content to “instruct students through the eye.” Thousands of filmstrips, and numerous curricular guides, catalogs “running more than 100 pages” and other materials were created “in great abundance, particularly on Jewish history, Israel, the American Jewish community, customs and ceremonies, and current events.”

The problem was, folks were so concerned with ensuring that they were keeping up with the latest and greatest technologies that these efforts were designed without much forethought, were fragmented, scattered, and often had significant problems of quantity and quality.

In 1976, (just before the new educational VHS craze was to come onto the scene) the Second Jewish Catalogue summed up the problem succinctly:

“There is a lack of quality media resources for fostering the Jewish knowledge and identity needed to ensure the spiritual survival of Diaspora Jewry… Visual images in living color have become the language of the day. Unfortunately, however, the majority of Jewish institutions in this country are still in the Dark Ages. While the world at large has moved on to multidimensional modes of transmitting oral tradition, the Jewish world remains bound to the page.”

But we persisted. Five years later in 1981, JESNA was launched with the explicit goal to make engaging, inspiring, high quality Jewish education available to every Jew in North America. One of their key focus areas was “Innovative Solutions: Developing creative new approaches to expand the impact of Jewish education.”

Just a few months later, they devoted their entire quarterly magazine, The Pedagogic Reporter to focus on how Jewish education can be enriched through the use of technology. This included articles exploring the advances in computer hardware and software, uses for multimedia (television and film) in Jewish education, and integration of computers into schools and libraries.

My personal favorite insight from that 1981 magazine on the potential impact of technology on education is from Ira Jaskoll’s article:

“The computer can introduce a new dimension into Jewish education, one that is extraordinarily geared to the reality of the students’ future lives. As the information explosion continues, a shift must inevitably occur from the old style of education that stressed the acquisition of facts: what will be necessary in the world of tomorrow to increased skill in sorting and analyzing the vast quantities of available information. As the computer has been widely employed at this task in the realm of industry, so it can be liberating in education and in the student’s personal life.”

Which I’m sure many of you readers have heard articulated in an almost verbatim way to justify educational technological integration today some twenty-five years later.

This growth of technology, paired with the desire of content-driven education paved the way for publishers to respond as well. By 1983 Torah Aura had produced Torah Tunes, a Thirty-six week parashat hashavuah curriculum, and Davka had produced two acclaimed educational video games for the newly released ultra-light 20lb Apple IIe computer. By 1986 there were over 100 Jewish educational software titles.

Foundations like the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture hired experts to research the phenomenon, others like the Revson Foundation made huge investments to produce and distribute content from the non-Jewish world like with Shalom Sesame, and the The Jewish Heritage Video Collection, and others like the Covenant Foundation sought to provide resources and knowledge sharing to innovative local communities trying to harness this brand new thing called the internet.

And so on…

We have extremely short-term memories and a lack of institutional knowledge of the history of these Jewish educational endeavors, and as a result instead of building on our knowledge, we often end up starting all over again as if these ideas (not to mention the educational philosophers who laid the groundwork for them) have never existed.

I believe strongly in the ability of technology to help positively transform the Jewish educational field, but only if we commit ourselves to first understanding what it is we hope to achieve from harnessing these tools, developing a coherent educational vision for our institutions, and then to stop pretending that every discussion we have today about educational technology begins assuming that this is all brand new, and that we have no historical use, educational philosophy or evidence of efficacy of any of this stuff.

I wish to conclude with a series of recommendations moving forward, which admittedly I have basically plagiarized verbatim from Jacob Ukeles who wrote them for the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture thirty years ago:

1. Investment in technology for Jewish education should incorporate older technologies as well as the latest and greatest stuff. In the appropriate excitement over the latest shiny stuff older proven tech should not be ignored.
2. The design, production, and distribution of the new technology to schools must place teachers at the heart of the effort. Attempts to produce “teacher-proof” curricula for Jewish schools have been a dismal failure. Technology can only be seen as a tool for teachers not as a replacement for teachers.
3. We should leverage our resources by cooperating with others on specific projects. Others might be individual philanthropists, existing media or computer-oriented institutions, other Foundations or other communal organizations.
4. A concerted effort should be made to reach out and involve new sources of creative talent, particularly the kind of talent involved in the nonprofit world of independent technology. Many of the young developers and content creators are Jews who are not connected to the Jewish community. Involving them in experimental programs, whether through competitions or commissioned works, is a way to reinvolve them in the community as well as attaining lower cost, high quality products.

These recommendations, along with several others available at the link above, were written when I was three – ample time to put them into action to ensure that by at least my bar mitzvah they were implemented. Yet, they’re just as applicable to us today as my children start their day school experiences.

But the truth of the matter is that focusing on the impact of technology on education is the wrong frame. Frankly, electrification of schools and our ability to heat them in the winter and cool them in the summer is the single greatest technological advancement that has impacted education in the past century, but because it’s basically invisible to us, we take it for granted. And that’s ok, because instead of focusing on the stuff, we need to focus on outcomes. We need to teach how to be adaptive and resilient. We need to be agnostic about specific technology. Unless we do so, no matter how shiny the next ed tech innovation will be, it will end up as nothing more than another historical footnote in a history of the future a quarter century from now unless we are able to put it into practice.

Equally fluent in Yiddish and Javascript, Russel Neiss is a Jewish educator, technologist and activist who builds critically acclaimed educational apps and experiences used by thousands of people each day. His work has been featured in the Washington Post, NPR, the Atlantic, CNN, Teen Vogue, the Jewish Telegraph Agency, and other media outlets. Russel began his career as an itinerant Jewish educator traveling across the deep south and has worked in a variety of Jewish educational settings including day schools, supplemental schools, museums and archives. Russel lives in St. Louis with his wife Maharat Rori Picker Neiss and his kids Daria, Susanna & Shmaya.

We’re all looking for that magic formula. That unique program, experience or methodology that will somehow not only engage Jewish teens in the present, but also keep them Jewishly involved on college campus and beyond.

Foundations, Jewish federations and individuals invest millions of dollars a year in engaging the next generation of Jews. At the same time, there are tens of thousands of Jewish youth professionals, some affiliated with youth groups and others with Jewish organizations, working in the trenches to reach Jewish teens and connect them to their heritage.

And there are educators, and consultants, and other experts contributing their expertise and then evaluating all of these efforts in search of answers.

But the solution seems to be eluding us.

Perhaps it’s because we are looking in the wrong place. Maybe it’s not about the what, or where, or how often, but the rather, it’s about the who.

Case in point: Big Apple Adventure

Last month, Midwest NCSY had the opportunity to run a 5-day immersive experience as part of Springboard, a community initiative created with support from the Jim Joseph Foundation, the JUF/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, and a consortium of local funders, to introduce more teens in Chicago to high-quality Jewish programs.

Last March, Springboard released an RFP asking local organizations to create new and exciting school-break experiences that would increase the number of teens actively engaged in Jewish life. Midwest NCSY submitted a proposal that would bring 45 teens to New York for five days of fun and inspiration, including visiting local attractions, touring the Jewish community, volunteering at Jewish nonprofits, and celebrating a traditional Shabbat.

Initially, NCSY planned to pattern the trip after its existing Jewish Student Union (JSU) trips, in which public school teens who participate in JSU clubs on public school campuses travel to other communities for fun, learning and Jewish inspiration. But it soon became apparent that Big Apple Adventure was going to be something different entirely because of the deep partnership between NCSY and JUF—which not only provided the financial backing, but also support and guidance from a variety Jewish youth professionals, consultants, marketing experts and many others, every step of the way.

Here are some specific examples of how the partnership shaped—and impacted—the ultimate program:

• Our first challenge was to recruit 40+ teens for the program, with the knowledge that Springboard’s goal is to reach as many unaffiliated teens as possible. While Springboard promoted this program among its other spring break offerings, the fact that Big Apple Adventure was a joint NCSY-JUF program helped NCSY garner the attention of many parents whose teens don’t regularly participate in the youth group. Of the 45 teens who participated in the trip, only one had previously attended an NCSY program.

• A JUF workshop on marketing and social media proved to be the impetus for the creation of a totally different type of marketing campaign, with an emphasis on social media. The presenter spoke of the need to communicate with both teens and their parents in two distinct voices, with two distinct messages. It took time and effort, but NCSY created separate media strategies for both groups, and ultimately succeeded in engaging not just teens, but their parents as well.

• At that marketing training, the presenter also put great emphasis on making one’s target audience the “hero” in all communications.  NCSY took that a step further, making “Be a Hero” – and Judaism’s viewpoint on heroism – the educational theme of Big Apple Adventure. This helped shape our entire trip, and also proved to resonate with teens and parents alike.

• A training on program design and evaluation also had a major impact on the program. NCSY identified goals, the steps needed to accomplish those goals, and the methods to evaluate our success in both the short and long term. Yes, we knew we wanted participants to strengthen their Jewish identity. Yes, we knew we were going to give them the opportunity to see the sites, volunteer and celebrate Shabbat. But what NCSY became adept at doing was creating a connection between those elements, and then almost automatically stopping itself, at each step of the way, to question whether what it was doing was in keeping with its goals, and whether it was the best way to get there.

• Bi-weekly check-in calls with JUF helped NCSY staff stay on track and proved to be an invaluable opportunity to share, question and discuss just about everything with seasoned Jewish teen professionals, from the location of the hotel to the type of swag to order, to the kinds of follow-up events that would likely draw the greatest number of teens. And that sharing wasn’t limited to once every other week. The lines of communication were open wide the entire time, with emails and calls flying back and forth – and steadily increasing – as the trip drew nearer.

We’re proud to report that the trip was far more successful than we ever could have imagined. In the blog written by the teens themselves on the trip, many spoke of the “meaning” and “connection” the trip had engendered. Many of the parents expressed the same sentiment, especially after being able to watch the teens in action in New York, during Facebook Live events. As one parent remarked, “I feel so fortunate that my child received this opportunity to embrace and love her Jewish heritage.”

So was Big Apple Adventure a unique program? We’d like to think so. Are there aspects of it that other Jewish teen professionals can learn from? We believe there are.

But of one thing we are certain: The trip worked because it was a partnership; we were in it together. And by pooling our knowledge, creativity, expertise – and shared commitment to truly inspire today’s youth – we made it happen.

Malka Levitansky is Grants and Marketing Manager of Midwest NCSY. Hallie Shapiro is Associate Vice President of Community Outreach and Engagement at JUF.

Editor’s Note: In October 2016, the Jim Joseph Foundation released the final evaluation from American Institutes for Research on the Education Initiative–the $45 million, six year investment in Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and Yeshiva University (YU) for Jewish educator training. The Foundation and AIR shared some of the key findings and lessons learned from the Initiative. AIR also is releasing a series of blogs that delve more deeply into important findings from the evaluation–the second of which, below, discusses the value of professional preparation programs, and key characteristics that make those programs excellent. 

Whether in a classroom, at a camp, at locations in a city, or nearly any other environment, effective Jewish learning experiences can enrich lives and develop deep, long-lasting relationships among participants. Over the last two decades especially, Jewish education and engagement experiences developed for teens and young adults often focus on opportunities to create peer communities and friendships, to develop leadership skills, to strengthen cultural and religious beliefs, and to enable youth to voice opinions and serve communities. An important aspect of many initiatives is a high level of accessibility and inclusiveness, so that people of various backgrounds and differing levels of prior engagement in Jewish life feel valued, respected, and welcomed.

A Need to Raise the Bar
With the groundswell of these program offerings, both as part of well-establish organizations and innovative projects, there is an urgent need for the professionalization of individuals who design, conduct outreach for, and facilitate them. Jewish Community Center’s (JCC)’s, congregations, youth groups, camps, Hillel, and social justice organizations in particular offer many of these experiences—and as a result need talented and skillfully trained professionals who work in this space.

However, at the moment, no degree requirement exists for individuals who lead these influential Jewish experiences. The Jim Joseph Foundation’s Education Initiative—the recently completed $45 million, six year investment in Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and Yeshiva University—in part aimed to fill this void by increasing opportunities and improving access to professional preparation programs for educators, aspiring leaders, middle management, and directors and executive directors in Jewish education. The Education Initiative was based on the premise that higher education institutions are uniquely equipped to promote the research-based knowledge and decision-making tools needed by professionals to design and deliver a range of excellent educational practices for a particular age group in different settings.

We previously shared other key outcomes and findings of the Initiative, including the numbers of new educators trained and new training programs developed. Now, we want to home in on the value of professional preparation for the individuals and the organizations that offer an array of Jewish learning experiences.

From Personal Development to Organizational Change
Data collected as part of the Education Initiative independent evaluation confirmed that employers value training opportunities for their staff.

“Certificate programs help raise the bar of all of our staff. We want our employees to come from a place of knowledge rather than a place of hunch or guess.”
– director of education at a congregation

Employers recognize that professional training helps them (and other organizations) address recruitment and retention of qualified, skilled and experienced Jewish educators. In fact, from 2010-2016, most of the employers of students in Education Initiative-funded programs sponsored paid time for participation in seminars and for study time. Some of the Initiative programs even required employers to cover some of the tuition costs, but this was not a deterrent. Not only were most employers happy to support their staff; they also reported high likelihood of recommending the program to others inside and outside their organizations.

“My goal is to keep him in his position as long as possible, and that means that I want to see our youth director position continue to grow. What we need are qualified people staying in youth director positions for longer terms, as opposed to seeing their job as a stepping stone. A certificate allows the youth director to change in such a way that their role in the congregation can change.” – an executive director at a congregation

Across Education Initiative programs, such as M² (Machshava and Maase, formerly Experiential Jewish Education Certificate Program), Certificate of Jewish Education for Adolescents and Emerging Adults, and the Jewish Experiential Leadership Institute, both employers and participants reported higher job satisfaction and improved job performance as a direct result of their programs. In most interviews conducted for the evaluation, employers remarked that their youth program directors are more confident in their leadership and management abilities after attending one of the certificate programs developed under the Education Initiative. A Jewish Community Center director explained that her program coordinator now feels “more connected to the organization and more empowered as an employee. She is working with her project [team] with greater excitement and it is going to help a number of part-time employees grow professionally.”

For youth directors specifically, the most common direct outcomes from participating in one of the professional development programs were (a) more efforts to design or redesign educational programs; (b) more efforts to embed professional development into staff meetings; and (c) improved stakeholder engagement. “[The program] has made him more self-confident about the education work that he is doing. That translates to how he speaks about our Hillel to others in the field and it boosts our profile,” – director of a Hillel at a university

Key Characteristics of Effective Training Programs
Interviews with the direct supervisors of the professionals who graduated from the Education Initiative-funded programs crystallize what made the programs so valuable:

• Relevance: Knowledge directly applies to the organizational context in which program participants work.
• Resources: Having the lesson plans and materials (e.g., texts, art, songs, movies, games) to teach children and adolescents about Jewish themes.
• Perspective: Learning from the experience of youth programs that operate in different geographical areas, communities, and organizational structures.
• Inspiration: Understanding how theory and research can be used to design state-of-the-art, developmentally-appropriate activities.
• Assessment: Developing the ability to collect and analyze data to identify ineffective practices that should be replaced or revised.
• Communication: Learning how to convey the rationale for program design when engaging stakeholders, such as other professionals, partnering organizations, and families.
• Model: Experiencing a learning process that bridges research, practice, and Jewish community context and gaining the tools to deliver a similar workshop to coworkers and others.

The outcomes of the Education Initiative suggest that beyond professional knowledge gain, successful training programs can boost organizational commitment and reduce job stress of educators. Such programs can inspire educators to think about new ideas for practice, share ideas with colleagues, and communicate about the meaningfulness of their work.

 The program impacted the way I see myself as an educator and my philosophy. I learned a lot in terms of how to plan and execute content in a meaningful way and [to carry out] team building [strategies] for an educational purpose. But the ultimate takeaway was the importance of the journey in forming a Jewish identity. I now have the language to explain it [to my colleagues] and to make it happen. It is important that you know that this program attracted people who feel like they are good at what they do – they are not novices and they are not struggling. But, they really needed the language and the tools for what they had a hunch for. This sort of takes you from ‘This is what I want to do with my life’ to ‘I am going be amazing at it.’ – director of teen learning at a JCC

The positive outcomes of the new programs created under the Education Initiative demonstrate how professional training influences educators, increasing the quality of education they deliver and increasing the likelihood they remain in the field. But beyond this, high quality training programs subsequently positively affects organizational content, pedagogy, staffing, and culture. Most importantly, these training programs can create a ripple effect of knowledge sharing and use of proven practices that ultimately advances and further helps to professionalize the broader field of Jewish education.

Yael Kidron, Ph.D. is a principal researcher at American Institutes for Research.