BBYO Directors of Jewish Enrichment

Three years ago, BBYO set out to enhance the quality of experiential Jewish education offered to teens across its global movement. This was no small challenge, given that BBYO engages about 42,000 teens annually, but does not have the capacity to reach out and to individually connect directly with each teen. As a result, BBYO launched its Directors of Jewish Enrichment (DJE) initiative, which placed three talented Jewish educators in BBYO regions throughout North America. DJE’s are responsible for teaching, inspiring and supporting key stakeholders—including staff, teens and community volunteers—in their ability to deliver meaningful Jewish experiences.

The DJEs developed the Jewish Enrichment Team—a kind of brain-trust that drives educational capacity-building throughout the organization. The DJE’s network together as a dynamic team of educational entrepreneurs, and work with teen leaders, program professionals, and volunteer adult advisors to strengthen the quality of Jewish programming at the local, regional, and international levels. As the pilot phase of DJE comes to a close, an external evaluation shows that the DJE initiative has helped BBYO deliver a deeper, more engaging Jewish learning experience:

 ‘As a result of the DJEs’ work, BBYO has shifted to prioritize Jewish enrichment … Stakeholders have a richer, more textured understanding of what Jewish enrichment can be, and they create programs that are more relevant to teens. BBYO’s Educational Framework [Kivun] has become a lens through which regional professionals and teens see their programs, which contributes to the potential richness of programs. Meaningful or high quality Jewish enrichment is following a pattern, where relevant content is put in front of teens who then discuss it in small groups, learning from the content and from each other.’

The DJEs have built important relationships and their own credibility within the organization, paving the way for dynamic new Jewish learning initiatives. The DJEs led a Jewish Enrichment Specialist Team (JEST) that hosted webinars for BBYO professionals, teen leaders and volunteer advisors.  Later, JEST evolved into The Learning Advantage (TLA), webinars designed for cohorts of regional professionals and supervisors. Whereas JEST primarily shared resources, TLA also taught skills and capacities.

Kivun—BBYO’s educational platform – guides all activities by clearly outlining goals for teens’ Jewish commitments, knowledge and attitudes; outcomes related to those goals; and indicators of teens’ Jewish growth.  Experiential Jewish programs focus on three core content areas: Shabbat, Israel and service/advocacy – each of which is supported by Jewish texts, questions and program modules.  Importantly, all major program initiatives are aligned with Kivun and designed with intentional Jewish learning outcomes in mind:

“… Kivun has become integral to the organization. The DJEs have increased Kivun’s utility by making the concepts within it more accessible with key questions and texts. As a result, stakeholders understand what Kivun is and report that it either validates or drives their program development … Kivun has also helped to make BBYO’s Jewish enrichment work more unified. An international professional shared, ‘The entire way of thinking about programming has changed… We’re driving toward the same goals, the same outcomes.’’

In 2014, just before International Convention, the DJEs hosted a 24-hour seminar on Jewish enrichment—“The eXodus Games”—to show teens how Jewish enrichment can be fun and engaging. Teen and staff reflections clearly demonstrated that this was a success.

The recently released evaluation report captures the significant positive effects the DJEs have throughout BBYO:

Stakeholders are now using new approaches to program planning, which in turn make programs more meaningful for teens. There are also indications that a different, deeper understanding of Jewish enrichment is at play within the organization, one that is more complex, more engaging to teens, and more entrenched in the organization.

Read the full evaluation of the DJE initiative here.