Effective Strategies for Educating and Engaging Jewish Teens
The Jim Joseph Foundation has identified engaging Jewish teens in educational experiences as fundamental to the Foundation's mission of fostering compelling, effective Jewish learning experiences for young Jews, primarily ages 13-30.
For the past two years, the Foundation has been collaborating with other funders to explore possible funding strategies to further address the dramatic drop in young peoples' Jewish educational engagement during the teen years. Under the guidance of an Advisory Group that included funders, teen education experts, and teens, the Foundation commissioned research to examine pluralistic educational programming for Jewish teens in the United States.
The Foundation engaged BTW informing change and Rosov Consulting, LLC to conduct a broad scan of teen and young adult education and engagement efforts from a variety of spheres, including those outside of the Jewish community. The purpose of the scan was to identify examples of programs that are scalable (i.e., programs that could attract substantial numbers of participants) and employ innovative practices (including funding approaches and community collaborations), and to identify the components, parameters, structural considerations and limitations of such programs.
The scan was meant to stimulate the thinking of funders, practitioners, and Jewish communal leaders as they consider ways to dramatically expand and strengthen community-based Jewish teen education and engagement by highlighting select efforts aimed at attracting and involving teens in compelling and substantive learning experiences.
Effective Strategies for Educating and Engaging Jewish Teens (report and appendix)
Report: Effective Strategies for Educating and Engaging Jewish Teens
Appendix: Summaries of the 21 Programs Included in the Research