North+Shore+Jewish+Center-+Handout


 * //Chaggim Chayyim Plus// 2007-8 North Shore Jewish Center Port** **Jefferson** **Station** **NY**

(1) **//__Next Steps__//**

Based on the success of this past year, **//Chaggim Chayyim Plus//** will continue the implementation of our original initiative using Shabbat and Chaggim as our focus of family education. Components of parallel classes, textual learning, greater parent involvement in leading the program and teaching their children, Jewish celebration and practice will accompany addressing parenting and social integration issues. These emerged as important interests of our target population in doing our first years’ work. Three grades (bet, gimel and dalet) will now be fully involved with about 20 programs per year.

We will integrate our monthly Synaplex program with the monthly Shabbat School, offering the school population an opportunity to interact with other congregational constituencies (Shabbat Community, empty nesters, seniors) and enter into Shabbat celebration in creative ways.

Twice monthly the school families in grades Gan through Zayin will participate in a new program, Family Kehillah, which will involve the families themselves in learning about, leading and creating their own family service. They will take baby steps in adding to their Tefillah and Shabbat skills and take small risks in becoming leaders. This new service will be part of the Shabbat School and Synaplex and take place a second time a month in place of Junior Congregation.

Finally we will continue the education of our educational staff with our consultant and add coaching and course work for our Board of Trustees to promote greater professionalism and foster best practices.

(2) Two ways in which your approach might be made more systemic or impact congregants in a transformational way,

1. We can make our approach more systemic and have more effect on transforming our congregation by doing better marketing to the populations we will want to reach with the later phases of the programs we have initiated and which are planned for the future. Those target populations include the Nursery School population and the //Chaverim// (young couples group) and our Tot Shabbat participants which are currently silos. We will invite our family educators in training (our teachers and also the families of our more experienced pilot classes who are parts of these other silos) to do mini-programs for these populations. This will create a buzz among them (viral marketing) and open them as role models, participating in the Jewish, celebratory, and community building aspects of family education.

2. Inviting more of the wider constituencies in our congregational family to be helpers in the programs is already envisaged for the second and third years of implementation. We will begin, for instance, recruiting and training teens (Hebrew School volunteers, USYers and Hebrew High students) to serve as //madrichim// in the planned retreats. A Hebrew High course will be offered to train them. The newly acquired leadership skills will have an impact in the leadership of youth group and the training of paid staff for the future.

(3) Two major challenges you face in implementing the project and how you might address them.

1. The **staffing** challenge has already begun. Our talented educator had to resign because of serious illness. Our capable family educator has stepped into her role as principal. We are looking to our trainees among our staff to take on more of the upcoming programs. We will send them to the Whizin Consortium at CAJE this summer and continue to have them mentored by our family educator and SAJES consultant. The rabbi is already and will continue to play a larger role in the planning and carrying out of various roles related to the project and to the regular function of school.

2. A second challenge is **overcommitted families**. While the first year of Chaggim Chayyim enjoyed great participation from a vast majority of the target classes, the expansion of the program with the revamping of our Shabbat School - the addition of Synaplex programs aimed at the school families, and the Family Kehillah service in place of Junior Congregation, will require parental participation across the entire school and especially for those grades already involved in the other parts of //Chaggim Chayyim// on the other school days. Buy-in will require a concerted publicity effort. We will need to explain why this is something worth giving up one or two Saturday mornings a month to be with their child.

A targeted campaign with a pilot run over the High Holy Days will begin to address the motivation question. Finding parent examples among our current group should help. Having them design and participate in the recruitment will increase credibility. Offering a great kick off program with lots of publicity over the summer and recruitment of children and parents to participate in the initial three Family Kehillah services will get it off the ground.

Click here to go back to North Shore Jewish Center's main page.