Seeking Quality

Detroit's Jewish Community Center follows a
national trend in getting validation of its programs.

LONNY GOLDSMITH
Staff Writer

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10/2
1998

16 Detroit Jewish News

248-855-4955

HOURS: Mon. - Sat. 11-7; Sun. 11-5

he Detroit Jewish Commu-
nity Center is seeking its
first-ever national seals of
approval for two of its
biggest programs: day camp and child
development center.
"All the programs being evaluated
are child oriented," said Margo Weitzer,
JCC director of programming, who is
overseeing the procedure. "We want to
know internally that we are presenting
the absolute top quality"
Weitzer said the JCC's focus over
the past few years has been on quality
of programming and service.
"People have options, and can send
their kids to other camps or
preschools," she said. "We want to let
the community know that we have
and met strict guidelines."
According to Mitchell Jaffe, the
Jewish Community Centers Associa-
tion of North America vice president,
what Detroit is doing is following the
lead of other centers.
The JCCA's "Beyond 2000" study
says accreditation has become "an
accepted way of ensuring and demon-
strating quality."
Said Jaffe, "It gives a marketing
edge and shows that people on the
outside agree with the perception. It
implies a standard is being met."
In August, the American Camping
Association conducted a day-long, on-
site evaluation of the JCC day camp,
which had more than 2,100 campers
this summer.
Camp Director Stan Trompeter said
the ACA looked at everything about
the camp, from cleanliness of the
kitchen to playground safety. That
comes after a physical evaluation of
the grounds is completed.
"It gives us an opportunity to look
at every aspect of camp," Trompeter
said, noting he won't know until later
this month whether the camp got the
80 percent grade it needs to pass.
The National Association for the
Education of Young Children
(NAEYC) evaluation of the child
development center involves signifi-
cant data gathering that will stretch
into the spring.

According to Fredelle Schneider,
the center's child development direc-
tor, the process involves the help of
the parents of the 100 kids that come
to the program daily.
Parents answer open-ended ques-
tions about the program, which allows
improvements to be made. After the
holidays, the staff and administration
will do classroom observations.
"It's a lot of paperwork that we have
to turn in;" Schneider said. Schneider
hopes to be finished by the end of the
school year for accreditation by the start
of the 1999-2000 school year.

"Accreditation
puts a feather
in our cap.''

— Fredelle Schneider

As with the ACA, NAEYC officials
will come to spend a day with kids in
their classes. The third step is a deci-
sion from a three-person board that
observes the program.
"We are a licensed program, but
accreditation puts a feather in our cap
because we are approved as a quality
program," Schneider said.
According to the NAEYC, interac-
tion between the staff and children,
diversity in the curriculum, and the
health and safety of the children are
some of the more important criteria
on which they judge a program.
Weitzer is involved in a United
Way initiative that will determine if
the money they give agencies is well
spent.
"Outcomes measurement" is
designed to study the benefits a person
gets from a given program. The day
camp will be the first JCC program to
undertake that study.
"The United Way will be requiring
this of all their recipient agencies,"
Weitzer said. "We're trying to see if
people are getting what they're sup-
posed to out of a program."
Weitzer figures it will take two to
three years to cover the entire agency 1_1

