OUR COMMUNITY

continued from page 15

continued on page 18

Even though 35-plus local
Jewish youth-serving organiza-
tions in the area offer more than
90 programs, the JCC discovered
that most families only knew of
one or two opportunities their
teens could engage with. Often,
they would try one of the pro-
grams and if it wasn’t a fit, they
stopped looking for alternatives.
Families also might not have
realized that the programs they
were hoping for were already
available in different places.
To strengthen community
awareness, the JCC is creating a
comprehensive website and pro-
gram guide for teens and fami-
lies that can serve as a directory
of all Jewish teen programs and
experiences. The website will
go hand-in-hand with JLive, an
event platform. “Teens and fami-
lies will be able to visit both with
one click,” Vieder explains.
One key mission of the aware-
ness strategy is to make finding
teen engagement opportunities
online seamless and user-friend-
ly. “By working collectively with
the community, we will have the

resources to reach more teens
and connect them to meaningful
and impactful Jewish experienc-
es,” Ellis adds.
To build and launch the web-
site, the JCC is partnering with
the marketing team at the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit with plans for it to go
live in October of this year.
“Our youth programs provide
an escape — a safe place where
teens are nurtured and loved,
where they can build lasting and
meaningful relationships with
friends and mentors, and where
they can figure out who they are
and what’s important to them,”
Rabbi Lader says. “Our goal is to
reach as many teens as possible
in order to allow them this safe
space filled with the support and
guidance of their community.”

GATHERING DATA
The next step for improving teen
engagement is to begin the pro-
cess of gathering data. The JCC,
in partnership with Federation,
is working on creating a com-
munity database complete with
facts and figures that show the
importance of engagement in
Jewish life and where the local
community currently stands.
“The database will house
information that will allow us
to see not just if and where
teens are engaging, but how
deeply they’re engaging,” Vieder
explains.
The database will be built
with the goal of tracking what
happens to a Jewish teen who is
involved in Jewish life through-
out their high school career and
what that means for their future.
JCC will share identified
trends with youth-serving orga-
nizations to help them strength-
en their work.
The JCC will also launch the
Teen Impact Fellowship this
month to train and empower

Sarah
Goldman,
Donovan
Brown, Eliza
Faigin, Jason
Brown, Ben
Moss and
Jared Katzen
enjoy some
time together
at BBYO.

Ari Geller, Sam Melder, Ian Kraft, Aaron Zekman and Merrick
Michaelson get together for some good times at BBYO.

Aryeh Gamer
volunteers with
Repair the World.

pre-order

DB-RHashana-JN.indd 1

16 | AUGUST 19 • 2021