OUR COMMUNITY

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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 

