It is with great enthusiasm and excitement that we are reaching out to you to inform you of some ground breaking news at the Orange County Bureau of Jewish Education.
We recently celebrated our 36th year. Our volunteer and professional leadership took this milestone as an opportunity to reflect on our mission and purpose and the programs we lead to bring our mission to life. Our mission remains for the Jewish teens of Orange County to love being Jewish. The need to provide our teens an inspiring and meaningful community is nothing new. However, the ways in which we achieve these goals has evolved. In the past few years in cities across the United States, new initiatives have emerged. A new model for teen engagement and retention is flourishing in many communities. Nothing has had greater impact in the past 10 years engaging and cultivating Jewish identity in teens than this new model: High School Jewish Clubs. The Bureau of Jewish Education proudly announces the launch of 5 clubs with our national partner, JSC (Jewish Student Connection) NEXT MONTH!
We are establishing clubs at Northwood HS, Irvine HS, Corona Del Mar, OCSA, and Fountain Valley HS. JSC has over 100 clubs in Chicago, South Florida, New York, Connecticut, Denver, Boulder, Detroit and Ann Arbor, serving over 5,000 Jewish Teens. Please visit their website (www.myjsc.org) to find out about how they are redefining the place to engage our teens. We are proud to have been selected from a large and competitive field of geographic locations to become their next location for expansion.
Our pioneering effort to bring a pluralistic, all-inclusive High School Jewish Club program to our community is an enhancement and extension of our existing programs. High school clubs will serve as a platform for connecting teens to all the Jewish teen programs our community offers. This includes our existing teen programs such as TALIT, Young Philanthropy, Advanced Camp Leadership, Retreats and Israel Trips. Congregations, Community Agencies (JCCOC, TVT, Hillel), and National Youth organizations (BBYO, NFTY, USY, NCSY, Taglit Birthright) are invited to attend and engage the teens in our community clubs. In addition, our TALIT retreats will also be open to all of these organizations.
As with all of our teen programs, we are dependent upon your philanthropic support. Since clubs are provided at no cost for student participation, our need for your partnership is greater than ever to bring a modern approach to teen engagement to our community. We have included a sponsorship card with this letter, informing you how you can underwrite a club or support them in other specific ways. We have dozens of teen club leaders in place. We ask on their behalf for your support to get more Jewish teens to love being Jewish.
We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress in this inaugural year. We will be sending you update-letters to give you the ‘insiders’ view into our success. Please visit our website, www.bjeoc.org, to learn more about our clubs.
These are exciting times. New approaches with proven track records of success are here in our community to nurture our next generation. We thank you for supporting us for 36 years, and thank you for your support moving forward.
The following is a description of Clubs Support Levels and Opportunities:
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Single Club Sponsorship:
Your club sponsorship support establishes the foundation for a thriving High School Jewish Club. This level of support underwrites the staffing, training of our teen leadership, and marketing; essential ingredients for a successful Club. Single Club Sponsorship is an opportunity for an individual or family to support Jewish life at a specific H.S. of their choosing. This opportunity is also open to a group of individuals who wish to sponsor together (for ex. the BJEOC Board are giving collectively to support one club), or a business or organization. The commitment of club sponsors is a three year commitment of $6K per club.
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Club Food:
Our clubs focus on fostering Jewish identities and providing entrance into the Orange County Jewish teen world. What gets them into the door? Exciting Programming, critical mass of kids…and food! At every club meeting, we offer participants a nosh; a bagel w/shmear, drinks, and fruits/veggies. In addition, we will provide food for Challah making and holiday celebrations. Food helps to make our clubs warm and inviting. The clubs need support of $200 per month, per club. $1,600 underwrites food for an entire year…or you can choose as many months as you wish. Club Food sponsors can chose the High School of their choice.
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Club Programs (Materials/Speakers)
JSC Clubs, though valued communities by participants, are much more than just a place to schmooze…but a place to learn and engage. JSC clubs have a national reputation for elevating the learning and growth of their teens. Because of this emphasis, JSC clubs need financial support to provide the learning materials for their constituencies for the weekly programs their student leadership create and lead. You can commit to a year long of program support for $800 per club, or support a month(s) of your choice at $100 per club. As in all of our club support opportunities, you can chose the specific HS you wish to support.
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JSC OC-Wide High School Jewish Club Shabbat and Holiday Meals
OC JSC compliments our HS weekly programming with regular all county events open to all Jewish clubs within the system. These large, off-campus, off school hour events create the opportunities for all of our clubs to come together and celebrate being Jewish…all while expanding their base of Jewish friends and community. Sponsoring an all county Club Shabbat or Holiday meal, you enable the larger Jewish teen community to be available for our Club teens. A gift in support of these meals of $1,000 enables 100 Jewish teens to come together; providing all of the food and supplies necessary for a memorable evening for them. Our first three events are planned on Oct. 3rd (Sukkot Havdallah), Dec. 12th (Chanukah Havdallah), and a Jan. 8th Shabbat Dinner.
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Clubs ‘Ignition’ Grants (student driven program funds):
A signature characteristic of JSC Clubs that distinguishes it from all others is the commitment to empower our teen leadership to make a difference within their High School. In many JSC schools, the JSC club ‘puts on’ a learning/ reflection day for their entire school. Examples have included a tolerance day at their school, in which the JSC club and partner clubs learn with ADL about history/obstacles/realities of intolerance, and then provide an assembly, an awareness campaign, and a guest speaker on Yom Ha Shoah. At the Orange County School of Performing Arts, we will be able to work with our partners the Pacific Symphony to bring a day of music and inspiration to the entire school. Our teens plan and execute these significant days in the lives of a school, and the kids who lead it. A clubs ‘ignition’ grant of $1,000 enables the club teens, and the school of your choice, to make an imprint upon their larger school community.
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Club Service/ Learning Days
In conversation with our teen club leadership, they have expressed a desire to supplement their club time activities with the opportunity as community to perform community service in their community. At a support level of $500 per club, you can enable these teens to run multiple opportunities to help those in need, and provide the necessary funds to provide the materials/speakers/resources to make these experiences not only spiritual/social action opportunity, but a learning one.
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Naming the JSC Club System (initial 5 clubs and all future expansion)
Jewish High School Clubs have been the most successful Jewish organization at engaging, retaining, and furthering Jewish knowledge and participation in teens in the past 10 years. JSC has become foundational Jewish teen engagement programs in communities in NY, Florida, Chicago, Denver, Detroit (for ex.). These communities are not just making these commitments for their impact today, but to build a sustainable infrastructure for the future. JSC is not a trend or something that is ‘in-fashion’; it is the future of Jewish teen engagement. Naming the JSC Club System enables the long-term sustainability of our communities clubs.
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Scholarship Money
Though participation in club programs at the school comes at no cost to our teens, as their participation increases, additional costs will be presented. Both for attending the clubs ‘additional’ programs off campus outlined above, and to provide a springboard to attend Jewish programs above and beyond the JSC programs (for ex. scholarship money to attend a NFTY, USY, NCSY or BBYO retreat, or to attend a Bureau retreat of leadership program), this scholarship fund will help those Jewish teens who want more, but need financial support in order to do so. We aim to start a JSC scholarship fund of $5,000 to help our JSC club members stretch out into the Jewish world without being limited by their own families financial constraints. Gifts of any size will be accepted to provide the scholarship money needed to maximize our teens participation.
