Study says local teen outreach has not stood ‘the test of time’

by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

The MetroWest community is at a “crossroads” with regard to reaching Jewish teens, according to a report just issued by the Jewish Education Service of North America: community-based youth initiatives have not stood “the test of time,” and institutions must develop a strategic plan for programming and developing professional and volunteer leaders to work with teens.

The report also recommends a shift in the responsibilities of the JCC MetroWest, suggesting that it become a “convener” rather than a destination for teen programming.

The report marks the conclusion of a one-and-a-half year project that was part of a national study conducted by JESNA and the Institute for Informal Jewish Education at Brandeis University, asking what it takes to engage teens in Judaism today.

Recommendations in the report include creating a youth council to develop teen leaders and increasing investment in youth professionals. The recommendations, which cover five pages of the report, include everything from programming content (make it relevant, include lots of downtime for socializing) to how to get the word out (utilize the Internet and parents). The report also suggests targeting specific age cohorts within the teenage population and building on camp experiences.

The report concludes, in part, “The Jewish community of MetroWest New Jersey is at a crossroads. It has facilitated previous efforts to coordinate community-based youth initiatives, and to prioritize teens, and yet those efforts have not stood the test of time. Having just completed a significant needs assessment process, and equipped with data that can dramatically change the way teens, and the professionals serving them, are perceived and served within the community, the challenge to develop a strategic implementation plan for next steps [sic] is very real.”

“I think the report confirmed a lot of our thoughts,” said Barak Hermann, associate director of the JCC. “If we’re going to engage teens in Jewish experiences, they will have to be geared around really worthwhile leadership experiences and really talented staff, who really understand how to connect and work with teens….The big thing we’re focusing on is youth professionals. The other really big takeaway is that we are taking a good look at the role of the JCC as convener.”

Several steps have already been taken, according to Hermann. An Internet Listserv has already been created to help youth professionals begin interacting with each other; two meetings have also been held to assess how to move forward, attended by representatives from UJC, JEA, JCC, and synagogues. The existing JCC teen council will be dismantled and reconstituted as a community teen council convened by the JCC.

“We’re looking to roll out new initiatives in the fall,” said Hermann.

“We’ve seen teen initiatives come and go in this area,” said Sharon Seiden, president of the JCC board of trustees. “But where we have a real opportunity this time is that this is a community-based opportunity. It is not about one agency but about agencies working together with day schools, Hebrew schools, synagogues, youth groups, camps. It’s about all of us being vested in our teens.”

The MetroWest Jewish community, through a partnership among the United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey, the Jewish Education Association of MetroWest New Jersey and JCC MetroWest, was one of four communities across North America selected from among 25 applicants to participate. The MetroWest community invested $10,000 in order to participate.

“We know from different studies that most kids drop out after their bar or bat mitzva. The question is, how do we keep them engaged?” Steve Seiden, national chair of the JESNA study and former president of the Metro West JCC, told NJJN when the project began in September 2003. The final report was issued in March.

Based on interviews with teens, professionals, parents, and lay leaders, the report offered analyses of the community’s teens: what they’re interested in, what they want to participate in, how they already participate, and ways in which they feel unaffiliated with the established Jewish community.

It found that teens were interested “overwhelmingly” in “social programming, such as teen dances and teen movie nights,” that they are more likely to participate if their friends are also taking part, and that many want opportunities to lead. Most also expressed the desire to be led by “dynamic, passionate youth professionals”; at the same time, youth professionals are looking for ways to feel more connected themselves.

Impediments to participating, according to the report, included factors such as not feeling “part of the Jewish community,” and not being “aware of Jewishly sponsored activities,” as well as not wanting to travel too far for programs. Cost was also cited as a stumbling block to participation, something that came as news to Sharon Seiden, who said cost would be a factor in developing programs going forward.

Devorah Silverman, director of youth initiatives at JESNA and author of the report, expressed surprise at the amount of time teens today are spending on the Internet in the MetroWest community. “Teen are online all the time; they spend much more time online than on the things they do outside of that. That’s different from what we would have expected.” She urged the community to use this information in any projects it undertakes going forward. “The MetroWest Jewish community needs to develop a teen website and use teens to develop it so that it will appeal to them and, let’s face it, so it is inexpensive to develop.”

According to Hermann, the website is in the planning for next year. “But before that, we are focusing on youth professionals. We will need their buy-in and support. We want a community teen website to be something the whole community will support.”

Arthur Sandman, UJC associate executive vice president of program services, who has participated in the project on behalf of UJC, said he felt the report offered “a good analysis of the perspective of teens in our community.”

Johanna Ginsberg can be reached at jginsberg@njjewishnews.com.