Launching HaReshet at AVI CHAI: Pilot Program in Jewish Network-Weaving

This article is cross-posted on The AVI CHAI Foundation blog and on eJewishPhilanthropy.

A year ago, I set out on a journey to understand how Jewish professionals are acting as network-weavers. I started by interviewing trailblazers who are activating their organizations’ constituencies towards common goals. I met community organizers advocating for causes from new educational models to environmental consciousness in the Jewish community. I encountered group facilitators sparking conversation on best practices in using technology in day schools and growing vibrant synagogues. I spoke with those engaging alumni, young Jews, and other target populations to become active, lifelong Jewish learners. Some of these interviews were featured here on eJewishPhilanthropy. These conversations led me to realize that Jewish professionals working with networks in a diversity of settings would benefit tremendously from resources on network-weaving within and beyond a Jewish context – including one another. I first wrote here about the idea of providing this through a training program for network-weavers.

In my role as Director of Communications for The AVI CHAI Foundation, I am creating a laboratory for experimentation around how network-weaving can be applied to improve the effectiveness of Jewish organizations in engaging their constituencies. From November 2012 to August 2013, in HaReshet (“The Network”), a pilot group of AVI CHAI grantees are learning together about network-weaving; developing and practicing skills in a guided and reflective way; and benefiting from sharing lessons with one another along the journey.

Grantees were selected for this pilot program based on two criteria. First, they see the value of their organizations as networks working toward a particular goal. Second, someone is currently on staff with time allocated to work with this network and help it achieve its potential. These criteria match the intention of HaReshet to help expedite the work of organizations who will regardless be exploring the frontier of building networks this year. I am truly excited to be working with the following participants:

• Frayda Goshor-Cohen and Luba Yusim from the Consortium of Applied Jewish Studies in Jewish Education, managed by Rosov Consulting: Connecting researchers, practitioners and philanthropists in the field of Jewish education;
• Gary Hartstein from DigitalJLearning, a project of the Jewish Education Project: Networking Jewish day schools which are implementing online and blended learning;
• Jane Cohen from Day School Leadership Training Institute of the Davidson Graduate School of Education at JTS: Activating the alumni network of graduates of the DSLTI professional development program, which trains and supports heads of Jewish day schools;
• Debbie Feinstein and Yael Bailey from the Jewish New Teacher’s Project (JNTP), a project of the New Teacher Center: Creating a network of alumni of its programs, which accelerate the effectiveness of beginning teachers in Jewish day schools;
• Rebecca Braverman of Reshet Ramah of the National Ramah Commission; Creating a network of Ramah alumni; and
• Miriam Cohen and Drorit Farkas of TaL AM: Creating a network of teachers using the TaL AM curriculum of Hebrew Language Arts and Jewish Studies.

HaReshet brings alive a vision of how network-weaving is not just new content to be learned. Rather, it is a mindset and approach, which the program itself embodies. Instead of top-down lectures, blended in-person and online webinars accommodating participants both within and beyond New York City enable the interactive discussion of network concepts. Instead of passive learning, participants are required to actively apply the material through exercises between the monthly webinars.

Also critical to network-weaving is the belief that learning is not unidirectional. As the Jewish chevruta model recognizes, there is tremendous value in learning – and in learning together. This concept is particularly relevant to the emerging field of network-weaving, where some may have more experience in working with networks, but we all stand to learn from one another. In HaReshet, each participant is paired with a chevruta partner experienced in network-weaving who will coach him or her to achieve specific personal and professional goals. Our esteemed chevruta partners are: Miriam Brosseau of The Jewish Education Project/ Darim Online (See3), Caren Levine of Etheoreal, Lisa Colton of Darim Online (See3), Liz Fisher of Birthright NEXT, Naava Frank of YU Institute for University-School Partnership, and Sara Shapiro-Plevan of Rimonim Consulting.

Ultimately, in a woven network, the discrete components add up to a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts. The AVI CHAI Foundation in North America invests in a wide range of initiatives that further Jewish literacy, religious purposefulness, and peoplehood/Israel at Jewish day schools and summer camps. While grantees are united around these three core values, they each represent a different path toward making them come to life. Given that AVI CHAI is sunsetting in 2020, it is especially important to the foundation to leave a legacy of strong organizations that can consciously articulate and promote the values to future generations. Part of this work may be to bring together grantees who perceive themselves as operating in very different contexts and helping them understand the ways in which they are working toward similar goals. HaReshet hopes to enable the individual participating networks to grow and each network-weaver to achieve greater confidence and mastery in acting in this role. It also may be one place where grantees can benefit not only from the value of the program, but also the value of access to one another. In doing so, they may begin to think about how they are a part of and can enhance a bigger picture.

At the same time, I have realized the deep importance not just of network-weaving as a concept, but of the individual network-weavers themselves. Their skills, personalities, and dedication greatly influence the ways their networks develop, and are in many cases what enables their networks to take off. I am privileged to work with and learn from so many passionate and talented network-weavers, and look forward to what we can achieve together.

Deborah Fishman is Director of Communications at The AVI CHAI Foundation.

Guest Blogging for North American Jewish Day School Conference

This post cross-posted here on The AVI CHAI Blog - check out additional posts there during the conference, Sunday, January 15 - Tuesday, January 17, and in the days following.

I am extremely excited for the opportunity to guest blog for The AVI CHAI Foundation at the North American Jewish Day School Conference in Atlanta next week. With a theme of “Current Landscape – Changing Horizons,” the conference offers an action-packed schedule woven together with the subthemes: Innovations in Jewish Education, Reimaging and Sustaining Day Schools, The Jewish Day School Value Proposition, and 21st Century Skills for Students and Adults in Day Schools. Here are some thoughts on what I would like to see addressed for each:

• Innovations: There are so many big ideas floating throughout the conference schedule – discussing everything from distributed leadership in the school culture, to new educational techniques such as experiential education, Hebrew immersion, and blended learning, to specific strategies in the classroom such as games-based learning, 1:1 technology, and project-based learning. How do you make sense of this gamut of innovations and come up with a consistent and implementable strategy that is right for your school? Are there support networks for those who are experimenting with the different innovations? How can you measure whether a given innovation is working for you? How can you tell when it’s time to try something new?
• Reimaging and Sustaining: The key issues here include financial sustainability tied together with issues of growth as well as how to improve the branding and marketing of day schools. To me the linking is brilliant – acknowledging that financial concerns do not exist in a vacuum, but rather are tied into a larger strategic vision of how the schools will grow while fulfilling their value proposition (see next theme). I particularly have many questions around the reimaging part of the conversation: Where do priorities lie in terms of dedicating resources to altering the perceived image versus the intrinsic quality? To what extent is a reimaging process necessary to sustain the work schools are doing? Based on whose concerns should the reimaging take place, and what constituency has jurisdiction over what that image should be?
• Value Proposition: Some of the issues that come to the forefront include defining the values (and are some more important/“Jewish” than others); defining who are the “ambassadors” of them (board members and alumni are two proposed constituencies); and defining how they position day schools in the overall educational landscape. I indeed am interested in learning more about: How the value propositions of day schools compare or relate pedagogically to those in the field of education as a whole, and how can these differences be leveraged? Also, do board members and alumni have the same understanding of the value proposition?
• 21st Century Skills: In addition to social media, technology, and learning environments, this category covers the social, emotional and other individual needs of learners. How and to what extent do you accommodate those individual needs? How do 21st century trends affect all the rest of the above themes and serve as the backdrop on which they operate – and how do you make sure you take them into account?

These subthemes are clearly in dialogue with one another – can applying paradigms of 21st-century skills lead to innovations in how to educate? How can day schools be reimaged and sustained based on a focus on the value proposition they provide? What they have as a common subtext seems to be the quest for and expression of new ideas that can lead us into new horizons.

In that vein, I am particularly excited for the ELI Talks: Inspired Jewish Ideas, which will take place two nights of the conference and feature 18-minute TED-style talks designed to foster greater Engagement, Literacy, and Identity.

I am sure many of the 600+ attendees have their own ideas they can contribute to this conversation. I will be serving as a roving reporter capturing some of these for inclusion on the AVI CHAI blog. Do you have an inspired Jewish idea? Will you be at the conference and be willing to share about something that inspires you during it? Feel free to get in touch with me beforehand to arrange a time when I can record your thoughts – or find me there!

Looking forward to hearing what inspires you!

How to Solve Crises in Day School Education (hint: it's all about networks)

Affordability: How do you ensure day school education is financially accessible to all Jewish children during times of economic recession?
Governance: How can day schools adopt best practices, particularly in finance?
Education: How do you increase its quality, adjust the balance between Judaic and general studies, and improve the integration of technology in the classroom?
Personnel: How do you train qualified teachers and administrators who will serve as inspirational role models for the next generation of young Jews – and how do you grow and retain them?

These are all complex and serious issues for day schools today. Yet there is one that stands out to me as the most compelling cause for concern – and in whose solution might lie the solution to many of the rest of the issues as well. That issue is personnel.

In his recent article in eJewishPhilanthropy, Dr. Hal Lewis succinctly summarizes the personnel problem as applicable beyond day schools in the Jewish and general nonprofit sphere. He reports that, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, 70% of not-for-profit professionals call their jobs “disappointing or only somewhat fulfilling,” while in the Jewish world many talented and Jewishly-educated young Jews either go directly to the private sector or, if they do initially choose to enter a Jewish nonprofit, soon burn out – leading to a “brain drain” of good people and ideas simply going elsewhere.

Lewis cites Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (check out an animated version here) as providing a bit of light toward the end of the tunnel. Pink concludes that, more so than money or other perks external to a job, three intrinsic benefits drive job satisfaction: autonomy (sense of ownership over one’s work), mastery (opportunities for professional development), and purpose (believing in the cause, and that the work one is doing is making a difference in it).

The key question for day school education then becomes: How do we instill autonomy, mastery, and purpose into day school educators’ jobs? The answer, I believe, is through networks. Through connecting, sharing best practices, and learning from peers, educators can not only achieve mastery, learning new skills such as how to teach a particular topic through a new curriculum or a new technological platform. They can also be awarded autonomy: the opportunity to represent their existing work to peers and to collaborate with peers on new endeavors will give them a feeling of ownership over their talents and what they produce with them. Furthermore, they will even be endowed with purpose: an enriched understanding of the field at large, what colleagues are dreaming of, struggling with, and accomplishing (and why), and how their individual work feeds into that greater picture.

Imagine if day schools could reach multitudes of aspiring teachers passionate about education and young Jews passionate about disseminating Jewish identity and knowledge – and deploy their talents and energies to solve the burning problems such as those listed above. Imagine if these aspiring teachers could not only solve these existing problems – but also impact generations of young Jews to be knowledgeable ambassadors of and contributors to the Jewish people. In doing so, they might even revolutionize day school education in ways we can’t even conceive of yet.

I believe that this all can happen – through connecting day school educators with their fellow day school educators and enabling them to dream and grow together into new opportunities. Just as importantly, they can provide an invaluable support network for one another during the challenging times, and help each other toward potential solutions.

Networks are about capturing the human capital in a system and leveraging it to provide information, skills, and other resources that will make the entire system more effective and connected. Going a step further, since networks offer such added value, I project that the very awareness of the existence of well-built, active, and productive networks which provide opportunities for learning and growth will attract and retain talented professionals.

There’s lots to be done – but through having more and more outstanding personnel at the table, and through having conversations and cross-pollinations between them spreading new ideas and best practices, it can be done together.

Thanks to Naava Frank for the stimulating conversation and important lessons on day school education.