Summary and Highlights

The Jewish Community Teen Foundations launched its fourth program year of philanthropic training with a weekend long retreat.

Attending the retreat were the current cohort of 100 teenagers who are taking part in the five Teen Foundation programs, along with alumni, staff and speakers. Beginning on the evening of Friday November 9 with a Shabbat dinner and continuing through Sunday November 11, the teens and other attendees had all gathered to learn how to put the concept of tikkun olam (repair of the world) into action.

The weekend began with a discussion about the basics of Jewish philanthropy, focusing in the concepts behind tzedakah (justice) and the foundation model of philanthropy. This was done to ensure that the program participants had some knowledge of the Federation’s work, and the ways in which the Jewish community responds to global needs.

Later, at the Foundation Simulation Fair, the teenagers learned through doing, by taking part in a role playing exercise meant to simulate the grantmaking process. Teens, playing the part of nonprofit representatives, applied for grants and were interviewed by other teens playing the part of foundation members. The foundation role-players then had to make difficult choices about how to allocate funds. The exercise gave first-hand knowledge on the difficulties and challenges involved with both seeking grants and determining who to give grants to.

Most of the retreat was teen-led, and they took the initiative. Instead of waiting for hotel staff to come set up the conference rooms, the teens took it upon themselves to arrange the rooms into café-style seating. It was truly amazing watching teenagers become leaders.

The Values Café was immensely popular with all the teens. Participants sat at tables in a café atmosphere and discussed individual values. The teens spoke about how much they learned about their own and others’ core values:

“The Values Café taught me what I most value and what I am passionate about,” said one teen. Another added that the café event, “made me think of these values in a different light.” A second-year leadership teen added, “The Values Café was much more meaningful to me this year. I was really able to pinpoint my specific values and concerns in the world.”

The entire retreat was focused on developing individual values and moving to a place of identifying group values. The retreat eventually culminated with the development of a mission statement. Drawing from all components of the training weekend, the teens who had grouped themselves into boards representing the five program service areas came to a consensus about where to focus their efforts this year.

These mission statements were carefully crafted after a series of informative sessions. The “Issues Rotations” workshop allowed teens to learn about different topics, including the dire situation in Darfur, Ethiopian women in Israel, at-risk teens in the Bay Area, local Jewish needs, sweatshops, international medical needs, the Arab-Israeli conflict and many more.

Some teens were deeply moved by these workshops. Several teens said there were touched by the life-changing stories told by students from the Life Learning Academy in San Francisco. Others noted that they weren’t aware of the needs of the local Jewish community, as outlined by Jewish Family and Children’s Services. The workshops enabled the teens to channel their own passion for tikkun olam into their mission statements.

“It was wonderful to hang out with other kids who are interested in what’s going on in the world today,” one teen said; another expressed, “I could not have learned so much about a foundation in so little time any other way.”

For many teens, this retreat added a priceless connection to the Jewish community, and helped them understand the role that the Federation and other Jewish organizations play in tikkun olam.
As one teen put it, “through exposure to an active Jewish community, I learned how to feel an emotional connection to issues that seemed to impact me in merely an intellectual way.”