JCC Association Receives $150,000 Grant from Safety Respect Equity Coalition
Funds Will Allow JCCs to Lead on Gender Equity in Their Own Communities
JCC Association of North America is proud to be among the first 15 organizations to be selected by The Safety Respect Equity Coalition (SRE) to receive a capacity-building grant of $150,000. The funds will be used to work with individual JCCs in our network so that they can begin to shift the culture around gender equity, safe workplaces and anti-harassment in their own communities.
JCC Association will invite JCCs to apply for one of six spaces in the pilot program of “JCC Culture: Creating Safety Respect and Equity within the JCC Movement,”. As part of the pilot, each agency will receive over $20,000 in support, training and a $5,000 in grant money. The focus will be on creating programming that suits the needs of their communities. The goal is not only to encourage dialogue at the local level, and to galvanize the JCC’s role as the convening agency around these issues, but to also link the JCC to the broader Jewish Community to come together to make a significant impact in their network. JCCs will also work together in a network able to generate discussion and implement solutions.
“We want our JCCs to take the lead on these issues in their communities and tackle them head on, generating productive conversations both at the local and continental level,” said JCC Association Vice President Joy Brand-Richardson, who has been part of SRE since it was founded as a Jewish response to the #MeToo movement. “The idea is that we not be prescriptive, but to support each JCC as they work in collaboration with Jewish organizations to tailor programs that meet the needs of their own communities. As Jewish town squares, JCCs are the natural place to roll out such a pilot and in which to situate such a program.”
The capacity building grant funds will provide funding for each JCC in the pilot to bring a project coordinator, their executive director and a lay leader to a program launch and accelerated training following Mifgash in January 2020. There will also be an extension of JSummit, the JCC Movement’s premier continental leadership convening in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in May 2020 which will provide additional training. In addition, each JCulture team will participate in three instructional webinars with the JCulture cohort, and benefit from a comprehensive on site visit during the year.
Through these efforts, each selected JCC will be able to create an action plan with measurable, deliverable outcomes. Ultimately, the goal will be to encourage a wider conversation and culture shift that extends beyond the parameters of the pilot and permeates the entire JCC Movement.
Application for participation will be announced shortly.
Reader Interactions