The Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties (the Federation) has launched its Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Initiative, a five-year, $7.6 million endeavor.

The Initiative was designed with 1:1 match funding by the Jim Joseph Foundation, in the context of the national Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative and will include five components:

• Innovation Accelerator to scale, expand, and diversify innovative programs for teens with grant funding to a cohort of nonprofit organizations, entrepreneurial training, and coaching;
• Professional Development to support well-trained, high caliber Jewish educators, widely recognized as the key to successfully engaging teens;
• Experimentation Micro-Grants to pilot and test new program ideas;
• Information Hub to provide a centralized resource for teens, parents, and the community; and
• Scholarships to create incentives for teen participation in immersive experiences and Israel travel.

Additional support for and partnership in this work comes from The Jewish Federation and The Jewish Community Foundation of the East Bay.

The Federation’s board of directors has approved $2 million in grants to community partners to be disbursed over three years. Of these grants, nearly $1.2 million were awarded as part of an Innovation Accelerator to organizations poised to scale, expand and diversify innovative program offerings. Programs in the Innovation Accelerator will participate in cohort-based learning on entrepreneurial methods and mindsets, guided by UpStart, a San Francisco-based incubator for Jewish community innovation.

The Teen Initiative’s first set of grants include:

• BBYO – San Francisco/Marin Expansion and Enrichment Initiative ($145,000)
• Camp Tawonga – Teen Year-Round Engagement & Leadership Development Program ($150,000)
• Congregation Emanu-El – The Gathering ($150,000)
• The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) – Museum Teen Council ($125,000)
• JCC of San Francisco – Teen Arts Immersion Program (TAIP) ($125,000)
• Jewish Youth for Community Action (JYCA) and Peninsula JCC – Peninsula-JYCA ($150,000)
• Oshman Family Jewish Community Center – FACST-Fun, Active, Community Service for Teens ($150,000)
• NCSY – Jewish Student Union (JSU) Culture Clubs ($150,000)
• Camp Ramah in Northern California/Ramah Galim ($25,000)
• Jewish LearningWorks ($745,000)