NEW YORK (JTA) — The Foundation for Jewish Camp is launching two pilot programs to benefit Jewish day camps, as well as two programs for overnight camps.
The programs, funded with grants from various foundations, are demonstration projects that the Foundation for Jewish Camp, or FJC, hopes to expand and replicate in the future. They are a camp “accelerator,” an initiative to help camps be more inclusive of children with disabilities, a Hebrew immersion program and a “Jewish coaching” project.
New Camp Accelerator, which provides consulting and funding to help establish new overnight camps, is currently working with URJ 6 Points Sports Academy West and Ramah Northern California, both of which plan to open in the summer of 2016.
The FJC Ruderman Inclusion Initiative will help four camps hire and train inclusion coordinators to increase the number of children with disabilities participating there. The camps are Camp Young Judea Texas, URJ Camp Harlam, Camp B’nai Brith Oregon and Camp JCA Shalom.
Arevim Hebrew Immersion at Camp will help Jewish day camps add a Hebrew-immersion curriculum to their programming.
The Jewish Coaching Project will provide coaches, cohort learnings and communities of practice focused on helping four New York-area day camps define their Jewish mission and maximize the Jewish outcomes they seek for their campers and staff.
“FJC believes these four grants will have significant impact not only on the local programs but also in creating models for expansion across North America,” Jeremy Fingerman, the FJC’s CEO, said in a news release.
The mission of the FJC, which works with more than 155 nonprofit Jewish camps in North America, is to increase the number of children participating in immersive Jewish experiences each summer.
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