Inclusion Programming

Does this congregation have an inclusion committee?

Yes

Developing Our Program

Our congregant, Jen Gendel, approached the senior staff with the idea to start an inclusion committee. She had noticed over the years that BJBE was already doing so much to support inclusion, but wondered if the common congregant was aware of these inclusion efforts. We started an inclusion committee that month and began to work with our Director of Communications to come up with a communication plan.

Number of people involved in the effort: 25

Involving People with Disabilities

Our committee is made up of people of all abilities, as well as the parents and grandparents of people with disabilities.

Funding This Effort

Our Special Needs Coordinator for our Sunday school is funded by a grant from CFJE, Community Foundation for Jewish Education. We pay our one-on-one aids to work with students who would benefit from individualized attention, from our school teaching budget.

We do not have a budget specifically for inclusion. Instead, for example, our low-sensory Purim carnival that we offer is funded from the Purim budget. This is an example of real inclusion, of which we are very proud. We do plan to raise money and apply for grants to help us attain more of our long-term inclusion goals, such as creating a Sensory Room at BJBE.

Helpful Agencies & Organizations

We are very fortunate that the head of our inclusion committee, Dr. Jennifer Gendel, Director of the Pritzker Pucker Inspire Center, is an expert in this field and is very connected throughout the country with other Inclusion specialists and organizations. She guides, inspires, and teaches us in so many ways.

Our synagogue is a proud member of HUGS [Healthy Understanding Growing Spaces], a collaborative effort of the Chicago North Shore synagogues, to provide meaningful holiday experiences for people with disabilities. Our synagogues take turns hosting events and bringing Jews with disabilities together from around the North Shore. This is our second year hosting the Purim Hamantashen Making event for Adults with Disabilities. Last year we had 35 people attend from around the North Shore and beyond.

We work closely with Keshet in many ways and support them and their mission. Our B’nei Mitzvah students volunteer with Keshet, through programs like Buddy Basketball. Students from Keshet help out at our Purim Carnival. Last year, Keshet came and facilitated an interactive program with our High School students to teach about what true inclusion looks and feels like. For our Adult Education, Keshet also facilitated a panel of congregants to talk about what inclusion looks like in congregational life. This panel was made up of people with disabilities and their families. We are grateful that Keshet provides BJBE with resources, education and support.

Our ECC Director, Susie Wexler, recently wrote a grant to bring in Matan to facilitate a survey for Early Childhood Centers in the North Shore Chicago area. We were proud to participate in this survey, and we are looking forward to what we can learn from the results.

Last year, thanks to an organization Encompass, a department of Jewish Child and Family Services in Chicago, our staff and lay leaders attended 4 workshops on different areas of inclusion. These workshops were inspiring and informative, and we brought what we learned back to our congregation.

For many years we employed adults with disabilities from an organization called Glenkirk, which provides housing, life skills, education, and resources for adults with disabilities. While it did not work out to continue to partner with Glenkirk in the same exact way this year, we look forward to finding other ways to partner in the future, and continue to support the employment of people of all abilities.

Spreading Awareness About Our Work

Our Director of Communications recently put out a Press Release to spread the word about BJBE’s inclusion efforts.

We advertise our inclusion efforts on our website, social media, in Chicago Jewish periodicals, and by reaching out to local organizations that we have built relationships. We publicize how BJBE’s building is fully accessible, with a ramp leading up to the bimah, and large buttons to open doors. We publicize that we provide wheelchairs at the entrance of our building, as well as large print prayer books for those who need.

In February, our clergy speak about inclusion from the bimah, continuing this important conversation among congregants. This year, the inclusion committee will set up a booth outside of Shabbat services each week of February, to handout our BJBE inclusion survey and to answer any questions that people have about inclusion at BJBE, as well as to raise awareness.