Engage: Growing School and Community Partnerships 2023 - 2024 Application

Over the past six years, the Engage program has enabled more than 100 Jewish day schools to position themselves as centers of Jewish engagement for families with young children. Participating schools and PJ Library Partners indicate that the year-long cohort based program has deepened their professional practice and engagement while expanding Jewish content in their programming. More significantly, Engage draws in parents with young children into the orbit of Jewish day school thereby positioning the school as a central hub for Jewish life. In partnership with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, PJ Library Alliance, and Lisa and Arieh Coll, Engage offers participating schools and their PJ Library Program Partners grant funding to be used towards designing and hosting community engagements. These community engagements attract Jewish families to day schools, and offer opportunities for families to build stronger connections within their Jewish community.

Through community partnership engagements, schools are able to increase the potential for expanded recruitment, stronger retention and ultimately, higher enrollment.

Program Plan and Requirements

There is no fee to participate in the Engage program.

Schools receive a grant generously funded by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, Lisa and Arieh Coll, and Prizmah toward engagements.
Participating Jewish day schools receive a grant of $2,500 to support engagements or initiatives.
PJ Library Program Partners receive $500 toward their participation.

Accepted Engage program schools and PJ Library Partners will commit to the following:

Plan a minimum of four new or expanded engagements throughout the school year.
Collaborate with one another to develop, plan, and implement engagements.
Admission professionals attend 12 (monthly) virtual one-hour sessions which offer:
- Skill strengthening in capacities critical for engagement including, relationship-building, stewardship, market segmentation, communication/marketing, program planning, use of data, and more.
- A supportive and informative network of professionals in which participants lean into each other to strengthen their practice.
- Specialized training on how to mobilize ambassadors from their school to support engagements.
Collect engagement data and deployment of participant surveys.
Promote PJ Library subscriptions to participants throughout the program.

Application Process

Engage is a collaborative partnership program between the school and PJ Library Program Partner.

Admission professionals and their local PJ Library Program Partners apply for a limited number of spots in Engage. The application should be completed by the admission professional in collaboration with their local PJ Library Program Partner.

The application process requires review and online submission.

Step 1: Application questions should be completed thoughtfully with your PJ Library partner. We recommend meeting (in person or virtually) to complete the application together.

Please download the application template to review questions before online completion.

Step 2: Once the application has been reviewed and finalized, admission professionals should submit all completed questions through the online application below.

Step 3: Prizmah will contact applicants to schedule a brief interview.

Step 4: Once all applications have been reviewed, program acceptance notifications will be communicated to the school via email by June 16, 2023.

Questions?

Please contact Beth Rivkind, Director of Enrollment Growth, at [email protected].

Applications are due no later than May 19, 2023

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