Lisa Colton and guest Rachel Happel present about designing congregational education for social and community.

1. Connected Congregational
Education, Part 2
Lisa Colton
President, Darim Online
Chief Learning Officer, See3 Communications
lisa@see3.com @lisacolton #connectcongs
This presentation is adapted from materials developed through
Connected Congregations: A UJA-Federation of New York Initiative with Darim Online

2. A Little
About Me

3. TODAY… Think Connected.
And Empathy
• Think big
• Take risks, push yourself
• Challenge each other (and me!)
• Be ACTIVE!
• Question your assumptions
• Yes, AND… (not yes, but…)

4. The Game Plan
1. Review: What is a Connected Congregation?
2. Design Thinking Basics: Empathy and Iterate
3. Case study from Rachel Happel, Temple Beth
Shalom, Needham, MA

5. I ndividual Relationships
Small Group I dentity
Community
Congregation
Synagogue
SYNAGOGUE STRENGTH & SUSTAI NABI LI TY
To strengthen the synagogue, we must invest in individual relationships, support
collective identity and responsibility, grounded in Jewish values and action.
The foundation of this is designing for social engagement with each other.
Congregation Beth Israel, San Diego
Lisa Colton, August 2014
We need to matter to each other, and the collective.
Our Connected Hypothesis

6. What is a Connected Congregation?
A connected congregation is one that deeply understands the
meaning of community, and works explicitly to build a strong,
meaningful and engaged Jewish community.
Connected congregations prioritize relationships and shared
values, and align all aspects of institutional management in
service of the community.
Those within connected congregations feel a sense of shared
ownership and responsibility for each other and the
collective, and are empowered to contribute their ideas,
energy and resources.

7. WORKS EXPLICITLY TO
BUILD COMMUNITY
A connected congregation is one that deeply
understands the meaning of community, and
works explicitly to build a strong, meaningful
and engaged Jewish community.

8. “Everything of importance must be
deliberately designed and done with
our greatest insight and imagination,
or it is left to chance…. The world
needs more designers.”

9. DESIGN
THINKING
Empathy +
Iterate

10. EMPATHY
• The ability to share someone else's feelings
• The action of understanding, being aware of,
being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing
the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another
of either the past or present

11. It’s about the PERSON
not the PROGRAM.

12. OPERATIONALIZING CONNECTEDNESS
MEANS DESIGNING FOR SOCIAL
Rachel Happel,
Director of K-12 Learning,
Temple Beth Shalom,
Needham, MA

13. At the heart of our program … is
community.
We are striving to create and nurture
“HaKehilah” (the community), in
every arena of temple life, and that is
certainly true for our children and
their families.
The other “H” molecule in the logo is
“HaLimud” (the learning), which will
strengthen with this innovative new
Jewish learning program.
What connects these two core values
is “Omek” (depth).
We envision a K-5 learning
community where depth of
relationships and depth of learning
are intentionally fostered and visible
everywhere.

14. Listening & Empathy
• 2010 survey: insights about our existing religious school program.
• 2011 focus groups of K-5 parents to listen to their “big picture”
goals for their children’s Jewish learning at TBS.
• Fall 2011 surveyed all of our religious school about their
preferences for class timing
• We convened the “Elementary Learning Transition Advisory Group”
(ELTAG) – a dedicated group of parents, lay leaders, and public
school teachers from our congregation who advised us on the
changes that we have been considering.
• We spoke with all of our current 6th graders about their own
learning experiences – particularly in Hebrew – and listened to
what they thought needed to improve.

15. Moadon: Lounge Social Time

16. Mifgash: Encounter Circles
• Responsive classroom methodology
• Personal greeting
• Sharing
• Group Activity
• Message connected to learning

17. Jewish Connection
Experiences

18. Practical Operational
Considerations
• Registration process
• Friend requests
• Directory with contact info & encouragement
• Full time teachers

19. We design for what we measure.
Measure what you want to achieve.

20. OPERATIONALIZING CONNECTEDNESS
MEANS DESIGNING FOR SOCIAL
Rachel Happel,
Director of K-12 Learning,
Temple Beth Shalom,
Needham, MA

21. Q&A

22. What’s Next?
• August 20th
1-2pm eastern
• Looking at practical work and examples.
• What are you doing? Want to share?
• Recording, slides and links will come via email
shortly.