Welcome to our returning and new BJCWF members! Here is a brief update on our group, our happenings so far, and what's to come later this year.
A FEW WORDS FROM OUR CHAIR
Girls’ self esteem is being undermined in many ways. From media and technology to inequality in boy-girl relationships, to having an immigrant or disadvantaged status, and even to the stereotype of being “a good girl,” girls are increasingly at risk. This year our Women’s Fund will be focusing on issues related to girls and how we can help empower them. We have started to talk about a concept we call “emotional resiliency” by which we mean helping girls to deal with the difficulties they encounter and become emotionally healthy and appropriately assertive.
Our opening event, which included a viewing of the PBS documentary “A Girl’s Life,” gave us a glimpse into the lives of four young women and the issues which confront them. The film aroused the interest of many Fund members and led to the desire to continue exploring these issues. In response we’ll be delving deeper into the issues by focusing our Lunch n’ Learns on grantees whose projects directly impact girls. Our first session was “Moving Traditions,” a program that promotes self-esteem, leadership skills and Jewish identity. Next month we’ll be visiting RAW Art Works in Lynn to learn how the arts encourage healthy development. Later in the year, we will learn about bullying, and visit an innovative school-based program.
Our efforts to learn more about the issues help us become better grant makers. Join us as we focus on learning about programs that promote health and emotional well being in young women, so that we can create solutions, change things for the better and connect with our grant recipients. I think it will be an exciting year – I look forward to seeing you and working with you.
Best,
Carol Targum
Chair
GRANTS UPDATE
Our 2011 grant review is underway! Letters of intent are due in by early November , and we’ll be reviewing them throughout the month. You can still sign up to be a reader or to join a grant committee. Just email Susan Ebert (susane@cjp.org) to get involved; it doesn't take more than a few hours total and it's a great way to really contribute towards our grantmaking process.
LUNCH N' LEARN
On October 26th we held a lunch n' learn program featuring Rosh Hodesh: It’s A Girl Thing, a program of grantee Moving Traditions. 22 BJCWF members attended this get-together; a few of them are pictured below. Regional Director Cheryl Weiner and program participant Marissa Brockman presented a workshop summarizing the project and detailing its significant impact on participants. We were forwarded this note concerning the meeting, which really says it all about the mission and focus of BJCWF...
"Hey Cheryl!
Thank you for inviting me to come and speak at the presentation today. I had such a fantastic time being with you and meeting all the other women. It was amazing to see that they care so much about girls like me, and they understand how hard it is to be a teenager sometimes. It made me feel really good about myself, and proud to be in Rosh Hodesh.
Today was also great because it gave me the confidence to talk in front of a group of women I had never met before and open up to them. It was so interesting to hear about their own experiences when they were my age, and they were really fun to talk to. I've never done anything like that before. Just standing there and having people really listening to me and what I had to say made me feel really good about myself. It made me realize how important Rosh Hodesh is in my life and how much it helps me. Rosh Hodesh has helped me deal with stress, friends, gossip, school and other things, and I am lucky to have it in my life. I think that all girls should do the program.
Thanks again so much for today and I hope to do this with you again!
Marissa"
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Doris Gordon is can truly say she's a charter member of the BJCWF - as a matter of fact, she was a member of "the fund" before the fund really existed! Doris, at the recommendation of her husband - who is quite active in CJP and other Jewish philanthropies - attended one of the very first "planning" meetings of the fund. She loved the idea that the members of the organization would collectively determine how grants would be funded. She signed on, and never looked back.
Doris has been active in almost every aspect of the fund's work over the past ten grant cycles. She has sat on grant review committees, hosted meetings, read letters of intent, and even brought in new people to the group. But she truly enjoys going on site visits on behalf of the organization. She fondly recalls visits to On The Rise and Germaine Lawrence, both grant recipients from BJCWF. She has even done site visits in Israel, having met with recipients Economic Empowerment for Women and Mahout firsthand on behalf of the fund.
And what keeps Doris engaged? A few things. She loves watching, and participating in, the fund's evolution. She greatly admires how year after year things become more organized, professional, and visible. She also stays for the people. She says, "I love working with good people you can trust. You know the process and the decision making steps insure that that the best decisions will be made."
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