Posts in category "Awards & Recognition"

Gateways: Access to Jewish Education has been chosen to coordinate and deliver professional development services for six area day schools in a project funded by The Jim Joseph Foundation and the Ruderman Family Foundation and in partnership with Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) and Yeshiva University's Institute for University-School Partnership.

"The grant will strengthen access for all learners in area Jewish day schools, hopefully generating a model program for Jewish day school education," says Alan Oliff, CJP's Director of the Initiative for Day School Excellence. "This holistic approach is in line with our commitment to educating the next generation and helping to build strong connections to Jewish life."

Gateways will expand its professional development and training programs to build the capacity of teachers and school leaders so that schools are better equipped to address the needs of students with special learning needs. "This grant will allow Gateways to take its existing professional development program to the next level," says Arlene Remz, Gateways' Executive Director. This new model will enable each school's entire staff to become involved in and responsible for the education of students with a wide range of abilities, making a Jewish day school education accessible to a broader population.

Learn more about this exciting partnership in an article from the Boston Globe.

In news just out of the Slingshot Fund's New York offices: Gateways: Access to Jewish Education has been named as one of the nation's 50 most innovative Jewish nonprofits in Slingshot '11-'12, a resource guide to the most creative and resourceful organizations on the Jewish scene today.

What's more, Gateways is one of only a small number of organizations dedicated to inclusion of people with disabilities to ever be listed in Slingshot's resource guide. Gateways is dedicated to the proposition that every child deserves access to a Jewish education and has created a comprehensive regional model to deliver innovative and inclusive Jewish educational programs and supports in multiple settings for students with a wide range of learning styles.

Slingshot, which is run by a team of "Next Gen" Jewish funders, puts out its resource guide annually. It's increasingly used by philanthropists, volunteers, not-for-profit executives and program participants to identify thought leaders and trailblazing organizations grappling with concerns in Jewish life such as identity, community, and tradition. Gateways was chosen for the fifth consecutive year by a panel of 36 young foundation professionals from across North America.

"All of us here at Gateways are delighted by Slingshot's continuing support of everything Gateways is doing to include all of our children and all of our families in Jewish life, the Jewish community and the Jewish future," says Gateways Executive Director Arlene Remz. "And since Slingshot expresses the vision and commitment of the visionary young philanthropists who form the core of tomorrow's Jewish communal leaders, we consider their continued vote of confidence to be a healthy sign for the future of both Gateways and the children with a wide range of learning needs whom we are privileged to serve."

Gateways: Access to Jewish Education has been singled out as one of the nation’s Top 10 most innovative Jewish nonprofits by the Slingshot Fund. Its just-released resource guide for Jewish innovation identifies 50 trailblazing organizations tackling the key challenges of Jewish life in the 21st century.

In addition, Gateways is, for the second year running, ranked in the Top 10 organizations to receive a $37,000 capacity- building grant from the Slingshot Fund. The Fund is the creation of a group of next-generation Jewish philanthropists who launched it four years ago as a collective-giving mechanism to support innovations in Jewish life. To date, the Slingshot Fund has contributed nearly $1.5 million to the most forward-thinking Jewish nonprofits on the scene today.

Gateways, the central address for Jewish education for children with special needs in the Boston area, provides a broad menu of programs and services that create educational opportunities that meet each child’s unique abilities and needs.

"All of us here at Gateways: Access to Jewish Education, our staff, therapists, teachers, parents, trustees and supporters, are deeply gratified to be recognized by a grant from the Slingshot Fund," says Gateways Executive Director Arlene Remz, who accepted the award yesterday at a ceremony in New York City. "It's especially rewarding, given Slingshot's focus on identifying and nurturing innovation and vision throughout the Jewish community, that they saw fit to award us a grant for the second year in a row."

According to Remz, the grant will allow Gateways to "further develop and document our ground-breaking program models so they can be shared with other communities to help children with special needs enjoy the Jewish education that is their birthright, and expand our professional development programs. And now we'll be able to work with even more educators in Jewish congregational schools, day schools and preschools so they can better meet the needs of every child -- and family -- who comes through their doors."

According to Will Schneider, the Director of Slingshot, "2010 was the most competitive year that Slingshot has experienced. Not only are there a greater number of applicants each year, but the extent and complexity of each applicant’s impact has increased. In order to receive a grant from the Slingshot Fund, not only did these ten organizations have to pass the rigorous evaluation process to get into Slingshot ‘09/’10, but were then vetted, interviewed, and analyzed by 30 next generation members of the Slingshot Fund."

The Slingshot guidebook commends Gateways as having "built a remarkable bridge across denominations to knock down the barriers that stand between Jewish children with special needs and a Jewish education. At Gateways, children with special needs are able to attend Hebrew school, become a bar or bat mitzvah, and experience Jewish life in ways they have never before been able to access."

Adds Slingshot member Ariella Lis: "Our Board sees Gateways as paving the way for Jewish education, Jewish culture and a multi-sensory approach to Hebrew, the whole package. Without Gateways, there wouldbe no Jewish education for so many children."

As an employee of Gateways: Access to Jewish Education, I was quite moved to watch Arlene Remz, our Executive Director, receive the honor of the Community Service Award from the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts for her work in leading our organization to improve the quality of Jewish education for children with special needs.

Reflecting on the significance of this wonderful evening, I greatly appreciated reading Daniel Levenson's remarks. He appropriately pointed out that "one of the things that makes the Massachusetts Synagogue Council unique is that it consistently brings together Jews of different denominational affiliations to not only talk about issues of common concern, but to engage in learning and celebration with one another."

I certainly agree with his point and I want to add that by honoring Arlene Remz, the Council has recognized our agency’s ability to also serve families across the denominational spectrum, as well as recognized the importance of including families who have children with a diverse range of learning styles and abilities. Gateways provides Jewish education to children with special needs in a variety of settings – day schools, synagogue and community programs, and specially designed programs for children who would benefit from highly structured programming, individualized attention and smaller class sizes. Our client families identify as Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and unaffiliated.

The Synagogue Council of Massachusetts and Gateways: Access to Jewish Education are vibrant models of organizations identifying an important community need and working for the greater good to create services and programs for all Jewish families.