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Maximizing Our Summer Impact and Expanding Ramah's Impact Throughout the Year a Five-Year Strategic Plan

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Maximizing Our Summer Impact and Expanding Ramah's Impact Throughout the Year a Five-Year Strategic Plan Proposed Final-May 7, 2010 CAMP RAMAH IN NEW ENGLAND Maximizing Our Summer Impact and Expanding Ramah’s Impact Throughout the Year A Five-Year Strategic Plan For sixty years Ramah in New England has been a dynamic model of living Judaism. What takes place during the Ramah summer excites the imagination of campers, providing them with experiences that reflect and express the best of Jewish life. We are very proud of our Camp and its accomplishments: Ramah is a unique Jewish environment. Campers tell of how they can’t wait to come back; they describe their experience as fun and over 80% return for the next season. Many of our alumni have become creative and important leaders of the Jewish community. We pride ourselves in our ability, every few years, to reflect and discuss within the Camp community how we can enhance our core activity--the summer camp. Now, the beginning of a new decade is an appropriate time. We have made important strides in recruitment and program in the past several years, but we are not ready to rest. The physical plant needs attention. Scholarship funds do not meet the current demand. Our program can benefit from review. We will have to develop substantial financial resources for all these and more. Ramah is more than a place. Ramah is a powerful community. Ramah is a culture, an environment difficult to replicate. Synagogues and homes find it challenging to be Ramah or to replicate it in the off-season. Campers often feel incomplete and sad as they long for Ramah Shabbatot--when the ideal is real. They wonder how they can “take some of Ramah home….” We, as well as other Conservative leaders, are concerned that our Movement has diminished in both size and vigor. For significant numbers of our alumni, our synagogues are not the "community” they came to appreciate and desire for themselves while at Ramah. This has been an ongoing problem since Ramah was established more than 60 years ago. Not finding the warmth and joy of community (hevra), Ramah alumni throughout the country have organized havurot, minyanim, often traditional—within or apart from their local Conservative congregations—and are actively building communities, Ramah-style yet frequently outside the Movement. A success for Ramah, when viewed from the standpoint of Klal Yisrael, is viewed in our Conservative movement as a challenge to Ramah: What can Ramah do to bridge that gap? What can we do during the summer and throughout the year, with our rabbis, educators, campers, staff, and families, to bring home the Ramah message and experience? How can we partner with them Page | 1 Proposed Final-May 7, 2010 to ensure that in the 21st century Conservative entities can meet the needs of Jews along a continuum of practices, beliefs and experiences, including the needs of our alumni? Camp Ramah is committed to improving the summer experience, our traditional core. Much needs to be done. Beyond this we also need to focus on year-round programming--to “turn the summer inside-out,” sparking a grassroots movement. If we succeed, we will extend the impact of Ramah throughout the year to campers and staff. We can indeed help them take some of Camp home with them. With a clear vision and a well-developed and coordinated set of activities, both summer and year-round, we will continue to reinvigorate Ramah for the decade of the 2010’s. Beyond this, we can play a role in empowering the institutions of our Movement! Mission Statement: Through its exceptional camp that each summer creates a dynamic model of living Judaism, Camp Ramah in New England nurtures the next generation of educated and committed Jews who embody the ideals and practices of Conservative Judaism. Camp Ramah inspires and educates campers and staff through building a spiritual community and implementing programmatic excellence in Judaics and Israel, the arts, athletics, and environmental education. By training and developing Jewish leaders and role models Ramah helps ensure the future viability and vibrancy of the Jewish people. Ramah deepens its impact on its campers and staff as well as the broader Jewish community by fostering strong partnerships with families and Jewish organizations and institutions year round. Vision: At the end of five years, Camp Ramah will leverage its reputation and capacity as a premier provider and resource for innovative experiential education and the builder of a community of committed and educated Jews during the summer to further spread its model and practices to individuals and communities throughout the year and across our region. As an institution that prides itself on self-evaluation, adaptability, inclusiveness, and innovation, we will continue to seek new ways to strengthen the connections we make between the experiences that take shape through our high-quality summer program and the lives of campers, staff and their families and communities outside the confines of camp. TWO INTER-RELATED STRATEGIES 1. Maximizing the Summer’s Impact At its core, Camp Ramah is a summer camp. In making our summer experience even stronger, both staff and facility must be enhanced and every activity must be seen through the dual lens of Jewish educational opportunity and programmatic excellence. Page | 2 Proposed Final-May 7, 2010 Our number one goal is that campers at Camp Ramah must be inspired, learn, and internalize their experiences. To have an impact on young Jews, we must first recruit them to camp and, thus, we must focus on what it will take to recruit each camper. Camp Ramah both in reality and in its marketing must present a camp that is attractive to mainstream Conservative Jews, and that is affordable for Jewish families. Once at camp, the program must offer the best in both “typical” camp and Jewish programming. Only then can transformative experiences occur. Staff members at Camp Ramah are both transmitters and receivers of the experience. As transmitters, they must embark on the Jewish journey with their campers. Additionally, they must receive ongoing training to be able to take advantage of teachable moments and increase their ability to deliver high quality programming. As recipients of the experience, they must engage in ongoing study and programs that inspire and teach them to become engaged, life-long Jews. Eighty one percent of campers who continue on to be staff at a Ramah camp for at least one year say that being Jewish is very important in their lives (Keysar and Kosmin study for the National Ramah Commission). We need to build on this strong identification and create the next wave of Jewish leaders. Toward this end, significant resources are necessary to enhance staff training and learning. Goals: Develop program excellence that will attract a wide variety of campers Reduce financial barriers to enrollment in camp Expand cutting-edge Jewish experiential education, through an array of opportunities, to inspire life-long love of Judaism. Inspire campers to take the Camp Ramah experience home with them Continue to create industry-leading special needs, inclusion and access programming Model a vibrant and joyous Conservative Jewish community and lifestyle Develop leadership training programs that start in the upper age groups of campers and intentionally transform the receivers of the Camp Ramah experience into the transmitters of the experience Communicate to parents more effectively and using the latest technologies regarding what Camp Ramah is and does to increase their awareness of their children’s experiences Include parents in the educational experience by empowering them to help their children bring Camp Ramah home with them Top Priorities for Summer Programming: A. Build upon our experiential education programs (Jewish education, Hebrew and prayer) by creating new curricula and programs that inspire campers at camp and in their home communities to learn Judaics, Hebrew, and build connections to Israel. B. Create leadership development programs for our campers and staff to empower them to be the future leaders of camp and the Jewish community. Page | 3 Proposed Final-May 7, 2010 C. Utilize Jewish art forms to engage and capture the interest of campers. D. Use environmental programs, outdoor education, and social action to teach both the importance of these areas in Judaism and the relevance of Judaism in today’s world. Other Priorities for Summer Programming: E. Create a sports program that is an asset for recruiting efforts. F. Develop Tefila curriculum and methods that motivate campers to engage in prayer. G. Generate an even more joyous Conservative community that serves as a model for Jewish living throughout the week and Shabbat. H. Build upon our present special needs programs by mastering inclusion and access services. I. Develop teacher training programs for current staff members within the summer that will provide qualified staff for year round programs and local schools and youth programs. J. Expand initiatives to make camp affordable for families of all socioeconomic levels. Measurable Objectives: KEY MEASURE: Attain camp capacity within three years. (Average 499 campers at a time) Increase by 20 percent per year for three years the number of campers who choose advanced curricula in Judaics (for example, Bet Midrash and Ulpan programs). Add three new advanced opportunities in the arts, outdoor education and sports. One new camper driven environmental objective adopted each year. As measured through surveys of camper families: o Increase the penetration of take-home projects, including universal awareness of each child’s project, 50% acknowledge increased participation, and 20% acknowledge consistent increased participation. o 25% self-reported increase in year round Shabbat participation both in home and at synagogue. o 25% yearly increase in customer satisfaction with performing arts, visual arts and sports instruction until 55% rank at the top level.
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