ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT JEWISH CAMPS

The Association of Independent Jewish Camps (AIJC) top three program services for the 2019 fiscal year are as follows: 1.As part of the ongoing challenge of retaining quality seasonal staff, the AIJC has continued the commitment and investment in the program called Super Qualified. Summer opportunities abound for qualified teens and matriculating college students, creating a competitive hiring environment for seasonal camp staff. Compounding the already tight labor market is a widespread misconception that the camp staff experience is less valuable than a traditional summer internship. Without experienced staff, Jewish camps cannot deliver their mission, which includes Jewish religious and cultural programming. Super Qualified is a progressive value-added curriculum, which enhances personal development opportunities for our trainees, first and second years staff members. Individual camps will be able to entice and retain high quality seasonal staff while in turn providing experience based learning and personal development opportunities for staff and the Jewish young adult community at large. The AIJC delivered and evaluated the second year of this three-year program during the 2019 fiscal year. 2.With 22 members (Camps), the AIJC has created cohorts and communities of practice that have engaged over 160 professional staff across the member organizations. In addition, in 2019, the AIJC created cohorts and communities of practice to engage seasonal staff. Cohorts such as camper care and medical care to engage another 50 75 seasonal staff members. 3.The AIJC continued our engagement with the member organizations by providing immersive workshops (2 3 days) in food service, staff training and song leading. These immersive experiences not only provide excellent key subject matter training but also provide excellent relationship building opportunities. Creating relationships between professionals from different camps is one of the key objectives of the AIJC. This cross pollination of programming, staff training and operations raises the tide for our member camps.