Does your Hillel have a strategic approach to programming? Have you thought about how you want to position your Hillel in order to maximize your impact on Jewish life? Strategic programplanning
is vital to the success of any organization, and a strong plan will help Hillel have the greatest impact on campus.
The following resource guide touches on different aspects of preparing a strategic program plan.Thegoal is to challenge you and your staff to think strategically aboutcreating vibrant Jewish life on campus,and to realizethe importance of evaluating your year with all interested partiesin order to create a vision(plan) for next year.
Tips from Hillel Colleagues
When it comes to planning the year, Hillel professionals approach this process in several different ways.
Rabbi Mychal Copeland, associate director of Jewish Student Life at UCLA, spearheaded the strategic planning for their accreditation process, consulting constantly with Hillel staff, students, and lay leaders.Mychal also worked closely with Rhoda Weisman, Hillel's Chief Creative Officer and the director of the Center for Jewish Engagement to shape the process and organize the final product.
At the Hillel of Metro Detroit, Director Miriam Starkman, usually prepares the first draft of the program plan, and then meets with her staff, and then with students.After input from these constituencies is incorporated, Miriam presents the plan to her Board of Directors.She is also able to review with them the plan from the previous year, and their successes and challenges.
The planning process at the University of Wisconsin, Madison is much more informal according to Greg Steinberger, director.He has informal conversations with active as well as inactive students about their program needs and wants, to discover the key elements to the most dynamic Jewish community on campus.Greg and his assistant director then sit down and map out past successful programs, the responsibilities of student interns and staff, and plan the year.
Margo Sack, associate director at University of Texas, Austin says that the impact of creating and following a strategic plan has had a tremendous positive impact on the relationships among students, staff, and lay leaders.Their Texas Israel Action Plan created a natural way of ensuring that the Texans for Israel programs are heading in a planful, focused direction.As an added bonus, as they prepare their plan each year, students involved with Texans for Israel have opportunities to work with the lay leaders invested in Israel programming.
To read strategic program plans from these campuses, please follow the individual links at the end of this guide.
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Creating Your Strategic Program Plan
Evaluation
The first step in creating a plan is evaluating what's already happened.What worked and what did not, what was positive or negative, what did students crave and what did they run from?Taking a critical look at the past year, focusing on all aspects of the program, will enable you to create the best plan for the next year.
Things to consider and think about:
- Looking at your overall program, what are the strengths and weaknesses?
- What new student groups were created and how did this process happen?
- Which programs worked or did not and why?
- How many new students did you engage this year?
- What target populations did you successfully engage this year?
- What target groups were difficult to engage?
- How was Jewish learning infused into your programming?
- What emphasis was placed on social justice?
- Was your campus Israel agenda broad and engaging?
- Can you identify accomplishments with specific target populations (Greek, freshman) or types of programs (Shabbat, social, Tzedek)
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Thinking Ahead
Campus and student mapping will help you and your staff better understand your students and their environment. Each student brings something different with them to campus, and every student comes to campus seeking something special. The more prepared you are, the more comfortable and at ease students will feel participating in Jewish campus life.Where are your students from? Where do they study? Where do they hang out? What are the popular majors? Who are the popular professors? Answering these and many other questions found in the links below will help you better understand your students and your campus, leaving you with a list of target populations to continue the planning process.
Hillel's Campus Mapping Guide (PDF file 9k)
Student Mapping Guide (PDF file 64k)
Hitting the Mark:Target Populations (PDF file 12k)
[Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4.0 or higher.]
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Campus Calendars
Taking a strategic look at the calendar year is a critical part of any planning process. Knowing the major campus and local events, Jewish holidays and secular holidays, will help you strategically plan your year.
- When are the holidays: Jewish, secular, and other religious days?
- When are the campus breaks?
- What and when are the major sporting events on campus?
- When is Greek rush?
- When are orientation, opening day, and move-in day?
- When are the career fairs or multi-cultural fairs?
- What major events are happening on campus or in the community in the coming year?
- What are your campus partners planning for the coming year?
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Think Creatively
Do your Hillel programs represent the varied beliefs, traditions and aspirations of the campus Jewish community?These "lenses" can be used to see your program in a different light. Programs shouldn't just be put into these groups - rather, creating programs by looking through these "lenses" will enable your Hillel to create the most vibrant Jewish campus life.
- Jewish Learning: Through Jewish student programs, Hillel should demonstrate the relevance and resonance of Jewish Learning.Programs created from Jewish values and beliefs are more engaging and exciting for students as compared to programs that try to infuse Judaism into the finished product.
- Pluralism:Identifying forms of religious and educational Jewish expression that will attract Jewish students.
- Spirituality: Hillel must provide multiple opportunities for students to search for meaning and understanding.Prayer, zmirot (Jewish liturgical song), dance, meditation, and long walks in the woods can all provide opportunities for students to search for meaning and understanding.
- Connecting with Israel:Programs based on well established Jewish educational goals and values.Speakers provide an excellent educational tool to connect students to Israel, while Israel at Heart and Jewish art can connect students to the youth and culture of Israel. Different types of Israel related programs provide an outlet for the many different types of students on campus.
- Promoting Jewish Connections and Jewish Community. Hillel should provide opportunities for students to not only connect and become involved with, the outside Jewish community, but also to create space within Hillel for students to learn and grow in a peer to peer environment.
- Tikkun Olam/Tzedek Work
- Social justice refers to the recognition of an injustice and the commitment to work to rectify that injustice through action, service, and education within the community and beyond.
(adapted from the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Hillels, Strategic Studies Task Force, Hillel of Greater Baltimore)
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Sample Strategic Plans
Below are examples of three different plans, two overall program plans and one program specific plan.
Hillel of Metro Detroit's Program Planning Guide (PDF file 15k)
UCLA's Strategic Program Plan (PDF file 75k)
University of Texas - Austin's Israel Action Plan (PDF file 29k)
[Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4.0 or higher.]