Community Education
Overview
Community Education programs work to increase understanding of mental health, decrease stigma, boost personal resilience, expand mental health literacy, and support skill-building by integrating mental health frameworks into experiential education and Jewish learning.
Through mental health and wellness-focused fellowships, retreats, alternative breaks, and workshops, BaMidbar helps individuals bolster personal resilience by expanding their understanding of mental health and grounding that understanding within their Jewish identity.
WeLlness Fellowship
Amplifying teen and young adult voices in conversations around mental health.
Wilderness & Wellness
Take your community outside for joyful, Jewish mental health education.
Mental Health Workshops
Explore the intersection of mental health and Jewish tradition through workshops.
TEEN Wellness Fellowship
Focused on peer engagement through a mental health and wellness lens, BaMidbar’s Wellness Fellowship engages youth and young adults to work to remove the stigmas surrounding mental health and wellness, educating themselves and their peers through group learning and programmatic opportunities.
Fellows engage in monthly training seminars and mentoring check-ins and receive high-level training in:
- Mental Health Awareness
- Advocacy
- Wellness Through a Jewish Lens
- Leadership Development
Fellows design and implement community service projects related to mental health awareness and stigma reduction. Throughout the program, Fellows explore the connections between their Jewish identity, understanding of mental health, and sense of personal resilience.
The Wellness Fellowship was developed in partnership with the Jewish Teen Initiative at Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston.
BaMidbar currently offers Wellness Fellowship cohorts for 10th-12th graders in Boston and Los Angeles.
Interested in bringing the Wellness Fellowship to your community? To learn more, Contact Us.
The Wellness Fellowship in action
I became a Peer Wellness Fellow because I want to break the stigma around mental health and help normalize talking about it. I want to be able to provide teens with information and resources surrounding health and wellness.
2021 Boston Teen Wellness Fellow
Wilderness & Wellness
CAMPS: Looking to connect outdoor programming with a mental health and wellness curriculum?
HILLELS: Hoping to build community and engage students in a new and unique experience?
SYNAGOGUES: Looking to create a rite-of-passage experience for your B’nai Mitzvah or confirmation classes?
Take your community OUTSIDE to seek fresh perspectives, build connections, and explore Jewish tradition through a mental health and wellness lens.
Wilderness & Wellness programs are 2-14 day experiences designed to invite teens and young adults into the wilderness and out of their comfort zones.
Through a wellness-based and resilience-focused curriculum embedded in exploration and outdoor adventure, participants will foster a tight-knit community and build their personal sense of self-confidence, self-efficacy, and self-concept.
Trips include backpacking and adventure experiences paired with Jewish learning and mental health education. Programs are facilitated by trained guides and mental health professionals.
Interested in bringing Wilderness & Wellness to your community? To learn more, Contact Us.
Build Community
Participants dive into life’s big questions to explore meaning, values, and purpose.
Explore Identity
Participants dive into life’s big questions to explore meaning, values, and purpose.
Increase Resilience and Self-Efficacy
Through outdoor adventure, wilderness-based experiences, and the wellness curriculum, participants build transferable skills that lead to more resilient outcomes, while increasing self-confidence and self-efficacy.
Discover Mental Health and Wellness through a Jewish Lens
Through facilitated conversations, activities, and learning opportunities, participants explore the connection between their Jewish identity, understanding of mental health, and sense of personal resilience.
Mental Health WorkshopS
As Jewish communities struggle to respond to the youth mental health crisis, BaMidbar collaborates to share strategies and best practices from a Jewish perspective.
We work with a wide range of Jewish organizations, camps, federations, synagogues, and agencies to develop and offer programs that leverage Jewish tradition and knowledge to better understand mental health and wellness and those affected by mental health challenges.
Community Education partnerships
We help organizations increase awareness and decrease stigma around mental health.
BaMidbar has partnered with a diverse range of Jewish organizations on teen and young adult programs, parent workshops, wilderness and wellness retreats, and more. Some of these organizations are listed below.
I haven’t been to a program that has so seamlessly taught me to incorporate what I’m learning into both my life and my work
Mental Health Workshop Participant