Prevention

Overview

Through mental health and wellness-focused programs, workshops, and retreats, BaMidbar helps individuals bolster personal resilience by expanding their understanding of mental health and grounding that understanding within their Jewish identity. Participants work to remove the stigmas surrounding mental health and wellness, educating themselves, their peers, and their community.

To review a list of the current community wellness programs we’re offering, click here.

Wellness Fellowships & Internships

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. During the program, Wellness Fellows engage in training seminars and mentoring check-in sessions. Participants receive high-level training in mental health awareness, advocacy, relational engagement, and leadership development. Fellows also develop community service projects related to mental health awareness and stigma reduction and introduce them to their home communities. The Wellness Fellowship was developed in partnership with the Jewish Teen Initiative at Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston.

BaMidbar is working to scale this highly replicable Prevention programming model. We are actively seeking partners to launch the Wellness Fellowship in other communities across the country. For more information and to inquire, please contact Emily Heeren, Program Director, at EmilyH@BaMidbarTherapy.org.

Prevention Program Partnerships

Jewish Teen Initiative at Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston

The Jewish Teen Initiative’s Wellness Track of the Peer Leadership Fellowship brings together teens from across Greater Boston area. Fellows learn about resilience, mental health, wellness, and stigma reduction through a Jewish lens, and use service and projects to share that learning with their community.

Foundation for Jewish Camp

FJC’s MESSH (mental, emotional, social, and spiritual health) Internship provides camp counselors (18+) with resources for supporting cultures of mental health and wellness at camp. Interns will learn tools to: remove the stigmas surrounding mental health and wellness, educate themselves and their peers, and appropriately support their campers. Applications NOW OPEN through September 30, 2022.

Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and Temple Beth Am

The Teen Wellness Fellowship trains and empowers teens to be change-makers in the ongoing conversation around mental health in the Jewish community. Fellows will work to increase awareness and decrease stigma around mental health through personal exploration, group learning, and field-based projects. Participants receive a $500 stipend, and applications NOW OPEN through December 1, 2022.

Customized Programs

Are you a synagogue looking to create a rite of passage experience for your B’nai Mitzvah or confirmation classes? Are you a day school hoping to support your seniors with a successful transition into college? Are you a camp looking to connect your outdoor programming with mental health and wellness curriculum? Or are you a Hillel hoping to build community and engage students in a new and unique experience?

Take your community OUTSIDE to try something different, seek fresh perspective, and build connections. We work with diverse organizations to create a customized curriculum and itinerary for the group. Give us a call today to share your goals, and we’ll craft an experience unique to your community’s needs.

Build Community

Students will engage with a supportive and healthy community of like-minded young adults, and cultivate strong relationships that continue upon their return home.

Explore Idendity

In the beauty of the wilderness, students consider life’s big questions and explore meaning, values, and purpose.

Increase Self-Efficacy

Through outdoor adventure and nature-based experiences, students build transferable skills and increase their self-confidence and self-efficacy.

Our approach

BaMidbar’s wellness programs focus on building resilience through increased self-confidence, skill-building, and healthy relationships.

WILDERNESS ENVIRONMENT

Nature and adventure are used as a vehicle for personal growth. Students are challenged and given the opportunity to apply learning in a safe, experiential environment.

TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE

Mental health professionals and outdoor educators design programming and curriculum. Trained guides facilitate experiences with an eye towards social, emotional, and spiritual growth.

JEWISH FRAMEWORK

3,000 years of Jewish history speaks to the question: what does it mean to live well? Jewish tradition, metaphor, and storytelling are used to support students in exploring values, purpose, and personal identity.

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS

Programs work to increase open dialogue and decrease stigma around mental health in the broader Jewish community. Students reflect on their own mental wellness.