Community Education
Overview
Community education programs work to increase understanding of mental health and 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.
To review a list of the current community wellness programs we’re offering, click here.
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. 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.
Wellness Fellowship Partners
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.
Wilderness & Wellness
Are you a camp looking to connect your outdoor programming with mental health and wellness curriculum? Are you a Hillel hoping to build community and engage students in a new and unique experience? Are you a synagogue looking to create a rite of passage experience for your B’nai Mitzvah or confirmation class? Or are you a day school hoping to support your seniors with a successful transition into college?
Take your community OUTSIDE to seek fresh perspective, build connections, and explore Jewish tradition through a mental health and wellness lens.
BaMidbar’s Wilderness & Wellness Trips are 3-14 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 wilderness guides and mental health professionals.
Email emilyh@bamidbartherapy.org to explore hosting a Wilderness & Wellness alternative break for your community.
Build Community
Participants engage with a supportive and healthy community of like-minded peers, and cultivate strong relationships that continue upon their return home.
Explore Idendity
In the beauty of the wilderness, participants consider life’s big questions and explore meaning, values, and purpose.
Increase Self-Efficacy
Through outdoor adventure and nature-based experiences, participants 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.
Adventure Experiences
TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE
JEWISH FRAMEWORK
