Jewish Gateways seeks a consultant to partner with us on a new organizational change initiative focused on Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Belonging (DEIB) in our family learning program. Please see below for details and how to apply.

​

About Jewish Gateways

Jewish Gateways is an open and inclusive Jewish community in the San Francisco Bay Area that invites all to explore and connect with Jewish traditions. Our “come as you are, no experience necessary” environment encourages wandering and wondering Jews, their families and friends, and those exploring Jewish life to discover what they find personally meaningful. 

​

Together we create a variety of participatory Jewish activities, including adult and family learning, Shabbat and holiday celebrations, groups exploring spiritual and ethical growth, opportunities to act with compassion and to work for social justice, lifecycle rituals, and community gatherings of many sorts. 

​

The Opportunity

Jewish Gateways (JG) seeks a consultant to partner with us on a Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Belonging (DEIB) Organizational Change Initiative focused on our family learning program, Growing Together. Growing Together meets twice monthly from October to June and serves families with children from preschool through fifth grade. The program is an alternative to traditional Hebrew or religious school and, unlike those, includes parents, as well as children, in the programming. 

 

Growing Together was created to meet the needs of a diversity of Jewish families whose members have historically felt disconnected or marginalized in other Jewish settings. With this DEIB initiative, JG aims to deepen the program’s culture of belonging by redesigning the structure and content of Growing Together to better reflect the needs of diverse families, with a particular focus on Jews of Color, low-income and LGBTQIA Jews, and single-parent families.

 

Toward this end, the consultant will work with JG staff, leaders, and participants to do the following:

• Convene an advisory committee to support and guide the initiative

• Plan and conduct participant-centered assessments to understand families’ needs and experiences, including current and prospective Growing Together participants

• Advise on changes to existing family learning curriculum in order to 1) bring a deepened equity, inclusion, and justice lens into program content and 2) increase opportunities for participants to take action for racial and social justice *

• Create implementation and evaluation plan for new program elements and rollout

 

* While the consultant may advise here, we do not expect curriculum development to be a big part of the consultant’s work.

 

In partnership with the consultant, we aim to achieve the following outcomes:

• Redesign the structure and curriculum of the GT program to better reflect the needs and experiences of a racially, culturally, and economically diverse participant group

• Redesign program outreach materials and strategies to reflect new approach

• Increase representation of Jews of Color on our teaching team and in our program

• Identify opportunities to connect the lessons and outcomes of the DEIB initiative beyond Growing Together to other parts of Jewish Gateways 

 

Scope of Work, Budget, and Timeline

We have a budget of $12,000 for this consultant contract. As an organization with 1.5 FTE staff, JG is powered in large part by a volunteer Steering Council and a community of active participants and supporters, some of whom we expect will add valuable capacity to the DEIB initiative in alignment with the consultant’s work. 

 

We have an approximately 12-month timeline for this work. Given our relatively limited budget, we are open to working with the right person to craft an appropriate scope of work and timeline collaboratively, given these constraints. We expect this work to be front-loaded, with the bulk taking place in 2021.

 

Qualifications

Our ideal candidate has the following mix of skills, knowledge, and experience:

• Experience supporting small organizations through organizational change with a focus on racial and economic diversity, equity, and inclusion 

• Experience leading multi-racial groups in discussions and action related to anti-racism

• Experience working in educational settings, especially in a mixed-age or family learning context

• Knowledge of and connections to racial justice movements here in the Bay Area and in the U.S. more broadly

• Familiarity with Judaism, Jewish education, and the cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity of Jewish communities in the U.S.

 

We are especially eager to work with someone who can bring the knowledge of their own lived experience to the work, whether as a Jew of Color or a low-income, single parent, and/or LGBTQIA Jew.

 

To Apply

Please submit the following to DEIBConsult@jewishgateways.org. We are reviewing applications on a rolling basis, beginning in April 2021.

1. Resume or CV

2. Letter of interest

3. Brief examples and/or description of experience related to the scope of work requested with organizations similar to Jewish Gateways

4. References we may contact from two current or recent clients with a brief description of services provided to clients

​

While we have a slight preference for consultants located in the Bay Area or familiar with the Bay Area context, we expect that most if not all of this work may be conducted virtually.

​