Lessons for You from Congregations Without an Early Childhood Center
You’re the director of the early childhood center at your congregation. Young children and their parents and caregivers are in and out of your building (and your office!) all day, every day. It’s wonderful to have so many opportunities to create and nurture relationships, and sometimes even a bit overwhelming.
But not every congregation has families with young children coming to their building every day or several times a week. Some don’t even have a building at all. Congregations without early childhood centers still need to build relationships with the families in their community but they have to approach it in a slightly different way than you might. As part of my position at the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), I provide resources on engagement of families with young children to a wide range of congregations, many of them without an early childhood center. These include small congregations, remote congregations, and those with a limited number of members who have young children. Through my work with these congregations, I identified some valuable principles that can also apply to yours.
- Work as a team. Engaging families with young children should be a congregation-wide priority, not the responsibility of one person or program. Anyone who may be a point of contact for a family is a part of the team. Frequently one person takes the lead, but they know that it is everyone’s responsibility to build the relationships with parents and their young children that will lead to a thriving community.
- Get out of the building. Many parents of young children are not comfortable in synagogues for a variety of reasons and may be more likely to attend a public space event. It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Go out and explore - figure out where parents naturally gather in your community and host an event there. It could be a park, coffee shop, book store, or playground. Parents need to feel comfortable and welcomed in order to engage.
- Invest in your online presence. Your website and social media are your new front door. All online family-facing media should be (1) up-to-date with accurate dates and times for any upcoming events, (2) visually interesting including pictures where families can see people like themselves, (3) easy to navigate, and (4) focused on connecting people online, not just functioning as a digital bulletin board. It helps if you cultivate some friendly parents who will like, comment, and share your posts. Your congregation’s welcome starts way before someone comes to your building.
- Think outside the box. Experiment! Try something new, and don’t be afraid to fail. Do your clergy attend or officiate at berit milah (ritual circumcisions) or baby namings? Leverage this opportunity to invite parents to engage with you, whether you present them with a 'welcome certificate,' tag them in a social media 'welcome post,' or make a friendly phone call to them. Ask the local pediatricians or coffee shops to post your promotional materials. Help the parents you already know to engage their friends and neighbors in congregational events and programs. In the end, it is the relationships you create and nurture that will be your true measure of success.
Learn more about principles of family engagement in The Tent, the URJ’s online communications and collaboration platform, by joining the conversation in the Families with Young Children group, and by reading our Engagement Best Principles Guide.
By Jennie Nerenberg
September 2018
