Current Community Needs

The goal of the BBYO Connect program is to provide opportunities to connect teens after the Bar and Bat Mitzvah year when affiliation tends to drop off. Around 150 students per year typically participate. BBYO Connect has successfully served as a feeder for the local high school BBYO program which serves more than 220 students per year. In normal years, 14 events are offered annually.

The Kansas City Community Kollel provides a variety of non-denominational Jewish educational classes to learners of all ages, backgrounds, and cognitive abilities. A particular focus is reaching underserved seniors and special needs adults.

The Florence Melton School is a text-based Jewish studies curriculum created by Hebrew University. Since 1994, the program has provided premiere Jewish education to adults in the Kansas City Jewish community.

Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy requests funding to help purchase standing desks for special needs students. Research shows that special needs students that are able to use standing desks during a portion of the day typically display improved concentration, work quality and overall behavior. Standing desks are often listed as accommodations on evaluation reports for students with an ADHD diagnosis and those on the autism spectrum.

Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy is seeking funding for technology that would allow the school to incorporate live-streaming into its regular programming. Live streaming would allow children learning from home, grandparents who live out of town, donors who can’t or aren’t allowed to experience HBHA in person, and family members who want to join in, but attendance numbers are limited, to participate in HBHA's programming. Technology Package Specifics

Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee (JCRB|AJC) requests funding to support its Prepare to Respond, Educate to Prevent (PREP) program, aimed at combating antisemitism in Kansas City-area schools. The PREP program addresses the problem of antisemitism by both proactively educating Jewish students through its “Prepare to Respond” workshops and educating teachers and administrators through its "Educate to Prevent" presentations on antisemitism, Israel, and Jewish holidays.

Simcha Gifts benefit isolated Jewish seniors in our community who live in nursing homes, retirement centers, and private homes. Many are Holocaust survivors. An estimated 700 holiday gift packages will be assembled and delivered by volunteers for each of five holidays - Rosh Hashanah, Chanukah, Purim, Passover, and Shavuot. Recipients include those from orthodox, conservative, and reform congregations, as well as those who are unaffiliated.

JSU provides informal Jewish educational programming to students at Blue Valley High, Blue Valley North, Blue Valley West, Blue Valley Northwest, Shawnee Mission East, Shawnee Mission South, Barstow and Leawood Middle School. Because the program takes place at school, non-Jewish members can also participate, which helps build bridges with the general community. Students from different schools are provided opportunities to connect with one another.

To better serve the student body at the University of Missouri, MU Hillel seeks to add a full-time director of student life to their campus. This would allow MU Hillel to build greater staff continuity. It is estimated that 800 Jewish students are on the MU campus, and MU Hillel serves between 200 and 300 of these students each year.