Become a Teen Peer Leadership Fellow

The Peer Leadership Fellowship is a signature program of the Jewish Teen Initiative (JTI) that trains and empowers teens in grades 10 through 12 to become communal connectors. Fellows reimagine how they can develop meaningful relationships with their peers and connect others to the vast menu of opportunities available to Jewish teens in their community and beyond.

Fellows meet monthly (in real life and virtually), building a team of leaders who are strengthening each other and their community while helping other teens who are uninvolved or marginally engaged in Jewish life.

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Choose Between Two Focus Areas

• Peer Engagement Track: Fellows are trained to be catalysts who help connect their peers to Jewish life. With training and support, Fellows develop and connect with their social networks each month, building relationships, and helping other teens find opportunities that match their interests and how they want to be involved.
   
• Peer Wellness Track: Fellows work to remove the stigmas surrounding mental health and wellness, educating themselves and their peers through group learning and programmatic opportunities. JTI partners with BaMidbar Wilderness Therapy, The Blue Dove Foundation and other local and national partners to provide high-level training in awareness, advocacy, relational engagement and leadership development.

Participate in Leadership and Training Opportunities

• National Training Seminar Retreat: Fellows start the year with an immersive relational engagement and skill-building experience, connecting with other Fellows and communities from throughout the country
• Monthly Training Seminars: Fellows receive training in relational engagement, empathetic listening, inclusion awareness and advocacy, and leadership skills development
• Mentoring Check-ins: Throughout the year, members of CJP’s Teen Engagement Team check in with Fellows to review progress, identify strategies for success, and discuss their Jewish journey
• Community Service: Fellows make an impact on the Greater Boston community by helping to lead a project or team at JTI’s regional community service days throughout the year
• Senior Fellows: Participants who have successfully completed one year of the Fellowship are invited to apply for an increased leadership role. Opportunities are personalized and include (but are not limited to): data analysis, passion projects, peer mentoring, and workshop facilitation

Program Stipend and Eligibility

• Fellows receive a $500 annual stipend, which is an investment in their work as leaders in our community, and recognizes this effort as a job with accountability, resume prestige, training, and deliverables. Fellows devote approximately eight hours per month to the program, with the majority of that time flexible to each Fellow's schedule.
• Teens who will be in grades 10–12 during the 2021-2022 school year are eligible for this program. Currently, this opportunity is open to teens in CJP’s catchment area.

How We Developed the Fellowship Program

In 2016, JTI Boston partnered with Hillel International to adapt their successful engagement model for college students on campus for our teen community. JTI Peer Leadership Fellows receive training based on the Hillel model to practice within their own community.

In 2018, JTI Boston added the Peer Inclusion Track, where Fellows focus on working with peers who have special needs. Partnering with synagogues and organizations throughout the Greater Boston community and beyond, JTI Peer Inclusion Fellows are helping to redefine inclusion can look like for Jewish teens.

Today, community and connection are both critically important for our teens, and JTI Peer Leadership Fellows are leading the way to create a more connected and inclusive community for Jewish teens throughout Greater Boston.

Contact Us

Brett L.
BrettL@cjp.org