Project Description
To share a monthly newsletter for marginally affiliated or unaffiliated Jewish families in Boulder, as part of Shalom Baby, a new program at the JCC of Boulder, CO.

In 2002, when the Robert E. Loup JCC in Denver received a Covenant Grant to replicate its Shalom Baby program in neighboring Boulder and to disseminate the “Apples and Honey” newsletter, no one could have foreseen that in less than a decade more than 90 similar efforts to engage new parents would emerge across the country. Both initiatives aim to expose young families to the value and richness of Jewish tradition and community by viewing the birth of a child as a key transitional moment that facilitates outreach to unaffiliated and marginally-affiliated Jews.

Shalom Baby welcomes families with newborns to the community, offering information and classes on child development and parenting skills, as well as support from volunteers, professionals, and other new parents. Classes have included: infant massage, boot camp for dads, music, Jewish Baby University (a childbirth education class), baby sign language, and sibling preparation. Additionally, Shalom Baby includes events for every Jewish holiday. Participating parents receive baskets containing a Jewish lullaby tape, Jewish parenting book, tote bag, bib, sippy cup, Bible board book, and information about local family programs. Families are also offered a free one-year membership to the JCC.

In Denver, Shalom Baby is marketed in libraries, maternity and children’s clothing stores, and in all the local synagogues. The local Jewish hospital also distributes a Shalom Baby brochure in the packet of information given to every woman who comes in for obstetric care. “Apples and Honey” is a complementary publication that provides guidance for expectant and new parents on how to create a Jewish home. There are thirteen regular issues and three holiday issues of “Apples and Honey” per year. Each issue has information about children’s developmental stages, Jewish traditions and customs, ideas for celebrating holidays, and hands-on activities. The issues are designed to be “evergreen,” remaining relevant over time. Sales of the newsletter bring in approximately $1,000 of revenue each year (at $3.25 per issue before bulk discounts).

Results/Impact
The replication of Denver’s Shalom Baby program in Boulder was successful: the program was oversubscribed for a number of years, and operation of the program has since been taken over by the JCC in Boulder. Today, the newsletter is one of the numerous programmatic offerings for new families offered by the JCC in Denver.

The process of replication led to the recognition that the Shalom Baby program could be replicated on a national scale. The Covenant Foundation’s imprimatur and reputation afforded national visibility to the expansion effort and led the JCC to trademark Shalom Baby and to develop both a curriculum complete with marketing materials and an implementation plan for communities seeking to create a similar program. Though replication of Shalom Baby has not been financially lucrative for the JCC, programs bearing that name now operate in more than 90 cities throughout the United States.

The “Apples and Honey” newsletter was the catalyst for the Rose Community Foundation’s continued substantial support of early childhood programs. In 2009, the Rose Foundation funded MazelTot.org, based on the Shalom Baby model. MazelTot is an Internet portal that provides new parents with information on and discounts for local activities offered by 32 organizations in greater Denver and Boulder. Like Shalom Baby, The Covenant Foundation Grant Impact and Sustainability Report 2000-2007 3 MazelTot.org aims to engage new parents by offering multiple points of entry for Jewish involvement. Subvention from the Rose Community Foundation provides discounts on more than 700 events, classes, preschools, camps, retreats, and other programs. Discounts totaling more than $110,000 have been used so far and more than 1,000 families from throughout the Denver and Boulder areas have registered on the site. The site gets an average of 1,700 visitors per month.

Leadership
Lisa Farber Miller spearheaded the “Apples and Honey” program when she worked as a consultant to the JCC. Funded by a 1994 Covenant Foundation Signature Grant, Farber Miller developed a series of monthly newsletters for new parents. In the process, she had a “transformational experience as an adult Jewish learner.” Her work with the JCC – her first exposure to Jewish communal service – also transformed her career. Farber Miller’s early career experience engaging new parents continues to inform her work as a Senior Program Officer at the Rose Community Foundation. She attributes the Rose Community Foundation’s understanding of the importance of high quality, early childhood education to the lessons learned through “Apples and Honey.” In addition, she contributed a chapter to Jewish Family and Life: Traditions, Holidays, and Values for Today’s Parents based on her experience with “Apples and Honey.” Under the leadership of Caron Blanke, the Shalom Baby program has nearly tripled in size and has emerged as a national model for outreach to families with young children. In 2004, the first systematic study of Jewish communal efforts to engage new parents was conducted by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, bringing national attention to the importance of engaging members of that population. The report, “Raising Jewish Babies: Community-Based Programs for New Jewish Parents,” provides examples of model programs and includes descriptions of Denver’s offerings for new parents. The study focused national attention on the community’s innovative offerings. By 2008, a study focused on engaging Jewish young adults in metro Denver/Boulder found that among existing programming for members of that population, the Shalom Baby and Shalom family programs “seem to attract by far the most participants.” Currently, Blanke oversees all of the early childhood programs at the Robert E. Loup JCC in Denver, and is the acting director of the Early Childhood Center. She has spoken at a number of national conferences about how communities can implement programs to engage new parents.

Funding
Since it is primarily an outreach effort, some aspects of the Shalom Baby program are offered without a fee, and the majority of aspects are offered for a nominal price. A significant amount of the program’s budget is spent on marketing. Additionally, the program has two full-time staff members who coordinate the numerous classes offered. Funding from The Covenant Foundation for both “Apples and Honey” and Shalom Baby, which came during the early stages of development, helped the programs establish credibility and begin to build a national identity. Another of the first grants was given by the Rose Community Foundation to support Shalom Baby; this Foundation continues to be the program’s main source of funding. The Jewish Outreach Institute (JOI), Jewish Family Services of Colorado, Colorado Bright Beginnings, Rocky Mountain Rabbinical Council, Rose Medical Center, and the Jewish Early Childhood Educators Council have also supported the program with small grants. Finally, a small portion of the budget comes from client revenue.