5. Caring for Community

Heschel Families, Alumni, and Community Engagement

We benefit from a solid tradition of parent volunteers who are committed to a strong sense of school community – primarily through the work of the school’s Chevra committee. Through Chevra, our volunteer community continues to develop in many ways – including by running school programs for our families. These programs connect students to teachers and other families, create a sense of belonging amongst all participants, allow parents to model volunteering to their children, and strengthen bonds between home and school.

In order to advance community engagement, the following actions are proposed:

Short Term

• Build sustainable leadership for community engagement, including educating emerging community leaders on Toronto Heschel philosophies and policies
• Cultivate community feeling and leadership amongst new and younger families
• Connect Chevra more closely with school recruitment efforts, formally identifying a community engagement liaison with Chevra

Medium Term

• Position Chevra to move from solely an internal focus to prioritizing three areas:
  • Engagement within the Heschel community
  • Extending engagement more broadly to families
  • Extending engagement into the greater community
• To further bolster engagement of the greater Heschel community, leverage programming like PJ Plus, and better integrate this programming with Heschel’s engagement offerings
• Build up team of parent champions for community engagement
• Better connect engagement to fundraising through personal stories, personal connections and linkages