The Chicago Early Engagement Leadership Initiative (CEELI)
by Cathy Rolland, URJ Director, Families with Young Children and Susan Zukrow, CEELI Project Director
Original Cohort
Launched in 2014 and supported by the Chicago-based Crown Family Philanthropies, the project convened a cross-denominational cohort, encompassing twelve early childhood centers from legacy organizations, various synagogue movements and independent entities. Each leadership team included lay leaders and professional staff. The lay leaders provide essential support, advocacy and a perspective from outside of the trenches.
This cohort dissolved competitive silos and encouraged strategic innovation and problem solving across the greater community. The twelve teams understand the necessity of collaborative approaches to efficiently and effectively meet strategic challenges faced in today’s competitive early childhood marketplace.
The URJ provided this cohort with professional expertise in marketing, business and sales development, technology, marketing, social media, branding, pediatrics and child development.
Current Implementation
CEELI's success has led to support by an anonymous funder, in addition to the continued support provided by Crown Family Philanthropies.
CEELI’s collaborative approach has also been instrumental in informing the framework for the 2015 cohort of URJ Communities of Practice.
In addition, in 2017 CEELI began hosting a series of “bootcamps” for Jewish early childhood educators across denominations and for the Chicago community at large. These seminars are intended to provide educators and members of the Chicago Jewish community with resources and tools to pursue excellence in a wide range of areas as they engage the next generation.
CEELI 2nd Career Teacher Project
Our grant request has been funded to begin at the start of 2018. National Louis University has been selected as our partner to develop a credentialed curriculum for a cohort of 10 second career individuals who will pursue a certificate in Early Childhood Education and be employed in our schools upon completion. The Jewish content will be co-constructed by our cohort teams with oversight and direction from the URJ Families with Young Children team. The project will be launched to address the shortage of ECE teachers and test the viability of recruiting individuals with college degrees who are interested in pursuing teaching at this time in their lives.
Boot Camps
These will continue into 2018 with topics requested by participants. A 2-part social media boot camp will launch in the fall.
Cohort Leadership Teams
Our 12 cross-denominational teams will continue as they learn together and pursue team goals and outcomes including:Program Excellence, Teacher Excellence’, Enrollment and Engagement , Marketing and Operations Flexibility and Technology.
For more information: https://urj.org/chicago-early-engagement-leadership-initiative-ceeli
Launched in 2014 and supported by the Chicago-based Crown Family Philanthropies, the project convened a cross-denominational cohort, encompassing twelve early childhood centers from legacy organizations, various synagogue movements and independent entities. Each leadership team included lay leaders and professional staff. The lay leaders provide essential support, advocacy and a perspective from outside of the trenches.
This cohort dissolved competitive silos and encouraged strategic innovation and problem solving across the greater community. The twelve teams understand the necessity of collaborative approaches to efficiently and effectively meet strategic challenges faced in today’s competitive early childhood marketplace.
The URJ provided this cohort with professional expertise in marketing, business and sales development, technology, marketing, social media, branding, pediatrics and child development.
Current Implementation
CEELI's success has led to support by an anonymous funder, in addition to the continued support provided by Crown Family Philanthropies.
CEELI’s collaborative approach has also been instrumental in informing the framework for the 2015 cohort of URJ Communities of Practice.
In addition, in 2017 CEELI began hosting a series of “bootcamps” for Jewish early childhood educators across denominations and for the Chicago community at large. These seminars are intended to provide educators and members of the Chicago Jewish community with resources and tools to pursue excellence in a wide range of areas as they engage the next generation.
CEELI 2nd Career Teacher Project
Our grant request has been funded to begin at the start of 2018. National Louis University has been selected as our partner to develop a credentialed curriculum for a cohort of 10 second career individuals who will pursue a certificate in Early Childhood Education and be employed in our schools upon completion. The Jewish content will be co-constructed by our cohort teams with oversight and direction from the URJ Families with Young Children team. The project will be launched to address the shortage of ECE teachers and test the viability of recruiting individuals with college degrees who are interested in pursuing teaching at this time in their lives.
Boot Camps
These will continue into 2018 with topics requested by participants. A 2-part social media boot camp will launch in the fall.
Cohort Leadership Teams
Our 12 cross-denominational teams will continue as they learn together and pursue team goals and outcomes including:Program Excellence, Teacher Excellence’, Enrollment and Engagement , Marketing and Operations Flexibility and Technology.
For more information: https://urj.org/chicago-early-engagement-leadership-initiative-ceeli
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