Young adults who previously participated in the Jewish Federation of Ottawa’s J-Fellows leadership program have an exciting opportunity to keep the momentum up with the new J-Fellows+ program. 

Starting later this fall, an inaugural cohort of past J-Fellows participants will be selected to participate in the J-Fellows+ program to expand upon what they learned and put it into practice in a community setting. According to Federation’s Young Adults Associate, Oren Baray, J-Fellows+ is a natural progression of the program, helping young adults build on their skills and become more involved in Jewish Ottawa.

“For this program, we are focused on getting young adults ready to serve on boards and committees,” he said. “It will look similar to the main J-Fellows program, where we will hold in-person sessions where participants will hear from seasoned experts and learn about governance, fiduciary responsibilities, and how to get involved more broadly.”

Baray hopes to include a practicum-like experience for J-Fellows+ participants, as well, where they will have the opportunity to shadow current committee or board members to learn more about how organizations work. 

“With this program, we are hoping to harness the talent that already exists in our community and encourage them to take on more leadership responsibilities,” he said. 

The ultimate goal is to get young adults to use their voices in community settings and to help influence the outcomes of community work.

Envisioned as the second phase of the program, it will be run as a two-part series; the first portion, which is the J-Fellows program as it is currently run, will take place from January to May, and the second portion will take place approximately from September to the following January.

Participation in J-Fellows+ will be more selective than the first phase and will only be open to J-Fellows alumni. While completing the first phase does not guarantee a spot in J-Fellows+, those who are selected will have the opportunity to progress through both phases within the same year.

The expansion reflects the evolution of J-Fellows itself. According to Baray, the program has grown and been refined each year, from its logistics and curriculum to its end-of-year showcase. As the program has matured, so too has the demand from participants for opportunities to remain involved.

“One of the things we noticed was that our cohort members who were going through J-Fellows, the first phase, got to the end of it and wanted to remain engaged in the way that leaders do,” he said. “We saw this as an opportunity to expand the current programming further and put participants in a situation where they can explore future leadership positions.”

J-Fellows+ is intended to address that gap by creating a clearer pathway from leadership education to leadership participation.

For Baray, success will ultimately be measured by whether participants find places within the community where they can put their new skills into practice, whether through committee work, board positions, or other leadership opportunities.

More broadly, the program aims to ensure that young adults have a meaningful voice in the decisions shaping Ottawa’s Jewish community.

To learn more about this program, you can reach out to Oren Baray at [email protected] or by visiting the J-Fellows page here.