Cyndi Lauper sings a song about girls just wanting to have fun. That may be true for many, but not the girls who enroll in Doog-Maot, a program sponsored by CAJE’s Learning for Life initiative that just finished its inaugural session. These girls have fun, while at the same time confirming their Judaism and helping others.
Doog-Maot is an outgrowth of the popular Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing! national program that’s been successful here in Kansas City since 2005. The program has a five-year curriculum, but in Kansas City the model has worked well for seventh- and eighth-grade girls. Here, girls saw it as more of a middle school thing only.
“The national program is great, but our number one concern was that the girls were all engaged and involved Jewishly as they went into ninth grade,” said Karen Gerson, CAJE’s director of information education.
So the work began to initiate a program that would appeal to girls entering high school. The end result was Doog-Maot, a program geared toward ninth- and 10-grade girls that promotes friendships, self-reflection and service.
“The program provides an opportunity for these girls to learn skills and give them a chance to practice things that will help them evolve into mature role models and leaders in the Jewish community,” explained Samantha Feinberg, the Learning for Life associate who coordinates the program.
Gerson said the program was actually created by Kansas City native Emily Passer when she served as a Learning for Life intern a couple of years ago.
“It really is a three-part program of community service, small group learning activity and learning a little bit more about yourself Jewishly. We call it a continuation of Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing! because people are very familiar with that name, but it is not a Moving Traditions program. It’s actually our own program,” she explained.
Doog-Maot is a Hebrew phrase that means examples or role models. Unlike Rosh Hodesh, which runs once a month during the school year, Doog-Maot run six consecutive Sunday afternoons in the early fall. All Jewish ninth- and 10th-grade girls were invited to enroll, regardless of denomination, affiliation or educational background. Enrollment for next fall’s program will open in the spring of 2012.
“Doog-Maot, like Rosh Hodesh, offers the same benefits of creating an environment in which girls can safely establish bonds with other Jewish teens and gain an understanding of healthy lifestyle choices, while working with an enthusiastic female role model as the facilitator,” Feinberg said.
“We really wanted to do something that was shorter, that was a set period of time and that would give these girls an opportunity to earn community service hours,” she continued.
Twelve girls enrolled in the program. The group was facilitated by Daniella Silver, who is a newcomer to Kansas City and also works as a Junior NCSY adviser here.
“We had terrific, terrific enrollment,” Feinberg said.
Weekly activities included such things as baking honey cakes and delivering them to residents of Village Shalom and getting to know other local organizations like SAFEHOME.
“The residents at Village Shalom were very happy. They kept saying, ‘You made this for me?’ ” Feingold said.
Among the topics they discussed prior to or while at the service site were leadership, healthy relationships and respecting their elders.
At the end of the program Feinberg said they talked about how the girls could draw on their Doog-Maot experiences as they head toward adulthood.
“We hope they have a strong Jewish identity with a desire to serve the community and to be a leader and role model to other young Jewish people and specifically other young Jewish women,” Feinberg said.
Gabriella Sonnenschein loved participating in Doog-Maot.
“I really liked how it was all girls doing community service together. It was really meaningful learning new things through doing good things for other people,” Gabriella said.
Feinberg said the program is specifically single sex because studies show that teens can be “a little bit more candid in single-sex programs.”
A ninth-grader at the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, Gabriella also participated in Rosh Hodesh. She said she will definitely enroll in Doog-Maot again if she’s given the opportunity. She also hopes to get more active in Jewish youth groups such as BBYO.
Not all the girls in Doog-Maot also participated in Rosh Hodesh and it’s not a prerequisite for the program. But a positive experience in Rosh Hodesh can lead to further commitment, which is one reason Pam Malcy enrolled her daughter Allison in Doog-Maot. Like Rosh Hodesh, she said the program was advertised as one to help teenage girls obtain a positive self image in a positive environment. Malcy was happy with her daughter’s experience.
“I think the community service part was really good for my daughter. Going to SAFEHOME is always a good wake-up call for teens,” Malcy said. “It was also really smart of Congregation Beth Torah to allow their students to get school credit for the program.”
Feinberg believes the first year of the program was successful.
“We got good feedback from the girls as well as the parents. We also receive constructive suggestions and we hope the program only improves from year to year,” she said.
After the first session, Gerson said, “We’re very proud of this program.”
“From what I saw and what Samantha saw with the girls, it was a very successful experience for the girls involved. It really was designed to meet the needs of ninth- and 10th graders and we’re happy it met the goals we set for it.”