Four Network member agencies: JFS Los Angeles, JFS San Diego, JFS Houston and JFCS Pittsburgh will share their stories and experiences working through very different types of crises. Their tales will evoke difficult questions that we won’t be able to solve immediately. The goal is to create a space to start the conversation, setting ourselves up for active and ongoing collaboration on these big questions and urgent needs.

1. What are the issues and opportunities for strengthening yourself as leader, your community and agency, and our whole Network to respond to any kind of community crisis?
2. What specific resources and capabilities do you see as essential at each of those levels?
3. What specific crises can we plan for? Natural disasters? Political/Policy situations? Community tragedies?
4. What must we do generally to strengthen ourselves, our agencies and our network to respond well — locally where crisis happens, everywhere else where it could happen, and globally as a Network?
5. What kind of things must be called forth and emerge from people and community in the heat of the moment?

In the Opening Plenary Lunch, Michael Herman, recognized teacher and skilled facilitator of team, enterprise and community resilience, will invite the Network to explore together, in small-group, working conversations, the challenges of crisis, the possibilities for readiness, and the implications for leadership and the Network.

You won’t want to miss the stories, questions, insights and connections that will emerge in this one-of-a-kind session!

The Network’s Center for Innovation and Research is excited to host the Jewish Poverty Challenge, an inaugural innovation lab experience. After attendees share local community responses to Jewish Poverty, participants will explore opportunities to increase the impact of critical mission driven services and then engage in a series of short exercises to challenge assumptions and expand perspectives on potential solutions to Jewish Poverty. The exercises will touch on many of the most significant components of the service model including:

• Problem definitions and related solutions
• Client definition, assistance and involvement
• Key actions to create, implement or scale the solutions
• Value creation and measurement for funders, clients and partners
• Required resources
• Cost structure
• Anticipated financial support and revenue streams
• Critical partnerships / collaborations
• Market dynamics (e.g. competitors, collaborators, facilitators, obstacles, etc.)

By the end of the exercises, each group will have developed a “pitch deck” – a short slide presentation that describes the opportunity and touches on as many of the topics listed above. A review committee will select one or two “winners” who will receive prizes to be announced prior to the end of the Conference.

Please note: The opportunity to participate in the Jewish Poverty Challenge is open to ALL conference attendees. To maximize participation in this session, all participants are encouraged to have access to a laptop/tablet to create pitch decks. Agencies will be encouraged to sit as teams and partner with other regional providers. Time permitting, a select number of participants will share their pitches.

The Network is pleased to announce the session facilitators:

• Start Co., a venture development organization originally founded to grow the jobs of tomorrow in Memphis, TN through the building and accelerating of early stage startup technology companies and growing the ecosystem of support resources. Learn more here.
• Mike Mozenter, founder of BizLogx
  Over the last 18 months, Mike has worked directly with the Network to help the Network develop its Center for Innovation and Research. As part of this effort, Mike has spoken with dozens of Network member leaders about their most innovative and impactful programming. Mike also conducted a workshop on Innovation at the Network’s 2017 Executives’ Conference. Learn more here.