Join Our Community as Director of Youth & Teens and Camp Keshet!

Temple Beth Am is seeking a dynamic, organized, and creative professional to serve as the Director of Youth & Teens and Camp Keshet at Temple Beth Am. This full-time role encompasses two essential elements of our community’s programs: our youth programming during the school year and our day camp, Camp Keshet, during the summer. This multifaceted role offers the opportunity to make a lasting impact on the lives of children, teens, and families across multiple levels of our community. In all aspects of the role, the ideal candidate will bring joy, professionalism, creativity, pristine organizational skills, an ability to connect with people of all ages, and the utmost integrity. We’re looking for an energetic, logistically savvy leader who excels at program development, staff supervision, and building relationships with kids and teens, as well as their families. If you're ready to shape the next generation and be a part of a supportive, fun, and committed staff team within an innovative community, we'd love to hear from you.

Key responsibilities include and are not limited to:

Camp Keshet Director: Oversee all aspects of camp during the summer, including daily operations, weekly schedule management, staff supervision, parent communications, and camper care.
Camp Keshet Planning, Programming & Logistics: Supervise financial aspects of camp, including developing and tracking camp budget, overseeing camp registration, and monitoring financial aid processes. Comprehensively plan camp experiences such as weekly field trips and bus coordination, specialist programs, group time activities, all-camp programs, and all other aspects of camp planning.
Director of Youth and Teens: Develop and facilitate programming for Temple Beth Am youth department, including Mahar (2nd-3rd grade), Kadima (4th-6th grade), and TBA Teens (7th-12th grade). This encompasses social programming, Moving Traditions groups, religious/social action opportunities, and all other programming for kids and teens in our community. The position may include leading the madrichim (teen staff) program within our religious school as well.
Staff Supervision & Training: Recruit, hire, train, and supervise staff across department offerings, including all Camp Keshet staff, Moving Traditions group leaders, youth and teens advisor, and other opportunities as needed.
Shabbat and Holiday Youth Programming: Oversee weekly Saturday morning Shabbat Yeladim drop-off programming. Develop and supervise High Holiday youth programming for Temple Beth Am community. Coordinate children's programming, including staffing and program content, for annual Temple Beth Am Family Shabbaton. May include supervision/support of other family event programming (ie annual Purim carnival).
Schedule during the school year will be dictated by responsibilities as agreed upon with supervisor, potentially encompassing some weekend commitments. During the summer, the role will be centered around the camp week, Monday through Friday.

Who We Are:

Camp Gilboa is more than a summer camp. As part of an international youth movement, we are raising the next generation of progressive Jewish leaders dedicated to the principles of collective responsibility, social justice, equality, peace, and coexistence in North America and Israel/Palestine. Our summer camp and year-round programs seek to spark a passion for social justice, develop critical thinking, and encourage youth to see themselves as creators and active participants in their communities.

Our people are idealists, dreamers, and activists. Campers and staff show up to each activity ready to build something new and explore what it means to live according to our values. To us, living Jewishly means building an inclusive and creative community, with opportunities for identity exploration and deep questioning, and always striving to close the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be.

Youth empowerment and leadership development is an inherent part of our mission. That means that our teen campers and young adult counselors take on major responsibilities in the organization: programmatic, ideological, and directorial. They engage in significant organizational decision making (see, a movement-wide decision to enhance gender-inclusivity of the Hebrew language spoken at camp); they collectively build each summer’s program; they take on roles such as Rosh (Summer Camp Director) and Rosh Chinuch (Educational Director), and much more. Our year-round staff mentor and support these young leaders’ development and ensure safe, meaningful, and successful camp sessions and year-round programs.

Position Summary

The Assistant Director (AD) of Programs & Operations is a key position on the year-round director team. Together, the team is responsible for developing and monitoring the short- and long-term strategic goals for the growth and development of the organization. As part of the leadership team, they implement, evaluate, and adapt programs and operations to provide the best possible programming and services to our campers, families, staff, alumni, and volunteers.

As the position responsible for all year-round youth movement programming, the AD of Programs & Operations holds core responsibilities in camper and staff recruitment and retention. As a member of the year-round leadership team, the AD provides leadership and support in administration and oversight of summer camp preparations (program and physical campsite), organizational operations, and program evaluation, and they are part of the core summer camp leadership team that ensures safe and successful experiences for campers and their families.

Responsibilities

Year-Round Programming
– Work with the Executive Director (ED) to evaluate, develop, and implement strategies for year-round programming that serves the purposes of meaningful community connection, social action engagement, camper retention, and camper recruitment.
– Support youth leadership to bring their vision for youth movement programming into reality, through mentorship and guidance of program visioning, planning, recruitment, and implementation. Including:
2-4 community events + Tzedek (teen social action programming) events per semester in each of our program geographies: Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and San Diego
– Weekend Seminar for campers over Presidents’ Day Weekend
– West Coast Seminar for teens in April, in collaboration with Habonim Dror Camp Miriam
– Ma’agal (staff retention program) programming & January weekend seminar
– Family Camp in May over Memorial Day Weekend
– Work with youth leaders to ensure that all programs are safe, staffed, and high quality.
– Respond to parent inquiries, questions, and concerns, and support families through the year to camp registration.
– Support outreach programming in collaboration with the AD of Outreach & Recruitment as needed (presence at events, program planning, youth staff recruitment, etc).

Camp Facilities and Rentals
– Serve as a member of committees responsible for site management (Facilities Committee, Master Plan Committee), taking on tasks to move committee work and vision forward in collaboration with lay leadership and the Executive Director.
– Partner with the ED & youth leadership to plan and lead volunteer work weekends in the fall and spring.
– Coordinate vendors and contractors to maintain our camp site.
– Partner with the ED and lay leadership to explore opportunities to bring in extra revenue through camp site rentals.

Summer Camp Planning and Administration
– In conjunction with the ED, administer and ensure adherence to ACA (American Camp Association) standards and other safety and operations best practices.
– Mentor senior youth leadership in planning for camp.
– Bottomline all camp logistics and operations, primarily working with the Techni Team (youth leadership position focused on logistics), including all group transportation, specialty certifications (such as lifeguarding and archery certifications), tiyulim (hiking) planning, program supplies systems, laundry, trash collection, and basic campsite maintenance.

Work Conditions:
– During the school year, this position is hybrid (remote/in-person) in Los Angeles with some travel to cities around California for events. Residents of the Bay Area or a Southern California location other than LA may be considered.
– During the summer, must be willing to live at camp (in Big Bear) in a high-altitude, physically demanding outdoor environment.
– Need flexibility to work irregular hours including frequent weekend hours.
– Physical ability and emotional wisdom to act swiftly and appropriately in a crisis or emergency.

Compensation & Benefits:
– $60,000-70,000 annual salary, commensurate with experience
– This is a full time, exempt position
– Major Jewish holidays & all federal holidays off, plus three weeks paid time off
– In addition to vacation days, the office will be closed for two weeks at the end of summer session
– Health insurance, including dental and vision coverage
– Eligibility to enroll in a 401(k) retirement plan