UK Jewish communities have a proud tradition of investing in organisations enabling young people and young adults to explore identity and community through peer-led informal education. KeshetUK works with these youth and young adult organisations to support young leaders, so they can more confidently create spaces where the needs of LGBT+ young people are met so they can feel valued and respected.
What we offer youth and young adult organisations
Training for youth leaders (madrichim/ot, sgan roshim/ot and roshim/ot)
Workshops for younger teens and hadrachah groups
Sessions for university students and student professionals
Staff training
Other ways that KeshetUK can work with you
To book a session or to find out more please click here to contact us.
- Pre-camp training sessions including, but not limited to: holding supportive conversations, handling hurtful language, creating brave spaces and how to support trans kids on camp
- LGBT+ inclusion training
- Bringing together LGBT+ inclusion and Jewish values
Workshops for younger teens and hadrachah groups
- For pre-bar/bat/bnei-mitzvah programmes we deliver age-appropriate workshops that review key language and terminology, discuss how your community's Jewish values link to LGBT+ wellbeing, and share ways to show kindness when someone comes out
- We have a rolling programme of hadrachah workshops to support discussions on a range of topics - for example, the impact of hurtful language, how to be supportive when someone comes out, celebrating the achievements of LGBT+ people in history, and understanding the experiences of young LGBT+ Jewish people
Sessions for university students and student professionals
- Learning and discussion activities for JSocs - we can run general sessions and also sessions designed just for LGBT+ students
- Talks in collaboration with the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), both online and in-person
- Support for sabbatical officers to provide input for UJS resources or conversations
- Meetings with chaplaincy staff
Staff training
- Staff training will be adapted to meet your organisation's needs, but always includes a focus on how to have supportive conversations with both young people and colleagues. Staff who can benefit from our sessions include:
- Youth organisation staff and movement workers
- Chaplains, chaplaincy couples, and those based at chaplaincy head office
- Cheder staff - teacher, assistants and others on the education team
Other ways that KeshetUK can work with you
- Context specific leadership training
- Meeting with individuals such as rabbis and movement staff - in confidence where necessary - to increase their understanding of what including Jewish LGBT+ people and their families could look like
To book a session or to find out more please click here to contact us.
Recent Achievements
Our key achievements working with youth and young adult organisations over the last few years include:
- A new programme of summer pre-camp training for youth organisations, designed in a modular format so that all training sessions can be personalised
- A five-day trip to Scotland (visiting Glasgow, Edinburgh and St Andrews), running workshops for pre-bar/bat/bnei-mitzvah teens, for general student audiences and for LGBT+ students
- Working in collaboration with UJS to support them in creating a special LGBT+ Friday Night Dinner student resource pack for JSocs
- Training more than 30 youth leaders working at Limmud Festival, to improve LGBT+ wellbeing and inclusion within Limmud's 'Young Teen Limmud' programme
- A series of online talks for UJS to mark LGBT+ History Month, sharing some of the history of the LGBT+ community with students across the UK
Bespoke programming including
Testimonies
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Working with KeshetUK was an absolutely amazing opportunity. A staff member from KeshetUK travelled all the way to Norwich from London to provide a talk at our “Prideday night dinner”, a celebration of pride month by UEA Jewish Society. It was a lovely evening and the talk taught us how to be better allies with the LGBT+ community.
Jasmine San, University of East Anglia Jewish Society (2023) |
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Working with KeshetUK this year was very useful and important for our leaders training. The KeshetUK team worked closely with us to understand the needs of our movement and delivered the important LGBTQ training in a sensitive, probational and engaging way. FZY is looking forward to working with you and learning from you more about LGTBQ. Thank you for the wonderful and vital work you do in the community.
Anna Shapira, FZY, Central Shlicha (2020) |
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LJY-Netzer is so proud to work with KeshetUK, who provide such vital education and support to the Jewish community in understanding and highlighting LGBTQIA+ issues. This year KeshetUK provided training to our members about how to be an effective Ally which was really well received. KeshetUK have been understanding of LJY-Netzer's specific needs when developing sessions, working together to tailor them to be the best fit for our movement.
Rosa Slater, LJY (2020) |
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Being able to work with an organisation such as KeshetUK has enabled us to expand topics offered during our MIKE Youth Leadership Course. The sessions they run are well planned, thought out and executed in a way that we would personally not be able to do with the topic. Young people fully engage with the sessions and the leaders of them and are not afraid to ask questions or be part of a discussion.
The work KeshetUK do is vital to our young people; whether they are part of the LGBTQ+ community or not, it enables them to understand and support others through the knowledge they gain from the KeshetUK team and the personal experiences they hear about. KeshetUK is a key organisation and I hope our work with them continues for many years to come. Emma Sennit, Youth & Family Coordinator, Redbridge JCC (2020) |