JARC Teen Council Wins $4,000 Grant

Orthodox wedding for my employees,” Blackwell says. “That was fun.”

“Week after week, we at Party Assurance are training vendors to work with Jewish customs. After the ketubah signing, for example, we know that the rabbi is coming back to do the bedekken, but the photographer’s gone because they think they’re done so I’m running after the photographer to come back,” Blackwell says. “The chuppah might be made out of a tallis that the grandfather smuggled out of Europe during the Holocaust — the photographer might think it’s just a piece of fabric. A band leader might take a job not knowing what the hora is. How’s he going to learn it? On Google? Our vendors would do a better job of taking care of our Jewish clients if they really understood the traditions.

“A Christian wedding is very different from a Jewish wedding, even in terms of the timeline. When a Jewish wedding takes place at a traditionally non-Jewish venue, like Oakland Hills Country Club, it’s important for the vendors to create a Jewish-style timeline. And there are so many mixed marriages now that I work with a lot of vendors on behalf of Jewish families to teach these Jewish traditions.”

SHARING KNOWLEDGE

Although Blackwell has learned much on the job, she’s read a lot on the subject, too. “I’m a researcher at heart, and I love to learn. I love this whole Jewish world and what it represents, the history of it, and I want to promote an understanding of it any way that I can.”

Blackwell and her Jewish Party Maven team can benefit salespeople, caterers, photographers, videographers, venues, DJs, bands, decorators and planners, florists and more — anyone who is involved in the traditions of weddings or b’nai mitzvah.

A recent party that Blackwell worked at was celebrating a student who attends Hillel Day School, which encourages families to hold kosher-style events. “The parents asked the caterer for dairy, but the chef translated this to meaning no meat and made a soup with chicken stock,” she explains. “He had no idea he had made this mistake.”

Blackwell launched Jewish Party Maven on Jan. 1, 2021, and built it during COVID, starting with a weekly podcast, Book More Jewish Weddings with Pat Blackwell. (Her data says that 22 percent of listeners are from France and Bavaria — “I have no idea how they heard about it!” she says.) Each podcast focuses on a specific topic or word, like tallit or Mazel Tov. She’ll also offer courses, which will launch in August, and workshops, which anyone can sign up for, and plans to have digital offerings, too, in which attendees can become certified.

She’s been approached by her own clients, who’ve wanted their own vendors to go through training with her company. And she was hired by the brand-new Daxton Hotel in Birmingham, as they haven’t worked with many Jewish weddings yet.

She also recently held a workshop at Knollwood Country Club.

“Some of their chef team came, plus their servers and management team,” Blackwell says. “They know a lot, but they don’t necessarily understand the customs. And there’s lots of turnover of staff.

“They take it seriously because they want their staff to take good care of their clients.”

For more about Jewish Party Maven, visit jewishpartymaven.com.

JARC Teen Action Council

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

The JARC Teen Action Council was awarded a $4,000 grant from the Stephen H. Schulman Millennium Fund for Jewish Youth.

The funding will cover the second term of the Teen Action Council program from September 2021 through June 2022 and will be used for the program’s educational component.

“What we’re able to do with the grant is formalize the leadership education component,” said Shaindle Braunstein, JARC CEO. “Bringing in training around leadership development and working with persons with developmental disabilities and bringing in speakers around advocacy work — all with the goal to grow this into something that helps the youth take these skills into their future as adults.”

Braunstein says what makes the grant unique is that it directly helps the teens help others.

“This spreads our message and mission, introduces our local youth to JARC and creates ambassadors in the community who can go out and say, ‘this is what inclusion means, this is what it means to be a person with a disability, and this is how I can be an ally and advocate,’” Braunstein said. “To have the opportunity to provide vibrant programming for youth is something we’re really excited about.”

Through JARC’s Teen Action Council, local high schoolers can learn through service. The council allows teens to connect with peers, engage with the people JARC serves, learn important leadership and relationship skills, and learn about developmental disabilities and the importance of inclusion in the community.

Students active in the council agree to a one-year term with an option for a second year. Members are asked to attend seven out of 10 monthly hourlong meetings, which to date have been virtual. Members are asked to plan one large group project together (this term, group made Chanukah Care Packages for persons served in JARC’s Independent Living Services program).

They are also responsible for creating a virtual activity for JARC persons served, which has included tote bag decorating, virtual game night and an outdoor scavenger hunt. All Metro Detroit youth are encouraged to apply.

“I always want to tell people that with JARC, we have room at our table for everyone, and we want the entire community involved in our mission,” Braunstein said.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for teens. If you’re someone who wants to be involved with JARC, we want you here, and there’s always a place for you.”