- What is the purpose of Community Partnerships?
- Partnership Programs: Who do we serve through our programs?
- What are the Community Partnerships programs?
- What kinds of resources and services do we provide for our partners?
- Who are our corporate partners and funders?
What is the purpose of Community Partnerships?
Community Partnerships extends outreach in the form of programs, services, and resource materials to individuals, groups, and communities that might not study or learn about the Holocaust on their own. Our primary goal is to work with our partners to promote the Museum's mission to disseminate and advance knowledge about the Holocaust and to encourage reflection upon the moral and spiritual questions raised by the events of the Holocaust as well as our responsibilities as citizens of a democracy.
We develop partnerships with these communities through their schools, churches, and professional organizations, in order to create program and outreach models that can be replicated to serve a wider audience.
Community Partnerships evolved from the program Bringing the Lessons Home: Holocaust Education for the Community - a unique collaboration between the Museum and Washington, D.C. public schools. This initial project, funded by the Fannie Mae Foundation, was based on three guiding principles:
- The history and lessons of the Holocaust are relevant to contemporary social issues.
- Students should be actively engaged in their own education.
- Collaborations between public and private institutions best serve their communities.
Bringing the Lessons Home and its principles now serve as the model for several partnerships between the Museum and new audiences.
Partnership Programs: Who do we serve through our programs?
Currently, we serve the following communities:
- Washington, D.C. area students, teachers, and parents
- Local and national law enforcement professionals
- Congregations in communities where churches have been burned
- Adult literacy teachers and their students
What are the Community Partnerships programs?
We serve our outreach communities through the following programs:
Bringing the Lessons Home: Holocaust Education for the Community
Launched in 1994, the Museum has developed long-term partnerships with 20 high schools and middles schools that serve the Museum's local community - our nation's capital. Through these partnerships, more than 25,000 students, teachers and parents have received special programming and participated in discussions; more than 600 local educators have attended workshops; and more than 200 students have completed internships and serve as docents for their peers.
Lift Every Voice
In partnership with pastors, community leaders, teachers, and students in communities where churches have been burned, Lift Every Voice fulfills the Museum's commitment to speak out against acts of hatred and to bring Holocaust education to new communities. Presently, this program extends to churches and communities in nine states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas), and continues to grow in partnership with the National Coalition of Burned Churches, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and a growing number of organizations in each community.
Adult Literacy Program
Through the Lift Every Voice program, a special partnership formed to support adult literacy through Holocaust education. Piloted in Tennessee with great success by the University of Tennessee Center for Literacy Studies and the Tennessee Holocaust Commission, this partnership serves as a model to bring Holocaust education to adults who are learning to read or who are seeking to complete their high school education later in life.
Law Enforcement and Society: Lessons of the Holocaust
A joint partnership of the Museum and the Anti-Defamation League, this program provides law enforcement officers with a history of the Holocaust and the opportunity to reflect upon their personal and professional responsibilities in our pluralistic society.
Northeast / Mid-Atlantic Regional Partners
The Museum is sharing strategies learned from the Bringing the Lessons Home program with communities in Philadelphia and New Jersey.
The Center for Humanistic Education at the Ghetto Fighters House, Israel
With the Ghetto Fighters House in Israel, the Museum has successfully replicated the Bringing the Lessons Home program, which provides Holocaust education opportunities for Arab, Druze, and Jewish communities in Western Galilee.
What kinds of resources and services do we provide for our partners?
Our partnership programs offer the following resources and services to participants:
- Transportation to and from the Museum for local groups
- Guided tours of Museum exhibitions before opening hours
- Educational workshops or classes crafted to meet community needs and interests
- Educational resources (books, videos, CD-ROMs, posters, and other materials)
- Support for in-school and in-community activities (including survivor speakers)
- Assistance in developing model units on teaching about the Holocaust
- International student summer seminar
- Internships for students
- Professional development opportunities for educators locally and abroad
Who are our corporate partners and funders?
Bringing the Lessons Home: Holocaust Education for the Community
- Fannie Mae Foundation (10-year leadership grant)
- Benjamin and Seema Pulier Charitable Foundation
- Elliot and Wendy Friedman
- Winnick Family Foundation, Inc.
- The Washington Post Company
Law Enforcement and Society: Lessons of the Holocaust
- Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation
- Fred Zeidman
- Mervin G. & Roslyn G. Morris Educational and Philanthropic Fund
- Stan and Susan Chesley
Lift Every Voice
- Frances Gendlin/Dorothy Weinstein
