Call for Applications: 2024 Community for Holocaust Education Centers

Call for Applications

The Museum’s William Levine Family Institute for Holocaust Education invites Holocaust education centers to apply for the fifth biennial Community for Holocaust Education Centers (CHEC). One lead educator from each center will attend.

Established in 2014, the Community for Holocaust Education Centers (CHEC) currently has 66 Holocaust center partners who regularly engage to advance quality Holocaust education. Every two years, CHEC members recruit education staff from US Holocaust organizations (centers) to learn about Museum resources, teaching guidelines, new historical research, and pedagogical models. The community encourages participating centers to integrate USHMM resources and approaches to support their goals and to learn about resources and approaches from other organizations across the country.

During the conference, each participating center educator will be paired with a USHMM Teacher Fellow. Together, they will design and run a follow-up teacher professional development program at each organization’s respective location, using both USHMM and the hosting organization’s resources. By doing so, teachers who attend the follow-up program will come away with resources at the regional and national level to provide quality Holocaust education in their classrooms. After the two-year commitment is completed, centers in the CHEC network remain engaged with the Museum as they continue working together to address challenges of and opportunities within Holocaust education, memory, and awareness.

Eligibility

Organizations that have provided annual teacher professional development opportunities for secondary educators on the Holocaust for at least five years are eligible to attend. The following qualify as eligible organizations:

• Holocaust museums
• Holocaust memorials
• Holocaust state councils or commissions
• Jewish federations or community relations councils that have staff dedicated to providing ongoing professional development on the Holocaust, on an annual basis to area/regional schools (art and writing contest sponsors who do not provide teacher professional development are not eligible)
• School districts/state education centers with programming and staff dedicated to providing specific professional development on teaching about the Holocaust, on an annual basis
• Holocaust resource centers (can be independent or connected to a synagogue, federation, or council)
• Holocaust centers based at colleges and universities that provide annual teacher professional development to current classroom teachers
• Museums and memorials that convey histories that run parallel and/or intersect with Holocaust history, providing annual teacher professional development on teaching about the Holocaust

Centers that took part in the CHEC conference in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 are not eligible to apply.

Participants are required to attend the following virtual programs:

• The 2023 Belfer National Conference for Educators, June 26–28, 2023 (virtual)
• A follow-up meeting to discuss the Belfer National Conference on Thursday, June 29, 2023, in the afternoon (virtual)
• A half-day orientation in fall 2023 (virtual, date TBA)

If the staff person applying for CHEC cannot attend any of the Belfer National Conference or either follow-up meeting, they should defer applying until they can attend all three components.

The in-person conference will take place at the Museum on February 5–7, 2024.

Please note that due to the pandemic, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum may deem it necessary to shift to a virtual conference for February 2024.

The Museum will provide:

• A travel stipend to cover roundtrip plane or train fare, or reimbursement for fuel from the city where the participant lives to Washington, DC. The stipend will also cover meals not provided during the conference.
• Lodging for four nights (February 4, 5, 6, and 7), arranged and paid for by the Museum at a nearby hotel.
• Beyond the February conference, the Museum will provide funds for Museum Teacher Fellows to travel to CHEC follow-up workshops (air or train fare, mileage reimbursement, lodging, meals not provided at workshop) that will take place in 2024 and 2025
• USHMM resources for participants in the follow-up workshops

For follow-up workshops, partner centers will provide:

• Online platform and management of registration for follow-up workshop
• Database of workshop participants to be shared with USHMM at the workshop’s conclusion
• Venue for follow-up workshop, either at the partner’s center or another venue, OR online platform for a virtual workshop; a hybrid of both in-person and virtual workshops is allowed.
• Participants’ meals/snacks at the follow-up workshop

After the conclusion of the CHEC program at USHMM:

A center staff member (can be staff person attending CHEC or another center staff person) should try to attend CHEC partners meetings that are held every month, usually the first Thursday, at 4:15 p.m. ET or 7 p.m. ET. Attendance is not mandatory but is recommended to further the goals of the network.

Tip: Preview the 2024 Community for Holocaust Education Centers Conference Application essay questions here. Compose your answers in a Google or Word document, and copy and paste them into the application so you can revise and edit your answers before submission, retain a copy for your records, and avoid the system timing out before you apply.

For additional questions, please email Christina Chavarria at cchavarria@ushmm.org.

The deadline for receiving applications is Wednesday, March 29, 2023.