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B’NAI B’RITH TODAY
Resident Leadership Retreat: 2019 Recap
By Gracie Cohen
On a Wednesday afternoon in
August, 25 residents from B’nai
B’rith housing properties met
at B’nai B’rith Perlman Camp at Lake
Como, Pennsylvania, for their biennial
six-day retreat. The Resident Leadership
Retreat, which began in 1987, not only
connects resident leaders throughout
the B’nai B’rith housing network but
also provides them with many tools to
strengthen their communities.
B’nai B’rith is the largest national
Jewish sponsor of low-income,
nonsectarian housing for seniors in the
country. Our buildings accommodate
some 5,000 residents without regard to
race, religion, gender identity or sexual
orientation.
There were intensive, daylong
workshops covering the gamut of
challenges residents (and sometimes
management) face. B’nai B’rith Center
for Senior Services staff members Janel
Doughten, Evan Carmen, Gracie
Cohen and our Senior Housing
Committee Co-Chair Abbie Stone
facilitated sessions on how to start a
residents’ council and write bylaws,
address language and cultural barriers,
communicate with management,
publish a newsletter and more. Resident
leaders devoted time in the program
to bounce ideas off of one another,
and problem-solve any issues they
are encountering in their residents’
association or buildings.
Aside from workshops, resident
leaders spent time with many of the
young sleep-away campers, getting to
know one another in a song session and
ice-breaker games.
One of the huge takeaways from the
retreat, aside from residents connecting
with one another, is that every program
presented throughout the week can be
replicated in each of their buildings.
On Friday night, B’nai B’rith Senior Housing
Committee Co-Chair Abbie Stone oriented
campers on the customs and rituals
associated with the observance of Shabbat.
B’nai B’rith staff and building residents who participated in the 2019 August retreat at B’nai B’rith Perlman Camp in Pennsylvania.
44 WINTER 2019