Hidden Sparks Awarded a Grant from the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York

Hidden Sparks is honored to have been awarded a grant from the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York, which announced its 2014 grant recipients at its Annual Meeting on June 12th. Befitting of the JWFNY’s mission, which includes “providing education on vital issues [and] funding innovative programs”, this grant will support the Hidden Sparks Without Walls Parent Connection webinar series during the 2014-2015 academic year. Stephanie Harz, Assistant Director of JWFNY, is excited about funding this project, “The webinar series reaches hundreds of parents and provides them with the skills they need to advocate for their children’s best educational interests. JWFNY’s mission is to provide women and girls in the Jewish community with a healthy and supportive environment and Hidden Sparks is helping us achieve this goal.”

The Parent Connection webinar series offers parents a way to deepen their understanding of learning in order to most effectively serve the needs of their children.   Topics this year included: Nobody Wants to Be My Friend, Children and Screen Time, Making Bar and Bat Mitzvah Preparation More Joyful, and Supporting the Joy of Reading at Home.

Debbie Niderberg, Executive Director of Hidden Sparks sees parents as the greatest supporters of their children, “Empowering parents and providing them with the tools to become more attuned to their children’s needs and stronger advocates can have huge yields. We have always seen the parent programs as an essential parallel and partner to our work with schools and are thrilled and honored to have been selected to receive a grant from Jewish Women’s Foundation to further this important work. This past year 170 parents participated in Hidden Sparks without Walls  series for parents, representing more than 20 schools, 15 states, and 4 Canandian provinces. They will become the champions for their children’s Hidden Sparks. “

All webinars are held, free-of-charge, during evening hours and past webinars are archived on the Hidden Sparks website and accessible through a link on the homepage, where parents can also add themselves to the Hidden Sparks mailing list. The schedule for 2014-2015 webinars will be released early in the fall.