Tara Liberman, Committee Chair
As many college/graduate students face an increase in antisemitism on campus, AJP decided to create a space for the campus community to share their experiences and find support. The Campus Task Force is dedicated to supporting facets of college campus life. In consultation with various Jewish student organizations who met with and surveyed their students and by running student focus groups ourselves, we learned about the needs of Jewish students on campus. Most striking was that students reported wanting a space to be heard as they felt this was not happening. Jewish students and organizations that represented them reported that students were not seeking out services from their university support staff as they felt a lack of cultural sensitivity or understanding of Jewish identity. In consultation with Hillel, AJP decided to create a national database of AJP clinicians that the community can access directly for referrals.
The Campus Task Force began meeting weekly on October 30th 2023 and at this time has grown to over 70 volunteer clinicians from AJP. Our volunteer team will be running virtual support groups for college students, graduate students, and parents of students. The purpose of these groups is to offer separate spaces for students and their parents to feel heard and to gain social support. Each of the volunteers on the task force who will be facilitating a support group has been trained in Psychological First Aid.
Groups are slated to begin mid-January and will continue through March. The Campus Task Force will evaluate the progress and determine if the project will extend through the spring semester. We are currently in consultation with Jewish organizations about providing support to their staff in a similar model. Other projects the Task Force is working on are collaborating on educational training for campus faculty and staff and pairing volunteer clinicians with Hillel staff to provide individual short-term therapy. In addition, we are beginning to offer groups focused on helping students self-advocate in challenging situations and matching students with AJP mentors. If you are interested in joining the Campus Task force please email us at ajpcampusgroups@gmail.com.