Hanukkah and Friendseder Boxes

We found a way to package up an 8-day Hanukkah experience into a box, and sent it around the country! This wasn’t your traditional Hanukkah box with a menorah and gelt - we sent a sufganiyot jelly injector and Bananagrams instead!

A few months later, we turned Friendseder (our spin on Passover based on Friendsgiving) into a board game, complete with pawns, cards, and dice! And what would a Passover box be without something comfortable to recline in (fuzzy socks), and something to spruce up all those handwashings (artisanal soap)?!

Between our Hanukkah and Friendseder boxes, The Well was present in 23 states plus Canada, and reached over 400 homes!

Detroit Staycation

In June 2021 we brought a group of young adults to explore Detroit on a Staycation weekend! This was our first overnight program since January 2020 and being together in community for the weekend was the energizing and connective experience we all needed. Using the Renaissance Center as our home base, we ventured out to kayak with Detroit River Sports, learn about art, history, and architecture with The City Institute, catch a movie screening at Detroit Cinema, and see a winning Tigers game - and of course grab some delicious eats along the way!

Check out this article published in Nu?Detroit, written by participants Yevgeniya Gazman and Elana Weinstein!

Sukkot Sounds

In September 2020 we piloted Sukkot Sounds, turning the ancient harvest festival of Sukkot into a music festival! During the week of Sukkot, The Well hosted three concerts, our Charlevoix Shabba-tone (with it’s own Sukkot Sounds concert!), and supported six additional Sukkot Sounds gatherings, hosted by other organizations and individuals! All together, 200 unique individuals were able to experience Sukkot Sounds in its first year!

Click here to stream the professionally-recorded Sukkot Sounds concerts!

Putting Safety First

Since the beginning of COVID-19, we’ve pushed ourselves to come up with innovative ways to keep our community connected while being as safe as possible. Besides instituting policies for masking, social distancing, contact tracing, and vaccinations, this new landscape has led us to venture into new programmatic offerings.

We hosted two rounds of Micro Meet-Ups in August and October, where we host the same gathering for three consecutive weeks so that smaller groups of people can attend at a time. Over the summer, we launched Live Well, a series of programs that brought us outside to enjoy an active day while meeting new friends. We continued to host Shabbats and learning programs outside for young adults and families with young kiddos, and we implemented new hybrid event technology so our gatherings could be enjoyed by folks at home just as much as those in-person.

By the Numbers: January 2020 - November 2021

Over 400 gatherings supported or hosted by The Well

2,965 total attendees and over 500 unique attendees

Collaborated with over 40 partner organizations

year 5 annual report

Our fifth programming year marked our first formal evaluation (among many other exciting developments), so instead of our traditional report, we’d like to share the findings of a study conducted by American sociologist Tobin Belzer, PhD.

Coupling qualitative research funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation with findings from two recent studies commissioned by The Open Dor Project and the Union for Reform Judaism (which were also conducted by Belzer), we’ve been presented with the first comprehensive study of The Well and our participants.

We are so proud to showcase this study as a holistic review of The Well after our first 5 years, and hope you’ll enjoy taking a deep dive into the community and experiences that have made us who we are.

Click here to read The Well: A Study of the Community and its Participants

In addition, we’ve compiled some our favorite highlights from our 5th year. Click here to read The WELLness Report: Year 5 Highlights