You can become more involved with the ECE in several ways: as an individual, as a member of your congregation and community, and as a financial supporter.

Getting Involved As An Individual
You can learn more about the ECE in several ways. First, you can explore this web site. Here you will find stories about how ECE congregations have transformed themselves into Congregations of Learners, and Self-Renewing Congregations. Here you will find brief explanations of the ECE and some of the distinct assumptions and ideas that underlie our work with congregations across the country. Here you will find text-study opportunities that help you explore Jewish texts that will enrich your Jewish knowledge and give you a glimpse of the way text-study can become a powerful vehicle for revitalizing congregational life. And this web site will be evolving over the months and years to come. If you keep coming back, you will find new information, new resources, and new opportunities to connect with the ECE. Second, you can deepen your knowledge of the ECE's ideas and practical methods by reading the first three books that have resulted from the work of the ECE:

Click to purchase this book at Jewish Lights Publishing or Amazon.com.	The Self-Renewing Congregation (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2002) by Isa Aron. Based largely on the work of the ECE over the past 10 years, this book identifies organizational strategies for revitalizing congregations of all denominations and sizes. In order to become self-renewing, Dr. Aron suggests that congregations develop four "capacities" or abilities which include: being both reflective and proactive; practicing collaborative leadership with professionals and lay leaders; accommodating diversity while building one community; and balancing tradition and change. The book illustrates each capacity with examples from actual congregations across the country that are making significant progress toward revitalization.
Click to purchase this book at Jewish Lights Publishing or Amazon.com.	Becoming a Congregation of Learners: Learning as a Key to Revitalizing Congregational Life, by Isa Aron (Woodstock, Vermont, Jewish Lights Publishing, 2000). This book draws on the experiences of the first 14 congregations that participated in the ECE process. In it, Dr. Isa Aron, Founding Director of the ECE, sets out the key ideas that distinguish the ECE’s approach to synagogue transformation. Isa shares vignettes that illustrate what it means to be a Congregation of Learners, and a wealth of exercises, handouts, text-study materials, and vision statements that flesh out the practical realities of the ECE’s demonstrated five-step process of synagogue change.
Click to purchase this book at UAHC Press or Amazon.com.	A Congregation of Learners: Transforming the Synagogue into a Learning Community; Edited by Isa Aron, Sara Lee, and Seymour Rossel (New York, UAHC Press, 1995). This volume compiles papers of scholars, educators, and congregational leaders that laid the foundations for the ECE.

Getting Involved as a Member of Your Congregation and Community
The ECE is a congregational process. Congregations within a community (e.g., one metropolitan area) now participate in the ECE as a group, each congregation’s effort led by a task force of members. The decision to embark upon the ECE journey is one that must be made by a congregation’s professional and lay leadership. The project’s work with congregations in a community is typically funded in part by local foundations and may be supported through partnership with the local Bureau of Jewish Education.

Getting Involved as a Financial Supporter
The ECE is a grant-funded project. Our work has been supported through the generosity of several foundations, including: The Nathan Cummings Foundation, The Mandel Associated Foundations, The Covenant Foundation, The Gimprich Family Foundation, the Koret Foundation and others. Individual congregations also have been supported in their ECE work through other grants.
If you are interested, or know of an individual or foundation that may be interested in offering financial support to sustain and expand the work of the ECE, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss the possibilities. Please contact us at info@eceonline.org.