Operation Understanding
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Operation Understanding
Operation Understanding was established in 1985 by William H. Gray III and George M. Ross with the goal of developing young African American and Jewish leaders to help build bridges across the communities of Philadelphia. Each year, this cadre of future leaders is exposed to cross-cultural experiences, including a summer study-tour to sites of historical and cultural relevance to both groups.
Students are then trained in leadership and professional facilitation skills to promote diversity and understanding, becoming ambassadors of Operation Understanding as peer and community educators. Operation Understanding is sponsored by the American Jewish Committee and Urban League of Philadelphia.
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Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
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What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Operation Understanding identifies potential leaders, exposes them to cross-cultural experiences including a three week summer-study journey to NY and points throughout the south to explore the roots of the civil rights movement, and provides them with the leadership and facilitation skills to promote understanding. As youths get to know one another, preconceptions and mistrust can be transformed into friendship and respect. Through exposure to, and education about, each other's cultures, they come to appreciate the differences and similarities between their backgrounds. Participants reach over 2,000 members of the greater Philadelphia community each year with their message of respect for difference. The ultimate goal is that students use the lifelong relationship created during their OU experience and with their allies remain committed to social justice and civic engagement throughout their lives.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
The OU Ambassadors program 16 month program consists of:
The highlight of the program is an all expense paid 3 week summer study-journey. Participants travel throughout the east and southern United States to explore the shared history and unique cultures of the Jewish and African-American people. This ‘two-community model’ serves as a jumping off point for participants to understand a broader picture of diversity, history and leadership in this country and where they fit into the ‘big picture’. Participants confront ideas and assumptions about race, ethnicity, privilege and so much more head on complicating their understanding of these issues beyond the normal superficial treatment.
Participants are then trained to put the lessons learned during the trip portion of the program into action during the senior year of service. Early on participants commit to engage communities in discussions of diversity throughout the greater Philadelphia area to fulfill the OU mission of diversity education. Senior year is when the OU Ambassadors truly grow into their roles as models of effective cross-cultural engagement.
During their Senior Year of Service OU participants hone their leadership skills spreading a message of respect for difference with over 2,000 community members each year. OU plants the seeds for life-long connections – cultivating allies, building bridges and forging lasting friendships across cultural, racial, and religious borders.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Operation Understanding achieves its goals by recruiting candidates with strong leadership potential and providing them with teachers, models and mentors that have achieved a level of leadership in their own professional lives. OU provides extensive opportunities for participants to gain mastery to communicate on behalf of issues of social justice and facilitate conversations that effectively complicate the conversation regarding race, gender, religion, racism, anti-semitism, and the many other 'isms' that complicate relations between neighbors.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Since the founding of Operation Understanding in 1985, the model of Operation Understanding has been duplicated in more than 4 cities throughout the country and at the University of Pennsylvania. OU has graduated over 500 leaders serving over 50,000 communities over the past almost 30 years. These leaders are leaders in their professions, active members of their communities, and leaders in civic life. They teach their children about respect for diversity and maintain the relationships they developed during their experience many years before during their OU experience.
The original mission still resonates, perhaps even more so when it seems that the challenges are greater and the stakes higher. By inspiring compassionate, knowledgeable individuals who are ready to serve, prepared to lead and eager to make a difference, the effects of Operation Understanding are widespread.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Operation Understanding
Board of directorsas of 04/29/2019
James Sanders
Reed Lyons
Max Cooper
SETH SHAPIRO
Natalie Mayer
JUSTIN GRAY
English Willis
Susan Levy Warner
Sy Nicholson
Allyson Davis Eastman
Tony Payton
Reed Lyons
Deborah James Vance
Ellen Rosenberg