Project: Design a robust website and backend web application to bring An Ethical Start® into homes around the world Position: Creative Director & Project Manager Year: 2006 Accomplishments: See below Project Summary: See below
"Thank YOU for the amazing job you did to give us a visual image that is accessible to all."
"Just got a chance to look at the site, and I think it looks great - congratulations. To my mind the organization is very clear, and it navigates well."
— Chris Muller, Illustrator,
Creator & Illustrator of the Peer K. Explorer Books
An Ethical Start® Family Website Overview
Hillel says: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"
Pirkei Avot 1:14
Ben Zoma says: "Who is wise? The one who learns from everyone. Who is strong? The one who controls himself/herself. Who is rich? The one who is happy with what he/she has. Who is honored? The one who honors others."
Pirkei Avot 4:1
The JCC (Jewish Community Center) Association's An Ethical Start® empowers JCC Early Childhood Educators with authentic Jewish knowledge for teaching ethics to children. Th JCC Association supports the largest network of Jewish early childhood centers and Jewish summer camps in North America. It serves more than 350 JCC, YM-YWHA, and camp sites. Together, they represent a movement of vital importance to individual communities and to the larger North American Jewish community.
The website goal was to connect parents, teachers, students and communities into an international learning network based on the Jewish approach to learning based on passages from Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers (and Mothers), a classic Jewish text.
Project Sponsors and Funders: Steven Spielberg's Righteous Person's Foundation,
The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Awards Committee,
The Brill Family Charitable Trust,
The Covenant Foundation,
The Marcus Foundation
AKGold Accomplishments (Description by Andrew Gold)
Collaborate with the Team
AKGold Internet collaborated with Computer Creation Systems to create the An Ethical Start® Family Website. Building a successful online community requires a strong foundation and the roots of the An Ethical Start® Family Website are already planted in JCCs throughout North America.
I had the pleasure of working with some of the most inspirational and dynamic teachers and visionaries in the educational world today. Supporting the core team is an entire international network of Jewish educators, Jewish organizations, and the JCC Association's internal support staff. With the An Ethical Start® Family Website, we saw the opportunity to do something truly inspirational.
Clarify the Website Mission
My goal was to help An Ethical Start® create a successful website that would help the program connect together the community and become a powerful building block for the future growth of the program.
I strove to leverage all of the An Ethical Start® assets—the people, the materials, the vision, the network of JCC preschool teachers, parents students, and JCCs around the world.
The An Ethical Start® program had progressed from pilot stage in the late 1990's to a full curriculum complete with lesson plans, music CDs, child books, Peer K. Explorer and Dafna dolls, and a support staff. There were major educator conferences called Peer K. Academy and also a yearly Kadimah Conference.
Meet the Audience
I attended a teacher conference in Malibu where I was able to see the An Ethical Start® program in action. By interviewing teachers, parents and the An Ethical Start® team, I gained insights into the audience, the mission, and the possibilities.
Connect with Jerusalem and Israel
In Jerusalem, we came upon a clear vision for the An Ethical Start® Family Website.
Timeless Values was our way of bringing ancient pictures of Israel into the website and making the connection with the past. Because Jewish wisdom transcends time, we thought pictures of the places where the sages lived would add interest and engage parents, children and teachers all over the world. Simi Peters helped inspire this idea.
Collaborate with Technology
What started out being a simple website soon grew into a robust web application complete with user accounts, teacher accounts, an administrative backend, dynamic population of content, and more. Shammai's extensive backend in transactional web systems (Goldman Sachs, UBS, Citigroup and Frumster) enabled us to take exciting ideas and translate them into a workable web system.
Test & Improve the System
AKGold Internet was able to advance the project through the information architecture, structure, design, html template, and asset deliverable phase. I handed off the assets to the internal JCC Association team which is now in the process of making minor adjustments after testing the system with a wide variety of users.
An Ethical Start® Family Website will be launching soon and communities all over America will be using the most advanced technology in the world to connect with the ancient and timeless wisdom of the Jewish sages to help their children grow up with real values.
AKGold Asset Deliverables:
Proposal (w/timeline, milestones, process)
A detailed extranet site to manage every aspect of the project
Design/Usability/Branding Analysis
Information Architecture/Flowcharts
Completed HTML with new graphics for the An Ethical Start® Website
Completed HTML with new graphics for the Administrative Backend
