Our mission is to enrich Jewish communal life in North America by addressing important issues relevant to the development of policy, program, and practice. We regard the JCC Movement, as well as American Jewish leadership in all its varieties as the principal audience for our work. The scope of our research will be consistent with the spirit, concerns, and expertise of the volunteer and professional leaders of the JCCs of North America and JCC Association. Our goals are: To serve as a resource to the JCC field by providing institutional data as well as providing assistance in the conduct of policy-relevant and practice-oriented research and program evaluation; To generate creative, insightful and influential ideas; To undertake research to test and refine those ideas; To highlight important issues, develop them and elucidate policy implications; To disseminate the results as widely as possible through all appropriate constituencies To accomplish these goals, we will engage lay leaders, professional practitioners, academics, and other thoughtful individuals who are expert in our work and in Jewish life. We believe that deliberations among all of these intellectuals will produce thoughtful, relevant ideas, draw accurate and useful implications, and be influential in disseminating the results of the research. We regard the dissemination of findings and implications throughout the JCC movement and the American Jewish community to be of prime importance.