About the Event
About Sweet Sounds
Sweet Sounds is Gateways’ annual community event and fundraiser. Each year, we bring together our broader community to celebrate the efforts Gateways and our partners are making toward fostering a Jewish community that welcomes students with disabilities and diverse learning needs. One of the hallmarks of Sweet Sounds is a musical performance by talent from or affiliated with Gateways!
Nurturing Mental Health
This Sweet Sounds, we’re celebrating Gateways’ Mental Health Initiative! Since 2006 Gateways has served Jewish children with disabilities and diverse learning needs and their families. We provide direct supports in Jewish day schools, educate students and train teen volunteers in our Jewish Education Programs, and host professional development workshops for educators in the Greater Boston area and beyond.
Over the past few years, we have expanded what it means to promote Jewish inclusion, working from our long-standing partnerships with local educators and organizations to connect children, parents, community leaders, and educators with mental health services and education. Mental wellbeing is an essential part of every student’s success. By weaving mental health supports into our tapestry of Jewish inclusion, Gateways is embracing what it means to “support the whole child.”
Visit jgateways.org to read more about Gateways’ Mental Health Initiative.
Featured Speaker: Erica Komisar, LCSW
Erica Komisar is a clinical social worker, psychoanalyst, parent coach and author. With 30 years of experience in private practice, she works to alleviate pain from individuals who suffer from depression, anxiety, eating, and other compulsive disorders. By helping them live better lives and have richer, more satisfying relationships, she assists them in achieving their personal and professional goals and living up to their potential. Erica is also the author of the book Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters and has appeared on major media networks such as CBS, ABC, FOX, and NPR. She is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Daily News, and FOX 5 NY.
Featured Musicians: The Me2/ Orchestra
Me2/ (“me, too”) is the world’s only classical music organization created for individuals with mental illnesses and the people who support them. Me2/ serves as a model organization where people with and without mental illnesses work together in an environment where acceptance is an expectation, patience is encouraged, and supporting each other is a priority. Me2/ has a variety of ensembles who perform across the country, presenting classical and other works interspersed with compelling stories about life with mental illness. They have been featured on the NBC Today Show, WBUR, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and more.
About Gateways
Gateways: Access to Jewish Education provides a comprehensive set of services to students, families, educators, day and congregational schools, preschools, synagogues and organizations to promote the meaningful inclusion of individuals with disabilities and diverse learning needs in Jewish life. We exist to fulfill young people’s potential, enrich family life, strengthen greater Boston’s Jewish community, and help create new norms for diversity and inclusivity in the Jewish community at large.