Project Guidelines

The Jain Leadership Forum, www.jainleadership.org, is dedicated to guiding the Jain Community in North America from success to significance. It focuses on the 4E’s: Energize the Jain organizations, Educate Jains and Non-Jains, Expand Jain practices, and Evolve the Jain Way of Life.

A set of matrices on Jainism in North America has been developed to achieve these goals based on the 2021 LRP-Jainism survey available at www.jwol.org. To make progress on these metrics in a systematic manner, a set of collaborative projects needs to be developed. The following are guidelines for these projects:

Request for Novel Ideas:

Individual champions from the Jain Community and affiliated with Jain Centers in North America (JCNA) and Jain organizations in North America (JONA) are requested to propose novel ideas. These ideas can be either for conducting a PILOT PROJECT or SCALING UP an existing project, utilizing the Plan-Do-Study-Act Methodology as the ePDSA tool. The ePDSA tool is a simple form where applicants present the problem, a SMART aims statement, a set of measures, and the team involved.

Presentation at the Forum:

Champions will present the proposal at the Jain Leadership Forum in Chicago. The project must have a JCNA or JONA affiliation. Funding will be provided to/through the JCNA or JONA. Projects and the amount of funding will be selected by a project team based on donors and feedback from the Jain Leadership Forum. 

Administrative Support and Funding:

LRP/JLF will provide administrative assistance for the project and funding for 1 year in the range of $500 to $5,000. Over 6-12 months, activity metrics will be recorded and shared in real-time with the JLF Team. The project outcome will be evaluated at the Jain Leadership Forum-2025 and based on the run-charts on the PDSA format. 

Examples of Projects:

The guidelines should include specific criteria to evaluate the proposed projects to ensure they align with the 4E’s and contribute to the overall objectives of the Jain community vision. 

SUGGESTED BY PROJECT CHAMPIONS

1. Increase vegetarian and vegan options at college campuses – YJA
2. Increase recycling among Jains and Jain Sangs – YJA
3. Increase volunteerism among Jains for the local non-Jain community – pilot in Chicago-JSMC  By Piyush Gandhi Project Lead 
4. Increase the membership of the YJP contact list – YJP
5. Achieve Professional Excellence – Dipak Jain and Prem Jain 

UNDER CONSIDERATION BY PROJECT CHAMPIONS 

1. Increase the number of formally educated Jains, including Pathshala teachers in NA from 100 to 300 – Parveen Jain Arihant Academy 
2. Bring Academic Scholars for a conference and increase students’ learning about Jainism at colleges – Dr. Ellen Gough -Emory University 
3. Streamline technology for all Jain Center – vendor-based project 72 centers for Jains- JAINA Leadership 
4. Help Jain Centers on how to Fund-Raise and innovative ways and best practices for fundraising  JAINA Leadership 
5. Make JAINA Self-sufficient about 150K/year – JAINA Leadership 
6. How Jain Center Leaders learn technology and how to learn financial accounting – best practices. Chicago/JAINA
7. Adopt native language learning for Jain Center- Chicago Jain Center 
8.  Multifaith couples engaged in the Jain community and Jain values 
9.  Increase the list of JAINA contact members from 20,000 (10% of 200,000 Jains) to 40,000,  20% Jains in North America – JAINA Leadership 

Overall, these recommendations aim to enhance the clarity, transparency, and effectiveness of the project guidelines for the Jain Leadership Forum in 2024.

Definitions:

Jain Centers in North America (JCNA) – These are some 70 Jain Centers and respective temples that form the federation of JAINA, including YJA, and YJP. 

Jain Organizations in North America (JONA) – There are academic institutions like Arihant Academy or Temples not affiliated to JAINA such as Jain Center of New England, or Academica centers with Jain Chair like Emory University Religion organizations and Jain Foundations, JITO and other.

SMART – stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound. 

PDSA – Plan Do Study Act 

ePDSA – Electronic PDSA form 

Deadline and Time Milestones:

February 10 – Guidelines are emailed to all – JAINA newsletter

February 10 – March 15 – Recruit champions

March 23 – Orientation call for champions and potential champions, Second orientation all 

March 27 – Deadline for request for presentation 

April 7 – Sunday – presentation in Chicago in person or via Zoom

Decision April 15 – Amount of funding and support from JLF/LRP.

Mr. Satej Shah
(847)630-2529

Ms. Pragati Jain
+91 8827799412