UJA-Federation funds more than $140 million a year to support a vast array of life-enhancing programs across the world. But we don’t frequently enough experience the power of these programs in our own hallways.

The past two weeks were very different.

This past Wednesday, I attended the “graduation” of three UJA interns, young people in their 20s and 30s with disabilities, who joined us as part of the UJA-supported JCC Manhattan Adaptations’ Just One Job program.

The interns rotated through multiple departments over the course of six months, learning valuable professional and social skills in a supportive environment. A job coach from the JCC worked onsite to provide daily counseling to both the interns and their supervisors.

One of the interns, who struggles with socializing, felt that he had made progress in skills many of us take for granted. Another discovered his passion for the food industry — and has now secured a full-time position with our catering service. (The other two are currently interviewing for permanent positions at UJA.) All expressed a sense of deep personal accomplishment and were grateful for the warmth and acceptance they felt at every turn.

And we felt lucky to have them. Environments that promote inclusion for people of all abilities enhance the lives of everyone involved. These interns challenged some of our professional assumptions about how to best accomplish our work, and we all grew. This is how community is built.

Yesterday, UJA’s mission came alive again in our halls at a sold-out “Coffeehouse” for Holocaust survivors, a program of our partner, Selfhelp Community Services. Survivors and volunteers filled our conference center — eating, drinking, singing, and dancing, spending an incredibly beautiful afternoon together.

And last week, we opened the doors of UJA to any organization that wanted to visit and discuss a communal priority. UJA senior staff and our president, Jeff Schoenfeld, cleared our calendars for the day to meet with over 100 people from 56 organizations, including some we’d never spoken with before.

Visitors were encouraged to leave comments on post-its on the wall. Here’s a sampling of what was left behind:

— How can UJA help to amplify support for LGBTQ Orthodox Jews?

— Surprise! There are 18- to 25-year-olds on Long Island. Now what?

— Can we have a safe conversation about Israel with all voices included?

— Supporting Holocaust survivors on Long Island

— JCCs + synagogues collective strategy for Jewish engagement

These important conversations will help sharpen our strategic priorities for the coming year as we look to address unmet needs in the community. Also noteworthy were the connections taking place in the “community room” we’d created, where very different groups — who’d never interacted before — had the opportunity to learn from each other.

Over the span of 10 days, our 59th Street headquarters modeled the community we strive daily to help build for New Yorkers and Jews everywhere. More fundamentally, as we begin our second century, we’re committed to living our mission in our own halls more regularly, and pushing ourselves to be more creative and impactful — inside and out.

Shabbat shalom