PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE...
Janice B. Shatzman, President
Jewish Family Service
This past year has been critical to
Jewish Family Service in terms of meet-
ing today's challenges and preparing us
for the future. In the context of declining
resources, and escalating needs, which are
issues faced by most social service agen-
cies, we have been able to stretch our
resources, and tap info new ones to serve
populations at risk.
During this year, the Kresge
Foundation and the Community
Foundation of Southeastern Michigan
have awarded JFS a Van Dusen Challenge
grant in connection with WINDOWS, our
family violence prevention program. We
received a two-year grant from the
Michigan State Housing Development
Authority to provide permanent housing
designed to prevent homelessness. Our
financial assistance workers have been
able to obtain disability or other benefits
for some of our clients who were unaware
that such benefits might be available to
them.
In conjunction with the National
Council of Jewish Women -Greater
Detroit Section, we opened Safe Place, a
secure apartment to provide shelter for
Jewish women and children who are the
victims of domestic violence. Thanks to
the generosity of the Bielfield family, the
Jewish Hospice program has been created
as a joint project of the Hospice of
Southeastern Michigan and Jewish Family
Service. As the result of a grant from the
Max M. Fisher Jewish Community
Foundation, we have begun the search for
a Jewish community chaplain and are well
under way.
Our West Bloomfield office serves
more than 200 cases at any given time.
Our original three year lease will expire
soon. We have exercised our renewal
option, and the Board of Directors is com-
mitted to a West Bloomfield location.
We serve a cross-section of the Jewish
community. Our clients include a single
mother who is having difficulty with her
children, a middle-aged couple, neither of
whom are employed, and elderly individu-
als who wish to remain in their apartment
but are incapable of doing so. We provide
concrete services such as financial assis-
tance, homemaker services, respite care,
meals on wheels and various housing sup-
portive services. We provide individual,
family and group counseling services.
The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit, in collaboration with other Jewish
Federations, has appropriately determined
that Jewish continuity is a priority area
which requires the focus of the entire
organized Jewish community. It has been
the Jewish experience that Jewish tradi-
tions, values and memories are most
strongly conveyed in the context of the
family. As we work to promote healthy
family life in a Jewish context, we help
create the environment in which our
Jewish values and traditions can be car-
ried from generation to generation.
If you know anyone who needs our ser-
vices, please refer them to us at our
Southfield office, 559-1500, or at our
West Bloomfield office, 737-5055. If you
wish to volunteer, contact our Volunteer
Services department at 559-4046.
REGINA FEUER NAMED 1992-93
STAFF PERSON OF THE YEAR
JFS Staff Person of the Year, Regina Feuer
and Alan Goodman, Executive Director.
Each year, the agency designates a
specific staff person who meets the exten-
sive criteria established for this award. The
honoree should make a unique contribution
to clients and fellow employees through a
positive and helpful attitude; set an exam-
ple to others for high standards of profes-
sional practice and be open to personal
growth and development; embrace innova-
tion, make a conscious contribution
towards improving systems in the agency,
demonstrate a commitment to the agency
and add positively to the atmosphere in the
work place.
A committee including past honorees, the Executive Director and Associate
Executive Director carefully evaluated nominees against the stated criteria. Regina
Feuer, Restitution Worker, was named as the Jewish Family Service 1992-93 Staff
Person of the Year.
For the past 31 years, Regina has advocated on behalf of the victims of Nazi persecu-
tion, seeking restitution from the German government. She "retired" 13 years ago, and
now devotes two and a half days per week to the restitution process, a task which con-
tinues to be essential, given the numbers of former refugees who are now seeking
this assistance.
Congratulations Regina!
Is
OPEN!
This spring, the JFS WINDOWS program was significantly enhanced with the opening
of a one-family apartment shelter. Sponsored in cooperation with the National Council
of Jewish Women - Greater Detroit Section, SAFE PLACE, is an emergency apartment,
which provides a secure environment in which a battered woman may gain time to
begin to resolve her problems and plan for the future with the assistance of clinical
social work staff from JFS.
SAFE PLACE represents an essential addition to the cadre of services provided through
the WINDOWS program. Important components of the shelter are its safety and confi-
dentiality and the fact that it can accommodate a woman for whom kashrut is a consid-
eration. There will be no advertising of the location. A family's stay will be time-
limited.
Unlike a traditional shelter, SAFE PLACE provides a private, family-like setting which
may be less threatening than the more institutional shelter. The apartment is a viable
option for Jewish women who are in a battering situation and are reluctant to go to a
public shelter.
Volunteers provide the foundation for the shelter's success. An extensive volunteer
corps, trained and supervised by JFS staff, provides resources to the shelter and facili-
tates community awareness of the issue of family abuse. Although most of the oppor-
tunities do not involve working with clients, those who volunteer can chose from partic-
ipation in a speaker's bureau, engaging in advocacy work with the legal, medical or reli-
gious communities or assisting in the maintenance of the shelter. Close to 90 potential
volunteers recently participated in an initial training.
SAFE PLACE will be introduced to the community at an opening dedication on
Monday, September 20, 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Beth Abraham Hillel Moses in West
Bloomfield. The dedication will include the participation of TV 2 News Correspondent
Murray Feldman and will feature Ellen Ledley, LCSW, Director, Family Violence
Project of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles. Ms. Ledley recently co-authored
"Shalom Bayit: A Guide for A Jewish Response to Child Abuse and Domestic
Violence". The opening dedication is being planned by an NCJW/JFS committee
chaired by Lois Granader and Edie Resnick.
For general information about SAFE PLACE, contact Sandra Jaffa, Supervisor,
WINDOWS Program at 559-1500. For volunteer opportunities contact Elina
Zilberberg, Program Manager, Volunteer Services at 559-4046.
JFS "WINDOWS" APPROVED FOR
CHALLENGE GRANT
The endowment drive for the JFS
WINDOWS program is in high gear. This
spring it was announced that JFS was
accepted to participate in the Van Dusen
Endowment Challenge - a program devel-
oped by the Kresge Foundation, in part-
nership with the Community Foundation
for Southeastern Michigan, to help chari-
table organizations in the, metro Detroit
area gain long-term financial staViity
through permanent endowments.
Currently, 62 families are being served
through the WINDOWS program. WIN-
DOWS' unique approach combines inten-
sive therapeutic and environmental inter-
ventions in such a way as to enable family
members to prevent abusive behaviors.
As one of sixteen agencies selected for
the endowment challenge, JFS is working
closely with the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit to secure its endow-
ment goal of $2 million. If the goal is
achieved within the next three years, the
Community Foundation of Southeastern
Michigan and the Kresge Foundation will
provide operating support for that three
year fundraising period and additional
endowment monies of $666,000.
REVA STOCKER
ENDOWS LECTURE
SERIES
An endowment committee has been
formed chaired by Warren Coville, Irving
Nusbaum and Susan Citrin. A series of
dinner meetings have been scheduled for
the summer and early fall wherein
prospective donors will learn about the
WINDOWS ,program and the
endowment challenge.
For further information about the WIN-
DOWS program, please contact Sandra
Jaffa, Supervisor, WINDOWS Program at
559-1500.
Complementing the agency's Van
Dusen challenge grant endowment drive
for the JFS WINDOWS Family Abuse
Prevention Program, the Reva Stocker
Family Abuse Education Fund was recent-
ly established to support a named annual
lecture series. The series, which will be
held annually during the spring, will edu-
cate the Jewish community about the seri-
ous issue of family abuse. The first lec-
ture is being coordinated by the JFS
Educational Forum Committee,
and is planned for May, 1994.