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DETROIT
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NEWS
TISHREI 5755/SEPTEMBER 9 , 1 9 9 4
The Waiting Game
CLOSE UP
Parents looking for Jewish daycare for infants have limited options.
JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER
woman has to be pregnant just to get
her name on the waiting list.
So Debbie Dunn, coordinator of the
infant/toddler program at the Jewish
Community Center, is used to hear-
ing: "I'm pregnant — but don't say
anything because I haven't told any-
one yet."
The JCCenter's program is one of
the few licensed Jewish day-care fa-
cilities in the area that accommodates
infants and toddlers under 2. And with
the increasing number of dual-parent
working families, that means it has
no end of interested participants.
Those interested in enrolling their infants at the Center
(the Maple/Drake facility can accom-
modate 24 children a day, while the Pen Kramer and
her daughter
Jimmy Prentis Morris building has
Allison:
care for 12) face a year-and-a-half to
looking for
two-year waiting list.
"Parents are frustrated," Ms. Dunn Jewish day care.
said. "For those who want their child
(infants and toddlers beginning at 2 months old) in a
Jewish environment, there just aren't a lot of options
out there."
"There is definitely a need," added Fredelle
Schneider, director of the Family Development Center
with the JCC. 'The problem is these programs are cost-
ly to run. The state requires a 4-1 ratio when caring
for the younger children.
"Staff burnout is also an issue. Working with this
age group is tiring. We are always trying to get staff."
Waiting lists at the West Bloomfield JCC are a phe-
A
nomenon that began with the day-care program's in-
ception in September 1982. Four months later, the pro-
gram was full. In March 1983, the waiting list began.
The same scenario has been duplicated in Oak Park,
where a program initiated last September was filled
two months later. Today, the waiting list is 25 names
long.
Many people work hard and know who their boss is.
But they want to know for Whom they work.
Smuggling Religion Into Work
JEFFREY SALKIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Story on Page 58
WAITING GAME page 8
Menorah House:
The New Borman
Jewish elderly to relocate before year's end.
Bar Mitzvah
There is a new aura at
Young Adult Division events.
Page 14
Reclaiming Life
Hardships don't have to be
dead ends for the chronically ill.
Page 30
Contents on page 3
RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER
t's written in stone.
Frank Wronski, owner of
the MediLodge Group, has
purchased Mt. Vernon
Nursing Center on Greenfield
Road in Southfield. The final
transaction, which took place
Sept. 1, assures Borman Hall
residents a Jewish home when
their Seven Mile facility shuts down
in five months.
'This will be a good beginning and
a good example of the type of inno-
vative ways the community can pro-
vide services to populations in need,"
said Robert Naftaly, Jewish Home
for Aged president:
JHA, an agency of the Jewish
Federation, operates Borman Hall
nursing home in Detroit, Prentis
Manor nursing home in Southfield
and Fleischman Residence assist-
ed living quarters in West
Bloomfield.
Last March, the Federation an-
nounced that Borman Hall, which
failed state health inspections and
encountered financial problems in
recent years, will close by 1995.
Margot Parr, JHA interim ex-
ecutive director, says residents of Robed Naftaly
Borman might be able to move into
Menorah House (Mt. Vernon) before contract stipulating that Mr.
the end of the year, when renova- Wronski would purchase Mt. Vernon
tions there are scheduled for com- and turn it into a Jewish home. He
agreed that the Southfield facility
pletion.
The decision to close Borman Hall would serve as a new home for res-
came with a Federation-MediLodge BORMAN page 10