24 | NOVEMBER 5 • 2020 

S

oon after she started working as the 
chief development officer for JVS 
Human Services three years ago, 
Sandy Schuster realized something about 
JVS’
 Women to Work program was familiar. 
Her own mother, Anne, had used JVS’
 
services in the early 1980s, when she 
returned to the workforce after 
raising her children and going 
through a divorce.
Now Schuster is preparing 
for a COVID-era version 
of Trade Secrets, an annual, 
well-attended fundraiser for 
that program. “Trade Secrets 
at Home” will be a one-hour professionally 
produced “real time” virtual presentation at 
7 p.m. Nov. 19, featuring guest speaker Suzy 
Farbman. 
The program will include a “Mind, Body, 
Spirit” raffle for a stay at a summer home 
in Charlevoix, a $4,000 gift certificate to 
Somerset and a 30-minute reading with 
spiritual medium Rebecca Rosen. The 
event’
s Signature Raffle will feature 10 sur-
prise baskets valued at a minimum of $200. 
Raffle tickets can be purchased online or by 
phone before Nov. 19.
JVS is encouraging event sponsors to host 
small, safe, in-person gatherings in their 
homes to watch the virtual program. JVS 
will provide “FUNdraiser-in-a box” pack-
ages with food and other gifts that will be 
available on the day of the event.
JVS provides business and career services 
for all job seekers, including vocational 
counseling and skills training. But the 
agency has long realized that women often 
need an extra boost to enter the workforce 
or to move up from entry-level or low-wage 
positions.
Originally called the Displaced 
Homemakers program, Women to Work 
was started in 1980, when women who had 
stayed home to raise their children were 
joining the workforce in large numbers. 

Now, notes Schuster, some women are 
returning to the working world after taking 
time off to care for elderly parents rather 
than children.
Technology is changing the nature of 
work so quickly that taking even a few years 
off can mean skills are outdated. In 2020 
and beyond, JVS is also teaching pandem-
ic-related skills, such as how to do virtual 
interviews and manage Zoom meetings.

ACHIEVING INDEPENDENCE
Since it started, Women to Work has helped 
close to 2,000 women of all backgrounds, 
races and religions.
Anne Schuster was divorced in 1973. 
Sandy, the oldest of her four daughters, was 
then 19; the youngest was in 
kindergarten. Though Anne, 
who died in 2005, had worked 
as a bookkeeper while her 
husband was in law school, 
she had had no formal post-
high-school training. After 
the divorce, she earned an 
associate degree at Oakland 
Community College and a junior account-
ing certificate at Pontiac Business School, 
then turned to JVS for help writing a 
resume, searching for openings and doing 
interviews.
Anne Schuster had several jobs after par-
ticipating in the JVS program. She retired 
after 15 years at the Michigan Employment 

Security Commission.
“She was able to support herself and live 
independently,
” Sandy Schuster said. “She 
found her own identity. That’
s what the 
Woman to Work program provides.
”
She said clients often come to JVS feeling 
embarrassed at their lack of skills. “Within 
a few weeks, we see their self-esteem rise,
” 
Schuster said. “They walk out of this pro-
gram feeling empowered. It’
s amazing to 
hear their stories about how the program 
changed their lives.
”
Guest speaker Suzy Farbman, who grew 
up in Detroit and graduated from the 
University of Michigan, was 
introduced to a wide audience 
by Oprah Winfrey after pub-
lication of her first book, Back 
from Betrayal, which chron-
icled the wisdom she gained 
from saving her troubled 
marriage. At the height of her 
success as an adviser on relationships, she 
was diagnosed with life-threatening cancer. 
Her second book, Godsigns, is about facing 
life’
s deepest spiritual challenges.
So far, JVS has raised more than $222,000 
for Trade Secrets at Home.
“I feel privileged to be raising money for 
a program that helped my mom and is now 
helping so many other women reinvent 
themselves,
” Schuster said. “The pandemic 
has affected more women than men, and 
they need our support more than ever.
”
The Farbman Group and HealthRise 
are presenting sponsors for Trade Secrets 
at Home. Other major sponsors include 
Annette and Jack Aronson, the DeRoy 
Testamentary Foundation, skinnytees, 
EHIM and Huntington Bank.
Sponsorships are available at all levels. 
Individual tickets, which include a food box 
and a skinnytee favor, are $150.
For more information, contact Sandy 
Schuster at sschuster@jvshumanservices.org 
or (248) 233-4290. 

IN 
THE
JEWS D

Sandy 

Schuster

The late 

Anne 

Schuster

Suzy 

Farbman

“THEY WALK 
OUT OF THIS 
PROGRAM FEELING 
EMPOWERED.”

— JVS’ SANDY SCHUSTER

Trade Secrets celebrates JVS’ 
Women to Work program.

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Empowering
Women

