 DECEMBER 10 • 2020 | 21

J

ewish Family Service of 
Metro Detroit (JFS), JVS 
Human Services and 
Kadima Mental Health Services 
have formally voted to begin 
analyzing a potential merger 
into one single agency. 
The evaluation, to take place 
in spring 2021, will explore the 
operational, legal and financial 
due diligence of a merger. If the 
merger is approved, the agen-
cies expect it will happen on 
July 1, 2021.
Key details of the poten-
tial combined agency remain 
unclear, including what it 
would be called, who would 
lead it, and how staffing and 
organization would change. 
Currently the three agencies 
offer a combined 125 services, 
ranging from career counseling 
to aging services to legal aid 
and assistance for adults with 
mental health disorders.
Combined, the three groups 
have nearly $40 million in 

assets, according to their most 
recent reported IRS filings 
($18.7 million from JVS, $13 
million from JFS and $7.9 mil-
lion from Kadima).
In a joint interview, the three 
agency heads said that a poten-
tial new organization would not 
stray too far from the current 
central mission statements of 
the social service nonprofits. 
“If a new organization hap-
pens, it would be a similar 
mission statement to any one of 
ours,
” Perry Ohren, CEO of JFS, 
told the JN. “Our mission is to 
help people within the Jewish 
community and the broader 
community with whatever help 
they might need. And that 
would be the mission of the 
new organization, to continue 
to do that.
”
Paul Blatt, President and 
CEO of JVS Human Services, 
echoed those sentiments. “One 
thing we recognized is that the 
three organizations’ missions 

aligned very well, which really 
helped us and guided us as we 
did our exploratory stage of 
this,
” Blatt said.
This announcement was 
made following two years of 
informal discussions, facilitated 
by the Jewish Federation of 
Metropolitan Detroit (JFMD), 
which is a partner organization 
to JVS and JFS. 
Blatt said the agencies felt 
they’
d arrived at a point where 
they could share the next phase 
with the community. 
According to Ohren, the 
evaluation will be a “big proj-
ect” that will include about 10 
work groups, each focusing on 
different tasks, such as client 
records and fundraising. Other 
evaluation tasks include brain-
storming what the possible new 
board of directors and organi-
zational chart would look like. 
“People on our staff will be 
working on this. We’ll be hir-
ing some outside firms who 
might have some subject matter 
expertise, we’ll be working with 
a consultant, and our boards 
are going to be involved,
” 
Ohren said. 
Ohren said that the merger 
isn’t being explored as a mon-
ey-saving initiative, but that 
staffing cuts and consolidations 
are still possible.
“In the process of doing it, 

sure it probably will save some 
money, and maybe we’ll have 
one less person over here or 
over there, but the intent is to 
put the best work the organiza-
tions do and the people who do 
that work together,
” Ohren said. 
“The intention is social impact: 
can we serve people better?”
All three said COVID-19 had 
no bearing on the announce-
ment, as merger talks were 
already underway.
Eric Adelman, CEO of 
Kadima, said that there was 
some thought of waiting 
until the pandemic was over 
to continue the discussions. 
Ultimately, they decided to con-
tinue the evaluation. 
“There was a lot of momen-
tum behind these discussions, 
and who knew how long the 
pandemic would last, so it was 
important to continue moving 
this conversation forward,
” 
Adelman said. 
Matt Lester, JFMD president, 
said the move makes sense. 
“I applaud the undertaking, 
particularly since it exempli-
fies a level of thoughtfulness 
and selflessness that you don’t 
always see in the nonprofit 
world,
” Lester said. “I think 
there’s a long way to go for 
them to determine if some 
form of collaboration, whatever 
that looks like, is prudent.
”
Ohren said the pandemic’s 
demands on all three agencies 
have shown how impactful they 
could be together. 
To Ohren, whether a new 
organization comes to fruition 
or not, these talks will be a step 
forward for the communities 
the three agencies assist. 
“No matter what happens, 
the community and the peo-
ple we serve will be better as 
a result of the process that 
we’re going through,
” he said. 
“Regardless of the end result, 
it’s going to be a better, more 
informed service for the people 
that come to us for help.
” 

IN 
THED
JEWS

Perry

Ohren

JFS, JVS and Kadima vote to explore 
feasibility, eye July 2021 completion.

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

Moving Toward
A Merger

Paul

Blatt

Eric

Adelman

