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