AJFCA Winter Meetings

This past week, the AJFCA Annual Conference Committee and Board of Directors met in Naples, FL.  The conference committee continued its planning under the leadership of chair, Joel Litman, for an engaging and invigorating conference in Calgary, from May 15-17.  You will see more details below and much more to follow, but based on the excitement of the committee, you will want to be making your plans to join us in Calgary.

The board had substantive discussions on the functionality of our new website (currently in design), the value of AJFCA membership, and strategic thinking concerning the role and priorities of AJFCA.  These discussions will all continue over the next several months as we work to make AJFCA more responsive to its members and position ourselves to work on your behalf. 

JFS Growth in Collier County

While I was in Naples, I had the pleasure of spending time with Jackie Faffer, CEO of Jewish Family Services of Collier County, and her board of directors.  This is a small agency that is in a positive growth mode.  They are fortunate to have passionate lay and professional leadership who are working in tandem to increase and improve service delivery to the Naples area.  I am sure we will be hearing more about their successes in the months and years to come.

Faith-Based Roundtable

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I attended meetings of the Roundtable of Faith-Based Health and Human Services Organizations.  I joined with other senior executives from organizations like Lutheran Services in America, Catholic Health Association, United Methodist Association, and others, in discussing trends and issues that concern health and human service agencies across North America.  Over the next few months, we will be working on some joint efforts to address some of our common interests.  These joint efforts are likely to include webinars and trainings in areas like the implications of the ever-changing U.S. healthcare policies and regulations, and volunteer services directed to senior volunteers.  For me, the opportunity to take away good ideas and have hours of thought-provoking discussions is of tremendous value.

Jewish Disability Awareness Month

February is Jewish Disability Awareness Month.   This is a unified effort to raise awareness and support efforts to foster inclusion of people with disabilities and their families in Jewish communities worldwide. The mission of Jewish Disability Awareness Month is to unite Jewish communities and organizations for the purpose of raising awareness and supporting meaningful inclusion of people with disabilities and their families in every aspect of Jewish life.  Shelly Christenson, Program Manager of the Jewish Community Inclusion Program for People with Disabilities in Minneapolis, a joint program of our member JFCS of Minneapolis and their Federation, has been instrumental in organizing this awareness month over the past two years.  She has provided us with a fact sheet and the Tachlis of Inclusion 2011 to share with all of you.  Please consider making this February a special month in your community for awareness and inclusion activities.

JFCS of East Bay Gets Media Coverage

Many of our agencies have holiday gift programs that benefit families and children in their areas.  One such program is at Jewish Family & Children's Services of the East Bay (CA).  This agency received several stories in the local media, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Contra Costa Times and the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California.  These articles not only promoted the good work of the agency for the entire community, but also will hopefully help them in gaining even more community support in the future so they can serve even more people.  Congratulations to all.