AJFCA Newsletter
In This Issue
ADVOCACY
AGENCY PROGRAMMING/OPERATIONS
AJFCA MEMBER BENEFITS
BOARD RESOURCES
COMMUNICATIONS & DEVELOPMENT
SPONSOR
AJFCA Links
Agency Highlights

JSSA Hospice Volunteer to be Honored by Maryland Senior Citizens Hall of Fame

JSSA logo  
 
Jewish Social Service Agency  Hospice volunteer Rita Rubenstein will be inducted into the 2013 Maryland Senior Citizens Hall of Fame in October!
A volunteer with JSSA Hospice for the past three years, Rita Rubenstein has visited a variety of patients, bringing them companionship and comfort in the last stage of their lives.
rita rubenstein
For Rita, volunteering with people facing the end of their lives feels like a natural extension of her dream of becoming a nurse. A Holocaust survivor, Rita is all too familiar with death and wanted to "give back to the community." Prior to her retirement, Rita was an elementary school teacher and later a principal of a Yiddish school. She is a singer in a local group, and often sings and speaks Yiddish with her patients. Rita also likes to read short stories with patients. With one patient who lived in a nursing home and missed the outdoors, Rita took her outside on her weekly visits until the patient became bedbound. Then, they looked at nature together through the facility window, reading and singing about birds. Rita finds the work "very rewarding" and states that "it makes me feel wonderful."

Rita will be honored at the MSCHF Awards Luncheon on October 17th in Glen Burnie, Maryland.

 JFS Colorado Honors Community Members at 18th Annual 'Reel Hope' Fundraiser

JFS Colorado  

Jewish Family Service of Colorado will honor Norman Brownstein and Rabbi Steven and The Honorable State Senator Joyce Foster at its 18th annual benefit film screening, Reel Hope, on December 2nd.
Norm Brownstein
Norman Brownstein
Reel Hope supports all programs of JFS, including mental health counseling, senior and adult in-home care, disability and employment services, and family safety net services.
Steve and Joyce Foster
Steve & Joyce Foster

Community members are invited to pay tribute to Norm Brownstein as he receives the 2013 Kal Zeff Business Leader of the Year Award, and the Fosters who will accept the 2013 Jack Shapiro Community Service Award. Read more here

Calls & Webinars
Visit  AJFCA's Calendar
to learn more about free calls and webinars. For more information login to For Our Members on the AJFCA website, followed by Webinars. Contact Megan at 410-843-7327 with questions.

Whole-Person Care as We've Never Imagined
Sept., 3rd, 2pm ET
REGISTER HERE NetSmart

Care Transitions in Behavioral Health

Sept., 4th, 11am ET  REGISTER HERE

Sept., 4th, 3pm ET REGISTER HERE

Sept., 9th, 2pm ET
REGISTER HERE

Sept., 12th, 12:30pm ET REGISTER HERE
national council behavioral health

Helping Children Recover from Trauma
Sept., 5th, 2pm ET
REGISTER HERE
Stay updated on AJFCA offerings, agency news & current trends . . .
Join Our Mailing List

August 30, 2013 
About AJFCA | News
Find a Service Near You
Members | Jewish Connection
Annual Conference | Job Postings
  Young Girls
  
D'Var Torah

Lee I. Sherman
President/CEO 

In a few days, Jews throughout the world will participate in the largest Jewish communal gatherings of the year as we attend our High Holiday services. It is a time to share sacred time and space with our fellow Jews, as well as a time for personal reflection and prayer. As the opening verse of this week's Torah portion reminds us, we will be "standing together" as a community before God.

This week's double parashah, Nitzavim-Vayeilekh, describes the penultimate events before the Israelites enter the Promised Land, and more of Moses' address to the people before his death. In verse 30:19, Moses says "I call heaven and earth to witness you today: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse - therefore choose life...."  This may appear to be a simple enough choice, but it is much more than a question of choosing to live over dying. We are reminded that each of the choices we make do matter. We have been given this wonderful opportunity of life and we have the power to make decisions and take actions that will make the most of it.

Certainly, people around the globe are born into a variety of circumstances, some more "fortunate" than others. But, each of us is born into a community, now more than ever a global community. This communal life requires us to live our lives in a way that respects and appreciates our place among others. As we stand together before God in our synagogues next week, just as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai and on the verge of entering the land, it will be with the knowledge of our place among one another that commits us to doing all that we can in the coming year to make our communities better by choosing life. It is a good way to begin and work throughout the year.    

Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah.
shana tova
This year, may we all find our inner go-getter,
resolving to make the world even better!

Warm wishes for a sweet New Year,
From our friends at the Charles and Lynn Schusterman
Philanthropic Network
ADVOCACY
Editorial:  The Sequestration's Jewish Toljewish daily forwardl 
A recent editorial in The Forward discussing the effects of sequestration on the Jewish community features input from Nancy Volpert, Director of Public Policy
for JFS Los Angeles. Read the editorial here.
Shoah Victims' Names Recovery Project 
Since 1955, Yad Vashem has worked to fulfill its mandate to preserve the memory of the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust by collecting their names, the ultimate representation of a person's identity.
shoah names project
Millions of victims remain unidentified. Yad Vashem urgently calls upon Jewish communities to recover their names through a worldwide Names Recovery Project. Learn more here.
High Holiday Resources 
Jewish Women International's Clergy Task Force on Domestic Abuse in the Jewish Community has several resources for your congregation this holiday season: A mishabarech for families experiencing abuse; shma kolenu, a short prayer for victims of abuse; and a text-based guide that explores the concept of sukkat shalom, a home of peace and security for use during Sukkot. Continue reading here.jwi banner
AGENCY PROGRAMMING/OPERATIONS
Philanthropy-Not Even the Same Stream Once
The Nonprofit Quarterly is going to press with this issue on the changing landscape of philanthropy immediately after the 2013 Giving USA report was released. The report confirms that the much-touted recovery from the recession that began in 2008 is only very slowly being felt in charitable giving. Putting this in perspective, in 2008, philanthropy was at its highest level ever, but the dive it took was precipitous, at about 15 percent in 2008 and 2009 combined-adjusted for inflation-and the climb back up may be so steep as to slow us nearly to a crawl. Continue reading here.
Facing the Future: How Successful Nonprofits Link Strategy to Leadership Development bridgespan
Nonprofit leaders make leadership development such a high priority, yet they give themselves low marks for execution. What accounts for the gap between aspiration and achievement? They often don't specify the leadership qualities that will most strongly influence the organization's future impact. Continue reading here.
Netsmart Releases White Paper: The Opportunity with Primary Care Integration NetSmart
Netsmart, the leading provider of clinical solutions for health and human services organizations nationwide, recently announced availability of a white paper, "The Opportunity with Primary Care Integration." The paper outlines the vital need for integration between primary care and behavioral health providers. As more and more consumers flood into the healthcare system, it's more critical than ever that these two areas work in concert together to bring about improved outcomes and lower healthcare costs. The white paper is available for download on the Netsmart website. Read more here.
AJFCA MEMBER BENEFITS
AJFCA 2014 Annual Conference - Request for Workshop Proposals
The 2014 AJFCA & IAJVS Annual Conference is a two and a half day interactive and informative experience for professional and lay leaders from AJFCA and IAJVS member agencies throughout North America and Israel. Agency leaders share their common experiences in leading Jewish family service and vocational agencies in their communities and learn together interesting and innovative ideas from the field.

AJFCA is seeking workshop proposals that will enhance the conference theme:  Inspiring Creativity in a Changing World by challenging attendees to examine current practices and adapt to compete today and in the future. The Conference will have five areas of focus:
  • Agency Operations
  • Clinical Programming
  • Fund Development & Marketing
  • Board Leadership
  • Volunteer/Young Adult Engagement 
Prior to submitting, please carefully review the RFP Guidelines. Click here to access the Workshop Proposal Form.

Please complete Workshop Proposal Forms by Wednesday, September 25th. If you have any questions, please email Sandra Rosenbaum.
PEPS Software - Indication of Interest PEPS logo
AJFCA has entered into a collaborative agreement with JF&CS Atlanta to provide licenses for the use of the PEPS Software System as a benefit of membership in AJFCA. Per our agreement with JF&CS Atlanta, we can create up to 25 new web portals for the use of PEPS each year. This limitation is in place to ensure that we have the resources to get each agency that signs up onto the system, trained and ready to use it in a timely manner. Learn more here, by logging into the Member Resources portion of the AJFCA website.
AJFCA Job Posting:  Director of Older Adult & Disabilities Services ajfca logo-resized
The Director of Older Adult & Disabilities Services will develop and implement North American initiatives in the areas of Older Adult and Disabilities Services, creating widespread momentum around each of these service areas. The Director will work closely with member agencies to support their local efforts to serve seniors and clients with disabilities. S/he will position the AJFCA network to lead in the field of older adult and disabilities services by staying on the forefront of trends in needs and service provision and communicating trend information throughout the network and to the larger community.
BOARD RESOURCES
Preparing the Board Leaders of Tomorrow by Involving Youth in Governance Today NPQ
Do you ever wonder where tomorrow's board leaders will come from? How they will be prepared? Whether they will be as dedicated as the leaders of today? Identifying, recruiting, and preparing board members for the future, has always been a considerable undertaking for many nonprofits. Continue reading here.
COMMUNICATIONS & DEVELOPMENT
Addressing the Nonprofit Fundraising Elephant in the Room social velocity
If we truly want to ensure that more money flows to the organizations that are most effective at achieving social change, then we must address the elephant in the room: how nonprofits are funded. Continue reading here.
One-Page Scrolling Web Sites: A Great New Way to Tell a Story chronicile of philanthropy
One of Matthew Scharpnick's favorite ways of telling a story right now is the one-page scrolling site. While a Web site is a somewhat comprehensive showcase of everything related to an organization, certain campaigns, events, and other efforts require a different look and feel and need to stand out from the clutter. Increasingly these one-page scrolling sites are popping up to tell stories in interesting new ways. Read more here.
Pump Up Your Nonprofit's Facebook Page with These 10 Tips network for good
Here are 10 ways you can pump up your nonprofit's Facebook page:
  1. People join Facebook to connect with their friends and families, not with companies, so make sure you communicate like a real person.  
  2. Facebook success isn't about how many friends you have or how many "Likes" you get; it's about actions. Do your fans do what you want them to do? Do you reach out to them so that they come back to your page?   
  3. You must be relevant, interesting, concise, responsive, and add value. Ninety-percent of people who "Like" a page never visit it again, so give fans a reason to keep coming back. Interact, ask for input, and make sure social media links are on all of your materials: emails, websites, event registration pages, you name it.

Continue reading here.

SPONSOR
Meet Sharsheret's AJFCA Partners of Excellence
Sharsheret is proud to recognize our AJFCA Partners of Excellence who coordinate successful culturally-relevant and community-based breast cancer and ovarian cancer support and education programsharsherets with the guidance of Sharsheret. Partners of Excellence receive financial support and national recognition of their culturally-relevant support and education programs. 
To learn how your organization can become a Partner of Excellence, email Link Program Coordinator Adina Fleischmann
Donate SponsorsSupport AJFCA :: JFNA :: Accreditations
Contact Us :: Transparency :: Privacy Policy