Agency Highlights
Social Bullying
 What does social bullying look like among older adults? Not so different than among adolescents, with the exception of cyber bullying. Most common are gossiping and spreading rumors about another elder, making critical comments within the victim's hearing, or comments such as, "You can't sit here. I'm saving the seat for a friend." This type of behavior occurs in senior centers, in senior living communities, and wherever groups of seniors gather. Since Marsha Frankel, LICSW, and Clinical Director of Jewish Family & Children's Service of Greater Boston Senior Services and the Director of Mental Health last blogged about this topic more than two years ago, JFCS has been busy seeking effective interventions to make a difference in the lives of older adults.  | |
Marsha Frankel
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Last spring's incident of a 68-year-old bus monitor in upstate New York being bullied by 7th graders was posted on YouTube. It led to even more interest in the topic and questions about why the bus monitor did not speak up and why no one else intervened. JFCS has been developing approaches to help staff and older adults speak up when social bullying occurs. They have presented to senior groups including the Essex County Triad and Newton JCC Seniors and received very positive responses. Read more here.
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JFS Colorado Senior Solutions Launches AgeForward Consulting Services to Navigate Life's Transitions
 Jewish Family Service of Colorado's Senior Solutions department has helped many people age forward over the years through consultation services by helping families, couples, and individuals create a proactive game plan to ease the stress of aging and the unknown territory that comes with it. The focus has been on helping people maintain as much independence as possible while maintaining control over situations that occur as we age. In other words, if you want to take steps to be better prepared for the future, you can work with a geriatric consultant at JFS.  | |
Jennie L. Creasey, LCSW, Professional Senior Services Coordinator
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JFS is formalizing geriatric services with the launch of JFS AgeForward Consulting Services. For a fixed fee, master's-level geriatric specialists will create an individualized assessment of a client's situation and provide a plan of action and referrals, as appropriate. A working relationship with a consultants can be brief, as needed, or can become a long-term relationship, as many consultants are also geriatric care managers. Continue reading here.
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How to Communicate with Your Teen So They Will Listen - At Least a Little
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Meals in Motion
Jewish Family Service Agency of Las Vegas offers a Meals in Motion program. This program is designed to provide individuals with meals that are delivered directly to their home. Whether the client is a senior in the community, an individual that has recently been discharged from the hospital or anyone who wants the convenience of an easy to heat meal, this program is designed for them.  Meals are delivered within 24 hours of placing an order and payment processing. From now until December 1st, Meals in Motion is offering buy one get one free meals.
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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.
Breast Cancer Survivors: What You Need To Know About Recent Developments In Genetics
Oct., 29th, 8pm ET
REGISTER HERE
Campaigns as Experience of your Brand
Oct., 30th, 1:30pm ET
 Strategies for Building Strong Partnerships with Primary Care
Oct., 30th, 2pm ET
The ABCs of Open Enrollment for Behavioral Health Providers
Oct., 31st, 1pm EST
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Stay updated on AJFCA offerings, agency news & current trends . . .
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D'Var Torah Lee I. Sherman President/CEO
[This Shabbat message is based on a D'var Torah I gave earlier this week at the AJFCA - UIA-Federations Canada Conference in Toronto.]
A few months ago, I was taking my morning walk along a trail at my son's college in rural Ohio. I walked past an elderly man, actually moving at a pace slower than me, said a quick "good morning" and moved past. When I was another few hundred yards down the trail, I heard a loud, anguished scream come from behind me. The man had fallen and was writhing in pain on the ground. I ran back to him, and found him on the ground, his cap and glasses nearby, and his face with a couple of small wounds that were bleeding. He had fallen and, thankfully, mostly frightened himself. After a few minutes, I was able to stop the bleeding, help him get up, and walk him back to the spot where he had parked his car. He was fine, but somewhat shaken from the experience.
At this conference over the past two days, I, like many of you, have been wrestling with the many critical questions being raised about the Jewish community's approach to poverty. In this context, I have been thinking about the many passages of Torah in which we are instructed to care for the widow,the orphan, the stranger, the most vulnerable among us. So much of our text and and tradition instruct on the themes of tzedakah, tikkun olam, gemilut hasdim, etc. As Arna Poupko Fisher was speaking yesterday, I was thinking how this was so much of our common narrative.
This week, in parashah Hayyei Sarah, we read about death and burials, of family lineages, and about the building of a new relationship and family between Isaac and Rebekah. We see Rebekah as the embodiment of kindness, of welcoming the stranger, as she gives freely of water to Abraham's servant and his camels,and invites him without hesitation to sleep and eat at her father's home. Rebekah is truly dispensing love, gemilut hasadim. The phrase "random acts of kindness" has arisen as a description of good deeds. But, these acts are really not so random after all. An act of kindness comes from who we are, how we were raised, in Arna's framework - how we weave ourselves into our narrative of Jewish values and traditions.
This is what we learn from Rebekah in this week's parashah, what led me to help a fallen stranger on a path in the woods, what each of you do every day in your lives, both professionally and personally, and which will make possible the solutions to the deep problems we have been discussing here at this conference. Like Rebekah and Isaac, may you all live long lives dispensing love and making the lives of those we serve better and richer for your actions.
Shabbat Shalom.
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Making Improvements to HealthCare.gov
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Rule on Mental Health Parity & Addiction Equity Act 
We have learned that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will issue its final rule on the Mental Health Parity & Addiction Equity Act of 2008 within the next few weeks. As many of you will recall, for over two decades, AJFCA and our partner Jewish federations and Jewish family and children's service agencies worked arduously to obtain substantive parity legislation. The 2008 law builds upon the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 by updating the statute related to managed care changes that have altered the healthcare landscape. Please read this background about the Act in anticipation of the final rule and contact Shelley Rood with questions.
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AGENCY PROGRAMMING/OPERATIONS
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#MakeItHappen
#MakeItHappen invites individuals 18 and older to submit inspiring ideas for creating Jewish experiences in their communities. From hackathons to meet-ups, Shabbat dinners to service projects, this is an opportunity to get creative and show how small change can lead to big impact. Read more here.
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Introducing the Slingshot Class of 2013-2014
Slingshot has released Slingshot 2013-14 - its ninth annual guide to North America's top innovative Jewish organizations. The Guide, a go-to resource for volunteers, activists and donors looking for new opportunities and projects, will help ensure the Jewish community remains relevant and thriving. Continue reading here. |
"When nonprofits generate repeatable, predictable income, they have the resources to support their organization over time." Read the article here. |
PEPS Enrollment Opportunity 
AJFCA has entered into a collaborative agreement with JFCS Atlanta to provide licenses for the use of the PEPS Software System as a benefit of membership in AJFCA. If you are interested in being in cohort 3 or 4 (late spring-summer 2014), please fill out the PEPS survey by Friday, November 1st. We look forward to working with many of you to bring this exciting tool to your agencies. Please do not hesitate to contact Lisa Budlow with questions. |
Jewish Professionals Gather in Toronto for  National Canadian Conference
AJFCA and Jewish Federations of Canada - UIA co-hosted an inaugural pan-Canadian gathering of Jewish professionals at, "Jewish Communal Service in the 21st Century: Challenges & Opportunities in Canada," October 20th-22nd. Issues and topics of discussion included the vulnerable, experiential Jewish education and the broader issues affecting both Jewish social and communal services. Themes of common narratives that drive our peoplehood, the recognition of Jewish communal professionals as "heroes" in our communities, and the imperative of creating a single unified voice and vision emerged. This conference set the stage for ongoing dialogue between all sectors of the community. Read more about the Toronto gathering in Shalom Life. |
October AJFCA Member Agency Calls & Su rveys
- Agency Board Leadership - Creating a Talent Pipeline for your Board - Wednesday, October 30th, 1pm ET
- Domestic Violence Professionals - Combating Domestic Violence: Long-Term Planning for a Changing Landscape - Wednesday, October 30th, 2pm ET
- Jewish Residential Disabilities Services Survey - Monday, October 28th
- Addictions Survey - Friday, November 1st
Learn more about October AJFCA Member Agency Calls & Surveys here.
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A Large Donor/Board Member Expects to Have a Bigger Say in Board Decisions 
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COMMUNICATIONS & DEVELOPMENT
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Elements of a Successful Fundraising Effort 
The most challenging aspect of financial resource development is planning a successful fundraising campaign, but we only know after the campaign ends whether it was worth the effort. The value of all the hard work and good intentions that went into preparing the materials, training the solicitors, advertising in the media, and telling people's personal stories is only known once we look at the campaign results. Read more here. |
How to Inspire Donors to Make Planned Gifts
Nonprofits that want to inspire more of their supporters to make planned gifts should begin talking to them about estate planning when those donors are in their 40s, according to a new study. View the live discussion here. |
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Creating New Partnerships for Your Cause
We've all heard it before, "Give me your Rolodex, give me 20 names that I can contact." It can be overwhelming to produce a big list of people who are eager to raise money for your cause. But what if 20 names is 19 too many? What if all you need is just one? This is the idea proposed by philanthropist Jeffrey Walker and fundraising expert Jennifer McCrea in their recent book, The Generosity Network. Continue reading here. |
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COA's New Family Foster Care and Kinship Care Standards
The Council on Accreditation (COA) announced that their new Family Foster Care and Kinship Care Standards (Private, Public, Canadian) have been published to their website and are now available for us.! The standards cover a range of program models and advance effective practices for collaborating with children, youth, families, kinship caregivers, and foster parents to achieve positive outcomes. Learn more at the one of the following webinars:  - Nov., 7th, 2pm EST
- Dec., 11th, 1pm EST
To register click here. Use the search and filter feature. Search by "training type" (i.e. Webinar). Check the box next to this training and click "Register for Selected". You will receive an email confirmation with log in details upon completion of the registration process. |
From Black & White to Color: Interoperability as the New Norm 
What if all the specialists involved in your client's care were connected? What if you could see a complete record of your client's history across the spectrum of providers in your community? This vision is now a reality, and interoperability is the key. In five years it will be standard for all providers to share data electronically, but today, many of us are still in the dark about data exchange, figuring out how it will work and how issues like confidentiality will be addressed. How can a provider be expected to decipher the giant cluster of constantly changing regulations on compliance and interoperability?
Interoperability as the New Norm
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on Foundations, by Heather Peeler
