Agency Highlights
November is National Hospice Palliative Care Month
Reaching out to local communities is a daily activity at the more than 5,000 hospice organizations across the country. Every November, this activity is amplified as the nation's hospice and palliative care community observes National Hospice Palliative Care Month and raises awareness about end of life care and how palliative care empowers people to live as fully as possible, surrounded and supported by family and loved ones. This special month also allows the Jewish Social Service Agency the opportunity to salute the wonderful and important work of JSSA's Hospice program.
JSSA Hospice was founded
almost 30 years ago (and in fact 2014 will mark JSSA Hospice's 30th birthday!) and its mission remains unchanged today. We invite you to learn more.
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Wounded Warrior Careers Program transitions to Jewish Family Service Career & Employment Services
For the past five years, Jewish Family Service of Dallas' Career and Employment Services has developed a specialty of career services focused on meeting the unique needs of veterans. JFS is pleased to announce that the National Organization on Disability's (NOD) Wounded Warrior Careers Program (WWC) - has transitioned the responsibility of its local WWC program to JFS - adding a new program model to their CES services for veterans.
As part of this transition, NOD is providing specialized training for JFS career specialists so they can best serve as a helpful employment resource for veterans, disabled veterans and wounded warriors. The goal is to provide long-term support and career guidance so they can obtain and retain employment, while regaining self-sufficiency.
Read more here.
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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. Ask the Expert: Working With Remote StaffNov., 18th, 2pm ET REGISTER HERE  New Family Foster Care and Kinship Care Standards 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.
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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 It is likely that a week in Israel has affected my perspective on Jewish identity issues. With all of the discussion recently about the results of the Pew Research Center Survey of the U.S. Jewish community and the conversations I have been having with attendees at JFNA's General Assembly, the issue of whether and how American Jews are identifying has captured my attention. Despite all of the pessimism o ver the number of Jews who report having no religion, and the high intermarriage rate (71% in the non-Orthodox community), I remain positive. While in Israel, I met young Jews from all over the world who hunger to identify with the Jewish people in a variety of ways from cultural to social to spiritual.
This week, in parashah Va-yishlah, we read about the reconciliation of Jacob and Esau. Jacob is anxious about his first meeting with Esau after so many decades of estrangement, so much so that he cannot sleep and plans to keep his family protected from Esau and his entourage. Yet, when the two brothers reunite, they embrace, symbolically bringing together the extended Jewish family just two generations from its founding with Abraham. Jacob's fears were real, but they didn't stand in the way of a positive outcome.
There is no question that the Jewish community needs to work to be more inclusive and find ways for all Jews to participate. But, the young people I met seem ready to face that challenge, to build a Jewish community that is both welcoming and broad, and that will continue to grow from generation to generation, from strength to strength.
Shabbat Shalom.
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Our Inclusion Journey is Just Beginning
Our Inclusion Journey is Just Beginning, November 13, 2013, eJP, by Alan Gill
Meet Rachel and Dana. These Israeli women, both in their late twenties, experienced a life passage recently that for many occurs at a much earlier age: they signed leases to move into their first apartments all on their own. The twist? Rachel and Dana both have severe physical disabilities that at one time might have consigned them for life to state institutions. But today, that is not their destiny. Read more about inclusion efforts in the Jewish community.
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AGENCY PROGRAMMING/OPERATIONS
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Addressing the Needs of Seniors Caring for Adult Children with Disabilities 
Caring for older adults in need is a core value in the Jewish community. We know that serving seniors with care and dignity is a key service area to many AJFCA member agencies. But what about aging seniors who are caregivers for their adult children with disabilities? These clients have an additional layer of concern beyond their own care. Who will care for their adult children with physical and developmental disabilities when they are not able to? How can the aging parents ensure their disabled children are taken care of while also seeking increasing assistance with daily living themselves? A potential funder recently asked Lee about this issue. We feel sure that our member agencies are addressing the critical issue of caregiver transition planning in your communities, and we would love to hear what you are doing. Maybe you have healthy senior volunteers helping care for the adult children. Or you may be providing life coaching and training to the adult children to help them manage some of their own care. Potentially you are providing assistance to the aging parent in planning for the future.
Which strategies are the most successful? Please email Lee your effective strategies for addressing this growing crisis in our communities, including programs you are currently operating as well as any new programs you are planning to launch to address the issue. We would be keenly interested as well in ideas for how AJFCA can become involved in supporting your efforts. We are looking forward to making a difference to these aging seniors and their children with disabilities together.
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A Simple Question but So Hard to Answer: What Is Success?
A Simple Question but So Hard to Answer: What Is Success? November 13, 2013, Chronicle of Philanthropy, by Bill Shore
There are many good ideas to help nonprofits become more effective in solving complex social problems. They include capacity building, social enterprise, and public-private partnerships, just to name a few. But they are all just means to an end, and the more important issue is what does the end look like. It may be the most important question that usually doesn't get asked or answered: What is success?
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The Long-Term Proposition of
 Strategy Development Strategy, When It Isn't, Huffington Post, November 6, 2013, Irv Katz
While having a strategic plan has become de rigueur for large nonprofit organizations and typical for smaller ones, how many examine the purpose of their strategy development before they jump in. Continue reading here. |
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AJFCA Volunteer Professional Compensation Survey - Deadline Today
In response to the interest of network professionals in the "industry standard" for compensation in the volunteer field, AJFCA has launched a volunteer professional compensation survey.
Many of the survey questions used were based on the 2012 Jewish Communal Professional Compensation Survey, a summary of which can be found in "Toward Transparency."
Member agency volunteer professionals are encouraged to complete this survey by Friday, November 15th.
A link to the survey and more information regarding AJFCA's Volunteer Initiative can be found here. Please contact Jennie Gates Beckman at 410-843-7449 with questions.
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COMMUNICATIONS & DEVELOPMENT
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What Your Year-End Appeal Is Missing
What Your Year-End Appeal Is Missing, November 6, 2013, Network for Good, by Caryn Stein
At Network for Good, it's the season for fundraising appeal reviews. As part of Fundraising Fundamentals premium training, Network for Good looks at year-end fundraising appeals for hundreds of nonprofits to help them be the best they can be for the busy giving season ahead. All too often, these appeals fall short of packing the emotional punch they need to have to spur donors to act. Read more here.
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Keep Calm and Write It Down: How Reflective Practice Leads To Better Results for Nonprofits
Keep Calm and Write It Down: How Reflective Practice Leads To Better Results for Nonprofits, November 6, 2013, Beth's Blog, by Beth Kanter
 There are many different methods for reflective learning after completing an event, communications strategy, or program. One of the most valuable is to incorporate a process evaluation, capturing what actually happened as the event or program unfolded. You can always learn from documenting as an event unfolds and having a formal reflection or debrief post program or event. It isn't just about writing it down, it is also reviewing what you captured with your team. Read more here . |
 The Forward 50: A Year of Looking In - and Speaking Out
Two thousand thirteen has been an inside/outside kind of year, a time of agonizing introspection for the Jewish community as a whole, and one in which individual American Jews played dramatic roles on the national stage. It was a year of thrilling gains and heartbreaking loss, a year when new words crept into our vocabulary, some welcome, others not. Continue reading here for the full list of the 2013 Forward 50.
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