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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Generations of caring

Milestones for Jewish institutions

By: Kevin Rollason

Posted: 05/12/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Executive director Emily Shane (left) and president Heather Leonoff of Jewish Child and Family Services are celebrating the 60th birthday of the organization. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

Twin gala celebration

TO celebrate the twin anniversaries, the JCFS is holding a gala on May 24 at 6:30 p.m. at the Fort Garry Hotel.

Tickets for the evening, which features Juno award-winning jazz soloist Sophie Milman and a silent auction, cost $200. They can be purchased by calling 477-7430 or going to jcfswinnipeg.org .

Long before daycare centres became common, widowed Jewish fathers in Winnipeg could leave their children for the day at a Jewish orphanage while they went to work.

This was 1912 and some other Jewish families needed the orphanage to serve as a type of residential school where the children would stay for longer periods of time to be raised while getting a Jewish education.

As well, the orphanage served as an actual orphanage for children who had lost both of their parents.

One hundred years after the Jewish orphanage opened in Winnipeg's North End, Jewish Social Services is celebrating a century of caring.

As well, Jewish Child and Family Services, which the social services organization became when it amalgamated with other groups, is blowing out the candles on 60 years of service in the community.

JCFS president Heather Leonoff said the century of caring began when the Jewish community looked to see what was most needed by them.

Leonoff said the answer was an orphanage, but one that would also serve as a daycare and residential school.

And Leonoff said it would also serve the wider community. "It was our first social safety net," she said.

"But by 1918, when you have the flu epidemic, you have a huge increase in the number of kids needing an orphanage because parents were dying. And the community in 1912 was interested in not only assisting the Jewish community, but also open our services to everyone.

"We've been looking after one another for 100 years."

Leonoff said the JCFS was legally incorporated as a children's aid society in the province in 1952.

"It was a real vote of confidence by the provincial leaders and a mark of respect," she said.

"It is a fully mandated child agency and it reflects our Jewish values and Jewish heritage."

JCFS executive director Emily Shane said the initial idea -- to serve both the Jewish and the wider community -- continues to this day, but with a greater range of services. The services include counselling, community mental health, child welfare, foster care, adoption, financial assistance and services for older adults.

"We had about 2,000 cases in 2011," she said.

"With some families you could need child welfare, they could be a new immigrant family, they could have a grandmother with them and she might also have mental health issues. We can help families in many ways."

Shane said the organization isn't standing still and is preparing to launch into its next few decades by assessing whether its name captures what it does today.

"Child welfare is no longer our main focus," she said.

"We did a major needs assessment in the community and one thing that came out is, should Jewish Child and Family Services still be our name? But we also did this to see if we are doing the best job we can.

"It really boggles the mind when you think of all the services we do."

Shane said funding for JCFS comes from the provincial government as well as the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg/Combined Jewish Appeal, United Way Winnipeg and grants from the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 12, 2012 B2

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