The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and eight of its social welfare and health care agencies have launched a massive new effort to halt and reverse suffering among this city’s economically disadvantaged and vulnerable Jews, it was announced by Herbert Wander, Federation president.
The actions, authorized June 27 by the Federation Board, are budgeted at $715,000. They were called the “first phase” of response to a Federation study which identified some 37,000 economically disadvantaged and vulnerable Jews living in the Chicago area.
The study, known as the “Planning Project on Services to the Economically Disadvantaged,” was undertaken by the Professional Review Committee, a group comprising the executives and key staff of the Federation’s major health and social welfare agencies in response to a charge from the Federation’s Social Welfare Committee. It recommends 66 programs to bridge service gaps and improve programming for the Jewish poor. Wander said.
SERVICES MOST NEEDED
The report noted that the services most needed by the economically disadvantaged include home delivered meals, social service counseling, job skills, nutrition programs, residential treatment, vocational rehabilitation, homemaker and home-health care services and specialized transportation. This marks the first time since the Great Depression that needs for such basic services have been so high, the report stated.
The Board action called for the implementation of 15 additional programs which will be fully operative within six to 12 months. They are primarily designed to assist two populations especially hard hit by economic pressures and reductions in government aid — families with children and the elderly.
The program will bring total Federation and agency funding of programs for the poor and near-poor to more than $28.7 million in fiscal 1983-84. The bulk of Federation and agency funding is provided by the Jewish United Fund, now in the midst of its 1983 Campaign. Federation also receives substantial funding from the United Way/Crusade of Mercy.
The total cost of adoption of the project’s other longer-term recommendations had not yet been fixed, but may require several million dollars. Some of the proposals will take several years to implement, Wander said.
“In our first phase we must deal with the most critical issues — those of the physical and spiritual survival of our people,” Wander said. “It is precisely because these needs are so basic that they can be addressed successfully on a short-term basis.”
The Federation agencies are: Council for Jewish Elderly, Jewish Children’s Bureau, Jewish Community Centers, Jewish Family and Community Service (JFCS), Jewish Vocational Service, the ARK, Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center.
Of the allocation projected for Phase One, $100,000 will be added to the emergency cash assistance funds administered by the Jewish Family and Community Service, the Council for Jewish Elderly, and the ARK. Another $100,000 will help provide interest-free loans to enable individuals or families who fall on difficult times. The Uptown/Lakeview multi-service center scheduled to open late this year will expand needed services to an area with a high concentration of Jewish poor and elderly. The “Crisis Hotline” will direct callers to the appropriate services and provide immediate intervention if required.
The six programs aimed specifically at assisting families will provide day-care subsidies, outreach services to families requiring after-school child care, and create a Job Resource Center to train unemployed householders in job search, resume writing and interview techniques. A program of “survival counseling” stressing financial planning, budgeting and appliance repairs will help families stretch their resources more effectively.
PROGRAMS BENEFITTING THE ELDERLY
The five programs benefitting the elderly include outreach programs to homeless “bag” people and to Jews in private nursing homes and hospitals in isolated areas of the city and in facilities for the handicapped; expansion of sheltered workshop, employment and general social services programs in areas of greatest need; and expansion of in-home services such as those provided by homemakers and health care aides.
In all, Wander said, the programs represent “major undertakings that will effectively change the landscape of service availability in Chicago.” He noted that the recommendations stress the need to deliver services in ways which will not destroy a client’s dignity.
“Many disadvantaged clients are very proud and would rather suffer more acute poverty than see themselves as accepting charity. Therefore, we have to be particularly careful to provide services in a way that will allow them to keep their dignity and make their own contribution, through nominal payments and volunteering their time, if they wish to.” Wander said.
MORE PEOPLE SEEKING AID
“People often are so ashamed that they refuse to seek help,” added Betty Dayron, JFCS district administrator. “But now that the warm weather is here, people in need of emergency care are coming to us in increasing numbers. Many of them have no home. They need money to get a place to live so that they will have the address required to apply for General Assistance welfare.”
“On $144 a month plus food stamps, (the General Assistance grant), a person can’t pay for all the necessities,” Dayron said. “When we estimate cash needs, we have to include the quarters needed for washing machines so that these people can launder their clothes. They’re dirty and they know and hate it.”
While most of the project recommendations are directed toward client needs, Michael Mitchel, chairman of Federation’s Social Welfare Committee, said that one of its most significant sections goes beyond the remedial and even the preventive.
“It considers government attitudes which impact on the shape and nature of the service environment itself and it recommends allocating resources to carry our concerns to the city, state and federal bodies which determine the situations and the manner in which our agencies will function. While this cannot be an immediate priority, it is of immense long range importance,” Mitchel said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
