A regional approach to coordinating Soviet-Jewish resettlement activities is under way in the Baltimore-Washington-Norfolk area, it was reported by the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds Representatives from these areas met recently as a regional steering committee and agreed to establish an Outreach Program to involve smaller Jewish communities in resettlement.
According to the CJF report, it was agreed that a committee of lay and professional workers will talk to the leaders of neighboring communities, with each small community being encouraged to accept at least two Soviet Jewish families. The steering committee undertook to establish a job bank and to publicize, on a monthly basis, a list of jobs available and a compilation of those individuals for whom employment has not been found.
The list will be circulated throughout the area, and if an individual and a job can be matched the communities involved will work out an arrangement whereby the family can be transferred and still continue to receive the services it requires. The project was undertaken initially through the joint efforts of CJF and HIAS.
REPORT ON DENVER, CHICAGO
In another development, the CJF reported that the Allied Jewish Federation of Denver has established a Youth Programs Task Force to explore the needs of teenagers in the community and to develop plans for providing services most effectively through various agencies, congregations, Jewish Centers and family services. Denver is one of 10 communities participating in a CJF, demonstration project on planning for teenage youth. The Denver Task Force will serve as a model for other participating communities.
The CJF also reported that a temporary residence program to serve elderly persons in need of short-term housing is being operated by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago through its Council for Jewish Elderly. Designed to serve a wide range of clients–elderly victims of fire, eviction, those recuperating from illness or whose partners or families are temporarily absent–the program’s goal is to stabilize and comfort the aged during the crisis period and to determine individual, long-range care plans.
The residence, which accommodates 11 elderly persons at one time, with a maximum stay of 30 days, features 24-hour attendance by residential care workers in three shifts. A social worker and nurse are available on call. On admission, a discharge date is projected and staff workers then focus on long-term care options while the client’s temporary needs are met.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
