“Caroline” (not her real name) was a teacher at a Milwaukee Public Schools middle school in 2000 when a student attacked her. This student damaged her so badly that she is now disabled and in frequent pain.
“I can’t do any work more than two hours,” Caroline said during an interview last week at Jewish Family Services. “I have to spend 14 to 16 hours a day lying down.” She added that she also has to lie down after walking as little as half a block with her crutch.
She has been in and out of hospitals and still needs “four, possibly five more surgeries.” In fact, she wryly said, “Basically, I need a new skeleton.”
She lost her full-time teaching job and did some part-time teaching, but her financial situation deteriorated to the point she was making less than $10,000 a year, which she could not live on. “I kept losing everything, selling everything,” she said. “The whole thing has been a nightmare.”
In March 2005, her lease ran out on her apartment. Other apartment buildings demanded that her monthly income be at least three times the amount of her rent. Most also wouldn’t accept her two cats.
“I had nowhere to go,” she said.
But the rabbi at her synagogue connected her to Jewish Family Services, where her caseworker is Marybeth Murphy. JFS “worked very fast” to find Caroline a studio apartment (“I’m glad it is no bigger”), where she has lived for the past two years.
JFS also provided her with funds for food, rent and living expenses for four months. She is not working now, but has Social Security and disability income, for which JFS helped her apply.
JFS also assisted her in applying to the Milwaukee County General Assistance Medical Program (GAMP), which, according to the county Web site, is “a county and state funded program which purchases health care for qualified Milwaukee County residents.”
Caroline is one of about 130 people who was served by JFS’ exceptional needs department during the last fiscal year.
‘A big relief’
“George” (not his real name) had been incarcerated for about two years (for an offense he would not disclose to this reporter). Upon his return to Milwaukee last November, he had no place to live, and sometimes slept at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission, he said during an interview last week at JFS.
Before his arrest, he had been “self-employed, doing painting, landscaping, anything I could find,” but now he had “no income or assets,” he said.
He also had health problems — ulcerative colitis, high blood pressure, and epileptic seizures, the latter of which caused him to be hospitalized three times since November, he said.
George, who is not Jewish, said his mother suggested that he might want to “get involved” with JFS. Since his initial meeting at the agency on Jan. 4, he has been working with caseworker Dafna Berman.
On Jan. 19, before a period of sub-zero temperatures, he had moved into an apartment. He is also receiving a grocery store card good for a week’s worth of groceries, a bus pass and $13 a week for spending money.
“After sleeping outside, being on my own going through food lines, this is a big relief,” George said.
With help from JFS, he is applying for Social Security Disability Income and to GAMP. JFS also “hooked me up with the Grand Avenue Club.” This group, according to its Web site, seeks “to provide people who have experienced mental illness with all the ingredients for a satisfying life — opportunities to get ready for work, paid employment, education, housing, as well as recreational and cultural opportunities.”
George was scheduled to attend an orientation there this past Monday, and said, “The big benefit” of this organization is that “it helps you find employment.”
Both George and Caroline have become regulars at JFS’s Breakfast Club, which meets Friday mornings.
Caroline seemed especially appreciative of this. “It is a nice thing. We get to see each other and know we are not alone,” she said. Moreover, “nobody is judging you. You get to tell as much or as little about your story as you want.”
“Being left alone, that’s the worst,” she added.
George seemed more non-committal about the Breakfast Club. “There are some decent people; a couple are characters,” he said. But “the food is good,” he added.
But there’s no question about his feelings toward the JFS staff members with whom he has worked. “They’ve done a wonderful job for me. I would recommend them to anybody,” George said.
And Caroline not only expressed amazement and gratitude for Murphy’s work with her — “She is more patient than I would be. It’s incredible.” — but also said she looks forward eagerly to the Breakfast Club’s outings to baseball games this summer.
JFS is a partner in serving the community with the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and the United Way of Greater Milwaukee.
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