Who’s going to care for Grandma when her family lives out of town? Or, for a new baby when both Mom and Dad need to work to make ends meet? And who will advise a baby boomer on how to re-focus when he’s who lost his job and has kids in college?
These are real situations facing many people in the Jewish community today — many of whom never imagined they would ever be in need of either financial assistance or counseling services.
Jewish Family Services, a non-profit social service agency that has been serving Jews and non-Jews in normal passages of their lives and through crises since 1867, is logging a steady increase in users through its intake department. It had been processing an average of 50 calls a month, but had 68 calls (for services) in August.
Joy Appel, JFS director of clinical and case management services, told The Chronicle recently that the number of clients using their services is increasing on a month-to-month basis.
“People are living longer, so the numbers of elderly requiring some form of assistance is up; the current economic pressures have caused an increase in the number of clients needing mental health care; and loss of jobs has resulted in an increased need for counseling services, such as parenting communication skills, for families,” she said.
“We always try to anticipate where the most vulnerable populations will be. So we continually evaluate all our programs to determine what we are really capable of being able to provide.”
JFS receives funding from the Milwaukee Jewish Federation Community Campaign and the United Way of Greater Milwaukee, but some of its programs are also funded by the county, state and federal governments, which are facing severe budget shortfalls.
“The bottom line is that the need to support the campaign is paramount this year,” said Elliot Lubar, JFS executive vice president. “Unfortunately, it seems as the need goes up, the dollars goes down. As the private funds are tightening up and public funds are being cut, we’ve had to try to do fundraising on our own.”
“Gifts to MJF’s community campaign,” Lubar added, “that are channeled to our agency really touch all populations in the community — through our day care programs, family counseling, services to older adults, activities for children and adults with special needs, and refugee resettlement. Our programs are available to all and our fees are based on ability to pay. The catch today is that we have an increasing number of clients whose ability to pay is decreasing. Financially, we’re getting hit from all of our revenue sources, but we don’t want to turn anyone away. It’s very stressful for us.”
Stigma decreasing
What Appel finds interesting is that in these tough times, people “no longer feel shame in seeking our services. I think there was a time when people felt embarrassed to admit they were having problems, any kind of problems, and shied away from getting help.
“But, today, people from all realms, more than the average person realizes, are coming to JFS for some kind of help. Changes in life circumstances — for example, loss of jobs, divorce, reduced health insurance benefits or increasing costs to care for an elderly parent — cause multiple stressors. And the ability to manage these societal tensions can become overwhelming.”
Lubar said that the JFS staffers are “very over-extended and struggle to assign cases, which means they may see clients less often. We’re making some very hard choices. While individual giving was the same last year as the year before, the negative impact of the stock market has affected our endowment, and that means there is less money to allocate for our operational budget while more people are coming for our services.”
“I hope,” said Lubar, “that when people in the community realize just how desperate the need is for financial help, they will answer with an increased gift to the campaign. People in need are their friends and neighbors. We don’t want to turn anyone away or cut them off when their Medicaid or health insurance [benefits] run out.”
He added, “Also, the agency was unable to offer any salary increases last year, so I’m worried about keeping our staff. Who can afford to work as a Jewish communal professional? At this point, we’ve taken all of the fat out of our budget, so all that’s left to cut is programming. Our dilemma is: Do we cut staff to maintain programming or cut programming to maintain staff?”
As the campaign moves forward, Lubar hopes donors will realize that there are those in the community in abject poverty and those in marginal poverty. “There’s a lot of anxiety out there, and we need to find a balance to help all those in need,” he said.
Jewish Family Services received $560,475 for fiscal year 2003-04 from the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. Allocations are primarily funded by the proceeds from the Annual Community Campaign together with a portion from the unrestricted funds of the Jewish Community Foundation, MJF’s endowment development program.
For more information on contributing to Community Campaign 2004, contact the federation at 414-390-5700 or www.milwaukeejew ish.org.
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