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The following history of Jewish Child
and Family Service was written by Rose Smalley on the
25th Anniversary (1976) of the Agency. Rose was the first
caseworker for United Hebrew Relief, one of the early
service groups from which the present organization evolved.
Although we are celebrating the 25th Anniversary of
the Jewish Child and Family Service, actually the organization
has a considerably longer history, having grown out of
the merger of earlier service groups.
At the turn of the Century, a series of more than usual
violent pogroms in Eastern Europe, culminating in the
Kishinev Massacre in 1903, precipitated an increase of
Jewish immigration to North America. Up to the outbreak
of the First World War in 1914, when immigration was halted,
a large number came to Winnipeg.
To a great extent this was an impoverished people. Several
different groups of earlier settlers, therefore, banded
together to assist one another and newcom¬ers. In
1916, in order to provide better service, two groups,
the United Hebrew Charities and the North End Relief,
merged and became the United Hebrew Relief.
By 1927, with the population growth, problems had also
multiplied, and the small agency opened an office, engaged
a social worker, and embarked on a more structured program
of assistance.
In the late 1930's, the Jewish Community leaders of Winnipeg
established the Jewish Welfare Fund, and the United Hebrew
Relief became one of its benefici¬aries. Later, in
April 1942, the Knesseth Israel Sisterhood, who assisted
families with food and milk where illness or malnutrition
were factors, and the Social Service Department of the
National Council of Jewish Women merged with the United
Hebrew Relief to form the United Hebrew Social Service
Bureau.
Jewish child care dated back to 1914 when the Ester Robinson
Jewish Orphanage and Children's Aid Society was incorporated.
In the early 1940's the name was changed to the Jewish
Children's Home and Aid Society of Western Canada. A large
impressive building had been opened by this time where
over one hundred children were in care.
For some time, child care in orphanages all across the
country had been under¬going intensive study, and
the principle of foster home care rather than institutional
care became accepted. About 1940 the Board of the Jewish
Children's Home agreed to follow this trend, and gradually
the children in the Home were returned to their families
wherever possible, and others were placed in foster homes.
By 1944 a joint committee was set up of seven members
each of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Children's
Home and the United Hebrew Social Service Bureau with
the Executive Secretary of the latter Agency acting for
both.
Then, in 1951, the United Hebrew Social Service Bureau
renamed, the Jewish Family Service Bureau of Winnipeg,
joined the Jewish Children's Home and became the present
Jewish Child and Family Service. It was legally incorporat¬ed
as a Children's Aid Society for the protection and care
of Jewish children in the Province of Manitoba. When the
old Orphanage building was closed, a house was purchased
to be used as a Shelter for short term care of young children.
It seemed that the Jewish community was constantly facing
one crisis after another. The depression years were especially
difficult. All families were affected in one way or another.
The Jewish community both through informal resources and
officially through its social service agencies provided
the services and supports necessary to maintain some reasonable
semblance of self-respect. While governments at all levels
began providing basic financial assistance the eligibility
requirements were so stringent that one had to be completely
indigent to receive help. The Jewish Agency's role became
that of helping families whose needs could not be met
by governmental programs.
World War II produced crises for all people but the impact
on Jews as a group in every community was indescribable.
Every Jewish community rallied to provide for the needs
of refugees and displaced persons, the victims of the
Nazi holocaust. Winnipeg was no exception! The whole Jewish
community and its agencies rallied to provide services
and resources necessary to meet the needs of the newcomers
from war-torn Europe. In late 1947 the War Orphan project
began and the community opened its arms to help settle
these children. Follow¬ing this vanguard of refugees,
numerous families and single people from the displaced
persons camps in Europe were allowed to enter Canada,
and the Agency rose to the demands made on it to settle
its quota of people in Winnipeg.
In 1956 this Agency which had amassed a tremendous body
of knowledge and experience in helping refugees, once
again with the willing help and support of the community,
took on the enormous task of settling approximately 200
individual Hungarian refugees in a four month period with
a small staff and many volunteers.
There was a short lull in immigration, but because of
unrest in their home lands, the Agency was once again
called upon when Moroccan Jews arrived in 1966-1968, Israelis
following the 1967 War, and Czechoslovakians in 1968.
The most recent immigrants are from Russia and Poland.
The demand for ongoing service, continued. Family problems
surfaced in a period of rapid social change and the Agency
had to give thought to caring and treating the emotionally
troubled teenage child outside his or her own home, as
well as trying to maintain intact the troubled families.
The Board and Staff set to work to study ways and means
of dealing with these problems. There was a sad lack of
facilities to care for and treat the severely troubled
teenage child. In 1963 the first group home residential
treatment unit for eight boys was established. This was
followed by a second unit opened in 1968 for eight girls.
The Agency continues to provide unique services to the
Jewish community. It has attracted well trained and dedicated
people who do not hesitate to involve themselves around
the clock in providing services to families and children
in need. This has contributed to the Agency's stature
and the respect of both the Jewish and non-Jewish community.
The services being offered by the Jewish Child and Family
Service are a direct result of its history. Essentially
they consist of three sections: the care of children,
family problems, and concern for the needs of recent immigrants.
1970 - 2000
The following represents an effort to follow up on
Mrs. Smalley's excellent commentary with some notation
on the most recent years of agency service.
In the child welfare field the agency continued to operate
the two group homes, and additionally developed a summer
camp specifically for our children in care. This camp
was located on the Broken Head River near Beausejour.
The service demands for all child welfare services - child
protection, adoption and foster care was high during this
period and the agency struggled to find sufficient funding
to back these client needs. Ultimately the WJCC provided
a financial "bail-out", but the agency was still
left with a $55,000 deficit by the end of the decade.
From 1975 until 1981, there was a large influx of refugees
from the Soviet Union. Operating out of offices located
in the Town and Country Building on Main Street near Selkirk
Avenue, a considerable amount of agency resources turned
to resettlement. Approximately 1200 persons were settled
during this period. Unfortunately for our community, the
majority of these people have subsequently moved away
to larger cities in search of economic opportunity.
We continued to provide for families during the seventies
with counselling, financial assistance, and our own homemaker
service, which was principally focused on the needs of
the elderly.
In 1981, the agency was completely destroyed by fire.
The agency temporarily operated from 165 Garry Street,
and then moved into offices on the tenth floor of the
Lindsay Building. Remarkably, most of the agency's records,
including the majority of those from the Jewish Orphanage,
were salvaged. With the assistance of the Provincial Archivist,
and the Air Force, an atmospheric chamber was used to
freeze dry the records. We then committed them to micro¬film,
and have been using a microfilm/fiche system since.
In the beginning of the '80's, we carried out a thorough
review of existing programs, and instituted many financial
and programmatic internal controls. With the fire behind
us and with a new Executive Director, it felt in many
ways that we were rebuilding from scratch.
The group home program was consolidated and the home on
Machray, as well as the camp, was sold. Using part of
the proceeds, the Templeton Avenue home was renovated,
expanded, and made co-educational. It was renamed "Chevrah".
The Jewish Child and Family Service Capital Fund Inc.
was established. This is a separately incorporated organization
which maintains the various trust funds and assets of
the JCFS.
In 1982, we began our volunteer program with pilot grants
from the United Way and the Winnipeg Foundation. This
program began with a hand-full of volunteers and now we
can count more than 120 active at any time.
From 1982-87, we provided administrative services to the
Shalom Residences, to assist in their development as an
organization.
The homemakers service was phased out, the program considered
not to be as necessary with the same services being provided
by government. At the same time our social work staff,
who worked with the elderly population, turned their attention
more to social casework. The casework services to the
elderly were expanded and the program called "Older
Adult Services".
In 1986 our agency became fully accredited for the first
time. Involving a comprehensive self-study and an on-site
review by the Council on Accreditation of Services for
Families and Children, the agency was able to check its
policies and procedures against well-established North
American standards. We went through the process again
in 1991 and were fully re-accredited.
We faced a crisis during the mid 80's when the Provincial
Government decided to close down the Children's Aid Society
of Winnipeg and develop six new community-based organizations
to administer the Child and Family Services Act. The government
indicated their intention to withdraw our child welfare
man¬date, saying that the needs of the Jewish people,
as all other ethnic groups, would be met by representation
on the various new boards of these new quasi-private organizations.
With the political support of the community we were able
to maintain our mandate and have since become better integrated
into the larger child welfare system. In 1991, when the
government closed down the six separate organizations
and centralized services once again, our services were
unaffected and our mandate reaffirmed.
In 1987, we decided to decentralize the agency operations.
We found that a single downtown location was unnecessarily
expensive, created difficulty for clients to park, and
had safety concerns for staff and clients attending at
night. We attempted to move into two smaller offices while
keeping the costs relatively similar to our downtown operation.
We established our main office at McPhillips and Jefferson
and a satellite office in the Temple Shalom Building at
Wilton and Grant. Our goals in this move were to increase
access to our clients, and to increase our visibility.
While these goals were achieved, it was at a cost of space
and staff working conditions. In 1992, we relocated the
Grant Avenue offices to larger space at the Towers of
Polo Park. We consolidated our counselling program staff
into these offices and have relieved some of the pressure
for space on McPhillips by moving some staff to Polo Park.
We renovated the McPhillips offices and have short-term
leases at both facilities in anticipation of moving onto
the new Jewish Community Campus when it is built.
In 1990, the Jewish Child and Family Service took on the
responsibility for the Jewish Community Chaplain.
In 1994 the agency successfully underwent its second reaccreditation
review.
Also in 1994 the agency made a decision to relocate and
centralize its facili¬ties on the new Jewish Community
Campus.
In the 1994-1995 year, the group home program, "Chevrah",
was downsized to five boys and three full time staff,
one of whom resides permanently at the home.
In 1996 a two year pilot program providing intensive mental
health service was launched. Also implemented is a peer
counselling program for seniors.
1997 saw the move of the agency to the Asper Community
Campus and the commitment by the board to maintain a north
end satellite office.
1998 saw the establishment of the Mental Health Program
as an ongoing agency service.
In 2000 a decision was made to permanently close "Chevrah",
the agency group home, as the needs of the Jewish children
in care did not match the services offered at the group
home.
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