Human Services Organizations That Partner to Provide

¶ … human services organizations that partner to provide services in your community. Then provide an example of how the organizations collaborate. Finally, explain how the organizations in the partnership maintain their missions and increase their efficiencies through this partnership. Be specific.

The two organizations that I have chosen are the JCFS and a smaller, more recently established organization called Shalva.

The JCFS (Jewish Child and Family Services) is a comparatively large and complex organization that has branches in most states throughout the U.S.A. They deal in many domestic and extra-domestic issues, such as vocational training, foster care, helping people find jobs, creating groups for adolescents, providing counseling sessions for troubled families, helping immigrants settle in the country, facilitating the lives of disadvantaged families and individuals, and so forth.

Their programs include: care for abused and neglected youth; therapy for children and adults; support for people with disabilities and their families; respite care; special education; general counseling and more. They also host inclusive summer camps for children with disabilities, as well as grief counseling for adults, and many other support groups that include support for families adopting children.

Although termed as Jewish, they are not necessarily so and actually service a multi-rival, not particularly ethnic population. In fact, the JCFS describes itself in the following way:

Our talented and diverse workforce helps children and their families regardless of religion, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, ability, gender, sex or sexual orientation. (JCFS.org)

The JCFS is one of the key social work institutions in the region.

Shalvah, on the other hand, is an up and coming agency. It is small, fits into three rooms, has possibly no more than 15 devoted staff (one of whom includes a lawyer), most of whom are volunteers, and has moved at least thrice to three different anonymous locations within the five years of its founding. It is a domestic abuse agency for women who seek to flee their marriage. It is a purely Jewish organization serving people only from its community. Their services include Community prevention & educational programs; 24-hour crisis-line; Legal information & court support; financial assistance; Information & referrals (http://shalvaonline.org/)

Shalvah describes itself in the following way:

Shalvah has helped over 4,000 Jewish women since 1986 and is specifically certified by the State of Illinois to provide domestic violence counseling.

SHALVA offers free confidential domestic abuse counseling services to the Chicago Jewish Community. SHALVA provides culturally sensitive services in a safe and caring environment. (http://shalvaonline.org/)

The two non-profit organizations are linked. In fact, the leading social worker from one of the JCFS branches in Illinois also works as social worker in Shalva.

JCFS helps Shalva in numerous ways. It provides their individuals with a shelter when needed; it provides needy individuals with food during the festivals and at other periods; it helps members of Shalva with financial assistance; and when members of Shalva finally manage to liberate themselves from their troubled situations and establish their own homes, it helps them do so by providing them with the necessary furnishings.