Welcome readers, to the blog that’s here to highlight the noble work of the local nonprofit! Today I’ll be sharing with you a conversation that I had with Carole Yellen of Jewish Family Service of San Diego. JFS is an organization that does so much to uplift and uphold many of our most vulnerable community members in so many thoughtful, loving, intelligent and important ways. I myself have had some experience volunteering with their refugee resettlement services, which has been educational, delightful and impactful on a personal level, so I am very glad to be able to share this discussion with you today.

* This interview has been edited for clarity and length *

Hi Carole! Thank you for talking to me about JFS.

 Absolutely.

 Tell our readers what Jewish Family Service is, and also, a little bit about yourself.

 So, Jewish Family Service is one of the largest human service providers in San Diego. We are 102 years old; we were founded in 1918. We began when a group of Jewish women responded to a group of Jewish refugees presenting themselves at the border. A hundred years later, we continue that work. A big part of the work that we do is in immigration services, based on living in a border town – San Diego. But in those 100 years, we’ve also expanded to do so much more. The general areas where JFS focuses are on services that can help people achieve stability and reach their full potential. For us, that’s individuals, families, older adults, refugees, and immigrants, and although we are an agency founded on Jewish values, we serve the entire community.

 My role at JFS is as the Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships. I’ve been with JFS for eleven years now and stay with them because, as many of our staff experience, your job is more about the impact on the community and you feel good coming to work every single day. Over those eleven years, I feel like I’ve grown professionally, but also personally, and my understanding of the values that drive me to help support those who are more vulnerable and what it means to come together as a community to address needs.

 As far as the Jewish values that the organization is based on, what are some examples of those?

 The most well-known Jewish value, even outside the Jewish community sometimes, is “tikkun olam.” And tikkun olam really means “to repair the world.” It’s part of Jewish culture to understand that there are parts of our community and our culture that are broken and need to be repaired, and that it’s incumbent upon all of us to do that work. And that we may not complete that work within our lifetime, but we are obligated to participate in it. So tikkun olam, repairing the world, can look like many different things.

 One of them “kehillah,” which is community. Recognizing that everyone needs to both participate in a community in addressing those problems, and if one of the members in our community is vulnerable, that we are all needing to surround that person with love. We shouldn’t have anyone forced to go through these challenges alone. So, it’s about walking alongside people.

 Another is “gemilut hasadim,” which just means “acts of lovingkindness,” and so, that’s something that hopefully you can see in all of our work — coming to people with compassion.

 And the last one I would highlight is “b’tzelem Elohim,” which really means that everyone is made in God’s image. Another way to look at it is just to say that every individual has the right to dignity and respect. And so, I think that comes through in all of the work that we do in making sure that we not only support those who are in need, but hopefully do it in a dignified manner.

Prior to COVID, you would have seen that lived through what we call our Corner Market. The Corner Market was a way for families and individuals to come and seek food assistance, but in a way that is comparable to how you and I shop in our grocery stores. So, instead of waiting in a bread line, which is something that we’re used to seeing pictures of historically, these are people who had appointments to come and shop in our little, mini grocery store with their shopping carts. And they checked out, and they shopped with points rather than money, and there was no requirement to earn those points, it was just about how large their family size was. And then, they have choice in what they are being given, so instead of handing them a bag of groceries, it was about allowing them to pick from the shelves in the same way that you and I do. And encouraging them to make healthy choices by making things like produce worth zero points. So, I think that’s a great example.

 That’s a wonderful idea!

 Yeah. Obviously, things have changed a little since COVID, because we can’t have those shopping experiences anymore…because it’s an indoor space, and right now none of our clients are coming inside at the JFS campus. At this point, we’ve had to adjust those types of food assistance programs to a drive-thru model, with no contact. We hope to get back to that corner market vision at some point. For now, every day on campus, we have this drive-thru distribution, which, again, there’s no eligibility requirements. You just show up, and we will put food in your car. But they are standard packaged bags at this point, which include both non-perishable food as well as produce that we’ve been able to provide. And, although we hope that will last you approximately a week, you can come back if needed. And we also allow people to pick up on behalf of their neighbors, because we recognize for some people they can’t get out of the house right now.

 Where do you all get the food?

 We have multiple sources of food suppliers. Two of the biggest are the San Diego Food Bank as well as Feeding San Diego. We were actually recently deemed a “super pantry,” which just means that based on the number that we’re serving, the food bank is helping prioritize getting us more food. So, previously, the food bank had been holding really large community food distributions themselves, but it required that people from all over the community would go to them. Sometimes they were holding them at the local stadium. Instead, they decided to give those food supplies to the local pantries that are dispersed throughout the county, and make sure that we had more stock available for the daily drive-thru distributions that we’re doing. Feeding San Diego is a really interesting model, because they rescue fresh food, and so we’ve had a long-standing partnership with them where they were partnering with all of our local Starbucks to rescue any of the food that they would not be selling at the end of the day. When I go to Starbucks, I often think of the scones, which is one of my favorites, but if you think about Starbucks having a lot of great, nutritious sandwiches, protein boxes, wraps and salads, those are the types of things that we were benefitting from that partnership and being able to provide to those who were shopping in our Corner Market and now who are coming through our drive-thru distribution. But I would say both the San Diego Food Bank and Feeding San Diego and JFS, through some of our local grocery partners, have seen a significant impact to the food supply as a result of COVID. And it’s getting a little better, but if you can remember those early days of COVID, where entire shelves of bread and milk and all of these things were being bought up very quickly by the community – that left a lot less food to be rescued at the end of the day for those grocery stores to pass along. So, we’re seeing it get better, and JFS, we certainly appreciate the partners who continue to provide food. But also, we’ve been really fortunate to have a lot more donations coming through, from other grocery stores that are new to us, or just community members who are doing food drives on their own, and we really appreciate that.

 Besides food distribution, you guys have a LOT going on. Especially in the City Heights/El Cajon refugee communities, which you already touched on, but could you tell us a little bit more?

 For a hundred years, we have been working with refugee and immigrant populations, and that obviously in the last few years has seen a lot of change. So, for a time, we were actually running a family migrant shelter to temporarily house the asylum seekers who were being released and awaiting their asylum hearings. And, unfortunately, because of the impact of policy changes, the asylum seekers are no longer being allowed either across the border or being released from detention, and so our migrant shelter is currently suspended. But we do have consistent programming that existed through the San Diego Rapid Response Network as well as through our refugee resettlement services. The San Diego Rapid Response Network continues; that was something that started a few years ago with a hotline that people can call if they see any sort of activity that they are concerned [about whether] it’s legitimate or not or if people will need additional legal services as a result. We have an immigration team that can offer pro bono legal services for people who need assistance with citizenship, with visas, with green cards, and are able to assess whether people have a case to make if they are rounded up in some sort of immigration activity. We also do know-your-rights campaigns so that people have a sense of what they can ask for and what they have to divulge if any of that happens as well. We offer citizenship classes and most recently, we were helping DACA-mented individuals apply for DACA or renew their applications. So those are the types of immigration services that we continue, regardless of the status of migrant shelter.

And then, separately, we have our refugee resettlement services. Again, that’s been impacted because policies have changed about where individuals can be coming from, as far as the United States accepting them as refugees. But for years and years we have been one of the four resettlement agencies here in San Diego. As you mentioned, our services and the families that we resettle are largely within the City Heights and El Cajon regions, and so we have staff down there. And while they aren’t necessarily accepting many new families through the refugee resettlement program, we continue to support the families that have been resettled in years past by Jewish Family Service. And some of that is mentorship programs, some of it is in making sure that their kids are enrolled in school, that they understand how to sign up for bank accounts, that they’re getting English classes, and that we’re connecting them to sustainable employment. We recognize, especially for refugee families, that the support that we give now will have impact for generations in making sure that they reach their full potential here in the United States.

 Do you have any stories on the top of your mind, impact stories that you can think of that you’d like to share, of a family who used your services? 

 I’m most familiar, probably, with the stories right now around nutrition. I can think of a couple off of the top of my head. We’ve definitely had older adults who, prior to COVID, were already struggling to make ends meet, but we’ve certainly seen many new individuals and families coming to us for assistance during COVID. And some of those are older adults who have, potentially, family living in town, but haven’t felt safe in having them continue to be the support, who would do the grocery shopping for them and even prepare some of their meals. Especially as some of those children or adult grandchildren are heading back to their own work, and so, then going to the grandparent’s home could further expose them potential COVID risks. So, they have called us to say, “My family cannot support me in this way anymore, and I don’t feel safe going to the grocery store, so I need some help with food.” And so that has been one of the biggest increases we’ve seen, in home-delivered meals. I think just last week we delivered 26,000 home-delivered meals. Each of the people that we deliver to receives enough food for an entire week, so they receive 21 meals. But as you can imagine, that’s hundreds of deliveries every single day to older adults. We’ve also heard from, for instance, a single father, who had his children with him over the summer and was experience COVID symptoms and needed to isolate, and so while he was not an older adult, we certainly had the ability to get him home-delivered meals as well, to not only take care of him but take care of the children who were also in need at that time.

 Are these all people in the refugee community, or are you serving older adults in general?

 This is the general community, but certainly, we will see all sorts of people come through because, as I said, there’s not any eligibility criteria. So, the hardest impact that we’re seeing is on older adults, but we see individuals and families, many of which, like I said, are new to this need, reaching out to JFS for the first time. And a lot of it is around the need for food.

 The second biggest need that I would say we’re seeing is around rental assistance. While there have been moratoriums against evictions, it’s not rental forgiveness. You may still be in your apartment and safe from eviction, but if you’ve lost employment or hours during COVID, and are not able to make your rental payments, you’re accruing debt the longer you don’t pay. We want to make sure people are supported with some financial assistance to make good faith efforts to pay at least a portion of their rent. So, that has been one way that we’ve been able to support individuals. Typically, we would also be looking at how we can support them in seeking additional employment or increasing their hours, but of course that is a challenge during COVID as well. So, we continue to support people, either with financial assistance toward rent, or sometimes we can offset costs toward groceries. Or, if transportation is a challenge and it would keep you employed, we can sometimes supply bus passes or gas cards to help people continue to be able to access their jobs.

You guys just have all sorts of things going on!

We typically have what we call case management services, and case management is a clunky term but it really is about resource navigators who have the knowledge of all of our local providers and can help connect you to those. They could help you navigate how to apply for unemployment benefits, they can tell you about SDGE programs for low-income households to help save money on your utility bills…all of those types of services have gone virtual, whereas typically we would’ve had those clients come in to the office. Now our case managers speak with people about their needs, assessing their goals, and helping them develop a plan to maintain stability.

On a more general level, in your opinion, what is the role of nonprofits in our society?

That’s a great question. I feel like this comes back to some of the values that I was talking about, and recognizing that we do have some obligation to help those who are most vulnerable in our society. And so, I see that we are a bit of a safety net, and I know that there are people who are concerned about the difference between a handout and a hand up; we see ourselves as a hand up. Our philosophy is to approach clients who have a need through partnership. We can’t do things for them if they are not interested in making those gains themselves, so instead, what we’re looking to do is speak with them about what their real goals are from a client-centered, person-centered perspective, to make sure that we aren’t addressing a need that they don’t see as their real priority. So, it’s really about understanding each individual and making sure it’s an individualized type of support. I think that’s what nonprofits are mostly doing, trying to act as the safety net, trying to help those who are most vulnerable, and doing it in a way that we have an expertise in, understanding the network of services within San Diego and recognizing that people who are in crisis often feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin, and so we can be a starting point for them and a partner in walking through the journey to achieve their full potential.

 And for you as an individual, what is your motivation? What’s your favorite aspect of your job?

 I feel like my job is my way of expressing my values every single day. I love that it’s a great model for my children, who see that you can make a difference in the world. I know that among our team of staff we have accountants, and we have facilities crew, and we have our marketing department, who aren’t necessarily every day doing the direct service to clients, and yet, if any one of those pieces weren’t there it would be almost impossible to do our job. And so, I feel like every person who shows up to work at JFS every day is a part of the fabric that makes this community work possible, as well as the volunteers and partners. So, it’s something that can’t be done alone and I love that we do it as a team. We do it as a team within JFS, we do it as a team with our community volunteers and we do it as a team with our partners, because everyone has different strengths to offer. So, I feel honored and proud to be a part of the fabric that makes all of it possible. I think it’s easy right now to feel overwhelmed by all of the news and become disheartened and frustrated and paralyzed, and while I know that I’m not solving potentially the entire problem, to know that I’m making an impact on one individual a day and have brought some relief or levity to their situation is what keeps me going.

 Conversely, what do you find to be your biggest challenge?

Recently, the biggest challenge has been responding to the uncertainty of this particular pandemic. I’m on multiple phone calls a day where we are reassessing our response, and what’s needed next, and all of those conversations come with, “Are we still in response, or are we beginning recovery?” And even as we begin recovery, then the county starts to shut down again – we may be back in crisis response. And I think, in the early days, not knowing how long this would last, there was potentially a sense that “Okay, we can get through this month,” right? Or, we can get through two months – and now, we’re at four and five months, and realizing that some of the changes we made to processes are no longer short-term fixes, but probably have impact on the way we deliver services in the long term. So, I think the uncertainty is probably the hardest thing right now.

In your opinion, what does it mean to be a visionary?

When I think of a visionary, I potentially am thinking of someone much smarter than myself, with the ability to predict the future to some degree. But aside from that, a visionary, to me, includes an element of hope – that there’s an ability to change what’s happening currently and improve it in whatever way it is in the future. You have to hold that hope if you think the vision for the future might be better than what’s now – otherwise, I don’t think you’d be envisioning what comes next. So, I think a visionary is someone who holds hope for a better future.

Excellent answer. And lastly, how can people help, how can they get involved with JFS?

Jewish Family Service, as I said, counts on so many volunteers. And in the early days of COVID I would say that it was difficult to understand how to continue to engage our volunteers while keep them safe as well as our staff and our clients, but over the course of the last four months we have relied very heavily on volunteers to make the home deliveries, to help us with our drive-thru distributions, and then also, crafted opportunities for them to do things from the safety of their home. We have a number of people who are helping us make calls for wellness checks to older adults, who are offering virtual classes and programming for older adults who used to be at our social and wellness centers daily, and even writing cards to people who are in skilled nursing facilities or other institutional facilities where they can’t leave, and we’ve seen I don’t even know how many hundreds of hand-sewn masks that have been delivered to JFS, so I know there are a lot of sewers out there, crafting away. And the benefit of that has been to our staff, who now have very stylish masks every day and a wardrobe to rotate through, as well as our clients, particularly those within our safe parking program, which is for those who are living in their vehicles and may not have otherwise had the ability to get their own masks. So, there’s definitely ways to get involved, and if people are interested, they can call our Volunteer Engagement Department at 858-637-3050 or visit our website to learn about the opportunities.

 And I’m assuming that donations are welcome as well?

 Donations are always welcome. We have started an emergency response fund, which is in part how we are able to offer limited financial assistance, but also stand up and expand so many of our services. Our kitchen had to add an entire second shift to the day to be able to produce as many meals as we were talking about, and so that required re-deploying staff into new areas and keeping the lights on later. So, the emergency response funds go both directly to clients and to support the operational expenses that we’ve seen increase during this period.

Readers, thanks for once again taking time out of your day to read about an organization striving to repair our world through love, compassion, and a helping hand. If you’re looking for ways to get involved or pass these uncertain times in a positive and productive manner, consider volunteering with JFS. If you have funds to spare, consider donation. And always, keep caring.

If you like the images accompanying this story and would like to explore how visual storytelling could help your organization share the heart of its mission, please visit my website, www.soulvoyagerstudios.com, or send me an email at soulvoyagerstudios@gmail.com. To receive each blog post in your inbox when it is posted, as well as regular content regarding visual storytelling and inspiring ways to make a difference in this world, subscribe to my newsletter below!