Jewish Family Service: Meeting Growing Demands in the Minsk Community

Elena, 30, is a certified teacher. She was trained through the Ministry of Education in Belarus, and after graduation worked four years at an orphanage and a kindergarten. When a rare illness handicapped one of her own children, she turned to a JDC-sponsored hesed social welfare center for help. As a result of the experience she shared with her child there, Elena was then hired to work with other disabled children at the hesed. Today, Elena has joined the Jewish Family Service, where she will leverage her skills in working with underprivileged children.

Jewish Family Service (JFS), established in Minsk at the close of 2003, will address the changing needs that have accompanied the resurgence in the Jewish community in the area. The agency will provide essential help and support to Jewish families and children in greater Belarus, organizing religious as well as social welfare, education, and other programs to meet the demands of the growing community.

Housed in the Minsk Jewish Campus (MEOD), the city's center of Jewish life, JFS is currently in the phase of assessing the wants and needs of the community. To this aim, the agency is conducting interviews and collecting information on the Jews of Minsk, which will be compiled into a database. This research will help to identify "at-risk" families who could benefit from agency intervention, and to inspire programming that is tailored to the target population of parents and children.

While the agency's goal is to attract as many Jewish families and children as possible to its services and events, its efforts will focus principally on helping families that classify as "at-risk", including parents with infants, children with legal guardians, and orphans.

Among its myriad services, JFS will provide vulnerable families with food packages and psychological support. It will offer children's programming such as two Jewish education and rehabilitation retreats – one winter and one summer – accommodating 120 children each session, and ongoing rehabilitation activities such as swimming and other sports, of particular importance for Belarus due to the devastating effects of the Chernobyl disaster. An after-school program, housed in MEOD, will provide nutritional meals, educational support, and cultural and sporting activities to children who come from challenged homes. Special activities, such as gymnastics and art and occupational therapy will be offered for disabled children, while vocational training – including subsidized courses in various professions – will be provided for unemployed parents.

The agency aims to facilitate dialogue between children and parents, and will then convey their social and economic needs to other community organizations wherever applicable. In addition, where families lack adequate resources and meet specific criteria, economic assistance will be provided based on the cost of living, the number of members in the family, and other factors.

JFS staff includes a director, a team of three caseworkers, and a psychologist who are overseen by a Working Board – including directors of JDC-sponsored hesed welfare centers, Jewish Community Centers (JCCs), and the Training Institute. A Community Board, consisting of lay leaders, is responsible for developing JFS' general policy and coordinating its fundraising efforts.

The professional staff will maintain regular contact with the supported families, providing them ongoing advice and services. JFS will also serve as a resource for Jews, irrespective of income level, for information on other programs, activities and services available through the Jewish community, the state or other non-profits.

Of the estimated 6,000 to 7,000 Jewish children living in Belarus, more than 3,000 are already registered with JFS, and hundreds others are waiting to be interviewed.