Looking over plans for Hand in Hand are, from left, Joanne Berman, Emily Josephson, and Debra Levenstein.
First Hand in Hand community program
What: Panel discussion: Raising Your Special-needs Child to Jewish Adulthood
When: Monday, March 16, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Congregation Beth Chaim, Princeton
Topics: Life-cycle events, religious education, holiday celebrations, development of a Jewish identity, importance of instilling Jewish values in special-needs children
Registration: Contact Debra Levenstein at 609-987-8100 or DebraL@jfcsonline.org or visit www.jfcsonline.org
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February 3, 2009
A diagnosis that their child has special needs often leaves parents “stunned,” said one of the founding members of a task force formed last spring to help such families find ways to move forward.
Now, the Special Needs Task Force of the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County has launched an initiative — Hand in Hand: Serving Families with Special Needs — designed to provide more broadly based services to such families.
In conjunction with the launch of Hand in Hand, JFCS has received a $10,000 grant from the Princeton-based Karma Foundation to develop a dedicated page for special-needs families on its website, www.jfcsonline.org. The page, which is scheduled to be up and running by the spring, will provide families with information and links to resources for special-needs children in the region.
Driving the agency’s focus on special-needs families has been the task force, according to Debra Levenstein, JFCS director of prevention and support services. She said that the task force came into being through a partnership with several parents in the region, including founding members Joanne Berman of Princeton and Emily Josephson of West Windsor. Also serving on the task force is Sherry Deutsch Epstein of Hopewell Township.
“I think it’s great we have the parents,” Levenstein said. “It’s a bit of a groundswell. I’m really happy that JFCS is responding once again to the needs of the Jewish community. Together, we’re creating a partnership and a community response.”
Over the past five years, JFCS has provided a number of programs for special-needs families, Levenstein said. She mentioned Sib Shop, a support program for siblings of special-needs children, as well as recent community programs featuring experts in autism, Asperger’s syndrome, bipolar disorder, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The agency also partnered with local synagogues to present a conference on the issue.
Comprehensive approach
Now that the task force has come together, she said, the agency has begun to take a more comprehensive approach to providing support services for special-needs families.
Discussions with parents revealed a need for JFCS to become “a place where people can come for resources,” Levenstein said. “We could be a conduit for information and a conduit to other resources.”
“We have a small but budding library of books on special needs, and we decided to make the page on our website for special needs, so if you type in ‘Jewish and special needs,’ we would pop up.
“The other thing the task force decided was that if people had a new diagnosis in their family and they wanted to connect to someone with a similar diagnosis, the task force would be willing to mentor people,” Levenstein said.
As Berman pointed out during a recent interview, parents are often stunned by such a diagnosis.
“In general, when parents have a child with special needs, there are so many things to learn,” Berman said. “You don’t know where to go first. There is so much to learn and so much to know.”
Hand in Hand is designed to guide parents along that learning path, she said. “It’s a resource for parents who can come to us and say, ‘I’m at my wit’s end. Who can I turn to for help?’ We can help them,” she said, “because we’ve been there.”
Josephson said she hopes to help special-needs children feel more comfortable in a Jewish setting.
“There really is a lack of programming in this community,” she said in a telephone interview. “From a personal standpoint, more is always needed and variety is always welcome.”
The creation of Hand in Hand is “groundbreaking,” Josephson said. “It’s very exciting to be in on the ground floor of JFCS…bringing services to the population. I’m very proud to be part of it.”
JFCS hopes to expand the Hand in Hand offerings, Levenstein said, including more community programs and outreach efforts, and perhaps a support group for parents or a monthly Shabbat dinner for families with special needs.
“This will pull it all together,” she said. “It all goes hand-in-hand with providing the resources and getting the word out that we have the resources to provide.”
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