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Community
Agency moves to meet demand
Jewish Family Service Agency will leave community centre next month.
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PAT JOHNSON
The Jewish Family Service Agency will leave the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCC) next month and move to a new location on Broadway.
The change is significant for a number of reasons, said the agency's executive director, Joseph Kahn-Tietz, not least of which is that the existing 3,000-square-foot facility is far too small for an agency that is growing by leaps and bounds.
"We have 30 staff squished into 14 ofBces," said Kahn-Tietz. The nature of some of our work is confidential, so it's almost untenable. We have stafi" rotating hours. We have held back on all new hires for over a year now. We can't do it zuiymore. We clearly need much more space."
The new location - almost double the floor space - comes wdth a lower per-square-foot price tag than the present digs.
There are advantages to maintaining an office in the JCC, where most of the larger and some of the smaller commimal agencies reside, Kahn-Tietz said. But for an agency whose work requires confidentiality, the proximity at the heart of the community can be a disadvantage. The new location at 1985 West Broadway, at the comer of Maple, will be easily accessible by transit, but set apart from most other Jewish communal agencies. This is a trend being followed by JFSAs across North America, which are increasingly locating apart bom other Jewish agencies. In fact, the JFSA, which was founded in Vancouver in 1936, has been located in the JCC only for the past decade. Kahn-Tietz said he hopes the JFSA wdll be able to maintain some sort of satellite presence in the centre, such as a desk or a small office.
"It will provide greater anonymity for our counselling clients," said Kahn-Tietz, who , added that his staff know of many people who will not seek counselling services or access poverty reUef programs because of the agency's location. The food bank operated by JFSA was moved out of the JCC two years ago, to prevent the unnecessary spectacle of people lining up for food in the halls of the JCC.
Though the new location is away firom the perceived centre of communal life, it is a block from Maplecrest, a nonprofit Jewish housing facihty that recently came vmder the jurisdic-
tion of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.
"It's going to be a new sort of Jewish corridor," said Kahn-Tietz. Even so, the new location is considered temporary. The ideal situation, said Kahn-'Tietz, is that the JFSA will eventually build and/or own its own building, so the agency will build equity rather ttian pay rent. Rent accoimts for about five per cent of the agency's $2.5 million annual budget. An eventual facility ovraed by the JFSA might coincide with an attached housing development.
The move was necessitated by an exponential growth in the JFSA's activities. The budget has more than doubled in five years and the variety of services has expanded. Counselling services, seniors outreach, basic needs, resettlement, job match and vocational programs have all grown as demand increases.
"Each department has grovm extensively, so we're now servicing close to 7,000 people a year and providing probably double the programs we used to," he saii
Despite the rise in the budget, Kahn-Tietz said the programs arc still not meeting demand.
"There's no fat on the bone," he said. Among the programs begun or increased in the last few years are community kitchens, seniors lunch programs, out-
reach to the gay and lesbixm com-mimity, domestic violence programs and services for people with special needs.
"Is tiiat superfluous?" Kahn-Tietz asked. "No. Those are vital programs that a commtuiity of our size should be doing and there's more that continues to be needed."
Another advantage of maintaining a separate physical location is that it should help identify the JFSA in the pubhc's mind. There may be some confusion in the community, Kahn-Tietz acknowledged, between the various acronymed agencies in the community, including his agency, the JCC and Federation. Because JFSA depends on its ovra fund-raising to provide almost three-quarters of its budget, the necessity of pubUc awareness of its programs is obvious. Slightly more than one-quarter of the JFSA budget comes irom the annual Federation campaign disbursements.
The office does not plan to close at all during the move, which will take place at the end of February. "The faciUty vacated by the JFSA vdll be filled by a new museum of British Columbia Jewish history, wliich is expected to open by year's end. □
Pat Johnson is a B.C. journalist and commentator.
JFSA director to Stay
The Jewish Family Service Agency has renewed the contract of executive director Joseph Kahn-Tietz for five years. Lani Levine, president of the board of the JFSA, said her board is dehghted that Kahn-Tietz wiU be arovmd for at least another five years.
"It means we have some stability," said Levine. "We have an executive director who deals extremely well with the board and the executive, a person with vision and energy. We all feel extremely positive about this. Joseph has helped put us on the map."
The enthusiasm is shared by K^dm-Tietz, who said his family is pleased to be here.
"We're making a home for ourselves in this community," said Kahn-Tietz, whose family originates irom Los Angeles but came to Vancouver via Israel, where Kahn-Tietz worked with the New Israel Fund for a decade. The family became landed immigrants in Canada last year.
Kahn-Tietz is a clinical psychologist with a PhD &om Yale, which offers a program linked with nonprofit management. He recently completed a nonprofit meinagement program at Columbia University in New York. He has been with JFSA in Vancouver since 1999 and said the excellent, committed group of staff and board made it easy for him to commit to another five years at the helm.
"It is rare to woric in such a challenging, dynamic and worthwhile environment with such dedicated [people]," he said. "It's a won-derfiil agency vrith a vital mission. I feel honored to be part of this mandate."
-Pat Johnson
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