Blog

November is National Adoption Awareness month, a time to celebrate and support families formed through foster care and adoption. There's a good chance you are touched by adoption through family, friends, or in the broader community. How can you best support those navigating this lifelong journey? In more ways than you can imagine!  

Here are six things that those impacted by adoption would likely welcome:  

Abuse does not discriminate. It can affect people of every age, marital status, economic and educational background—including people in the Jewish community. 

The Access centralized intake department serves as the front door to JCFS Chicago, often marking the first point of contact people have with the agency. When someone looking for support calls 855.275.5237 or emails ASK@JCFS.org, they are greeted or responded to by a qualified and knowledgeable member of the intake team who will answer their questions and connect them with the services and resources they need. 

At the spring Family Day event hosted by JCFS Chicago’s disability services staff, children with disabilities and their siblings played with slime, built with Legos, had their faces painted and posed in a photo booth. While the children and teens were engaged in the various sensory activities, their parents relaxed for a couple hours and made connections of their own.

When a Duman Opportunity Center job seeker was hired as an elevator operator at The Breakers at Edgewater Beach, a senior living facility in Chicago, it opened the door for five more individuals with disabilities to secure positions there in the following months.

For some children, simply getting through the school day is a struggle. This is especially true at the beginning of the school year, when students are putting a lot of emotional effort into remaining regulated during the school day as they learn new routines, meet new teachers and classmates, and get used to new spaces.

The Wakschlags are a Jewish family full of love, compassion, and strength. Milt, a retired attorney and ordained rabbi, and Laurie, a professor and vice chair at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital and Northwestern University, live in Lincolnwood and have three adult children. Tmima (Mims) and Efraim (Fry) both have intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). Their daughter Shira and her husband, Eli Rosenblatt, have two daughters, Maerav and Bella. Bella is on the autism spectrum. 

What started as a fun activity to enjoy together has evolved into a full-blown hobby for Hart. Through pottery, he has also gained more confidence and independence. 

The Jewish fall holidays are filled with many themes – solemnity, renewal, joy, family, food and much more. But underneath, there are also themes of loss and grief, of questions, of connection and healing from the loss.  

JVS Career & Employment, a part of the family of services within JCFS Chicago, is much more than a recruitment resource—it is a strategic workforce partner that helps employers find qualified talent while reducing the time, cost, and effort associated with hiring.