News & Impact

Ayala Feder-Haugabook, an incoming senior at the Jewish Community High School of the Bay, has had a busy summer. While gearing up for an August trip to Israel, where her brother is in the army, she also participated in a first-in-a-lifetime experience: a paying summer internship. Ayala was one of approximately 60 teens throughout San Francisco, Marin County, and the Peninsula who were selected to be part of JFCS’ Summer Internship Program, which provides valuable work experience—both at JFCS and at various organizations and businesses in the Bay Area. In addition to working in various offices and acquiring on-the-job… Read More

Each summer, JFCS’ YouthFirst program provides paid internships to Bay Area high school students seeking valuable work experiences. This summer, we have welcomed approximately 60 outstanding young people to the program. They are gaining important skills at various departments throughout the agency, as well at many local businesses and organizations pleased to work with us to help our young people hone their vocational abilities. We’re pleased to introduce one of them to you here. Stay tuned for more profiles! Domenic M, incoming sophomore, Archbishop Riordan High School, San Francisco Where are you working this summer? In JFCS’ Seniors At Home’s… Read More

JFCS is proud of our Loans and Grants Program graduates. Here are updates on two of our many successful alumni: Andrea Bouch-Dimondstein What do you do? Andrea Bouch-Dimondstein I’m a senior account manager at Fluxx, a San Francisco-based company that provides customized software to grant makers. I work closely with large and small foundations. Before that, I worked at Google, and I was a Kiva Fellow in Guatemala. Kiva is an international nonprofit whose Fellows oversee improvement projects worldwide through microfinancing institutions. Where did you go to college? I received my bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Diego.… Read More

The last thing Gillian remembered was crossing the street on a green light. When she woke up, she was in the ICU, hooked up to machines and in a body cast. Doctors told her she’d never walk again. “I cried for my mum,” Gillian recalls. “I wasn’t thinking straight. My mother had died years ago in Johannesburg.” After months in the hospital, Gillian tried to get back to her life. “But I couldn’t,” she says. “I was angry, confused, and paralyzed—literally and emotionally. I remember when a friend wheeled me into the JFCS building.  I felt at my lowest. I… Read More

By the time Jonah was 30, he’d had more than a dozen surgical procedures to treat Crohn’s disease, a chronic disorder that affects the gastrointestinal tract. The surgeries prevented his debilitating condition from worsening, but they didn’t cure him of it. Because of Crohn’s, he has been unable to have a career. “I was deeply depressed by the way my life was turning out,” he says. “Fortunately, a family friend told me about JFCS’ Disabilities Program. It has been a lifesaver. I’ve not only received emotional support, but also solid, practical guidance and other services that have kept me… Read More

Finding a place to live is one of the Bay Area’s greatest challenges. For Molly, a 29-year-old with significant learning differences, the perfect home has been JFCS’ Gary Shupin Independent Living Community, which offers residential and comprehensive services to young adults with developmental and other disabilities. “Shupin is ideal for Molly,” says her mother, Margaret, a former psychiatric nurse who helped her daughter with her housing search. “Molly wants to be independent, and Shupin provides the support so that she can remain so,” continues Margaret. “When Molly went to San Francisco City College to enroll in the CNA program,… Read More