News & Impact

Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma Counties will hold its Ninth Annual Émigré Community Gala Saturday evening, February 6, at San Francisco’s historic Palace Hotel, a fitting location as JFCS is celebrating its 160th anniversary of serving the community. Co-chaired by JFCS supporters Alla and Boris Lipkin of the Peninsula, the event features an hors d’oeuvres and wine reception, a dinner program, and dancing to live music. The Gala, hosted by leaders of the Bay Area’s Russian-speaking émigré community, was created to support people in need in the Bay Area and Israel. Proceeds… Read More

Parents Place, a leading family resource center in the Bay Area, is pleased to present March 22 – 25, 2010, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, a nationally renowned parent educator, sought-after speaker, and author, in three evening presentations open to the public and in two half-day workshops for parents, teachers, and child development professionals. Kurcinka is the author of Raising Your Spirited Child; Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles; andSleepless in America: Is Your Child Misbehaving or Missing Sleep? . The presentations and workshops are as follows:   PRESENTATION in Santa Rosa, March 22, 6:30 – 8:30 pm. “Discovering Who Has Come to… Read More

Marin Independent Journal by Jim Staats As another holiday season approaches in a downtrodden economy, Marin social service agencies are bracing for a much higher demand for food, toys and supplies to make it to the new year. County organizations dealing with the double-whammy of a greater need and fewer resources to work with are having to rely on more community involvement to fill the gaps. Read More from the Marin Independent Journal… Read More

J Weekly by Steven Friedman Yelena Mozeson couldn’t help thinking of her late grandfather as she stood, overlooking the audience, on the day she became a bat mitzvah. “All my Jewish memories are from him,” said the 55-year-old native of Riga, Latvia, whose grandfather died when she was a teen. “My parents weren’t religious or observant, but I started to wonder a few years ago what Judaism was all about. I really wanted to know more about what was my grandfather’s world. Read More from J Weekly… Read More

Long a leader in serving refugees and immigrants, Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma counties was recently selected to receive a highly competitive grant from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) Office of Citizenship. Approximately 290 agencies nationwide applied for the grant. Of the 13 grant recipients, JFCS was the sole Bay Area awardee. The grant will help JFCS expand its model Citizenship Services program, which provides legal permanent residents with the educational and legal services they need to secure U.S. citizenship successfully. In the past decade alone, JFCS has… Read More

Parenting on the Peninsula by Karen Vanuska A child’s white-knuckled clutch of a teddy bear. Uncontrollable crying at the sound of a rage-filled voice. Bed-wetting at the sound of a siren. A fierce kick to a playmate’s shin on the playground. These are all symptoms that an infant, toddler, or young child may be suffering from emotional or physical stress. Untreated, these children are likely to grow up with behavioral problems, become dropouts from school, or suffer from depression or problems with substance abuse. Why? Because, according to Lesley Sternin, Director of the Child Trauma Training Institute in San Francisco,… Read More