OTTAWA — Jewish Family Services of Ottawa (JFS) is poised to become a leader in providing support to ethnic seniors in the Ottawa area.
As part of the Ontario government’s Aging at Home Strategy, and with funding from the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) the program is underway in several local immigrant communities.
“I have always felt that the seniors services in Ottawa were only targeted to the English and French… and the demographics of Ottawa have been changing and becoming more ethnically diverse,” said JFS executive director Mark Zarecki.
JFS already reaches out to several ethnic communities and has built partnerships with them. In its first year, the new program, slated to come into effect next month, will partner with the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre; the Somali Family Service Centre; the Hunt Club- Riverside Community Centre (the largest Arabic-speaking population in the city lives in the area the centre services); and the Conseil Economique et Social d’Ottawa Carleton.
“In the LHINs, there has not been a recognition of the different needs of the various communities,” Zarecki said.
“There is a clear recognition that different ethnic communities have their own ways of working with and integrating seniors. We will be linguistically sensitive and also culturally sensitive, and recognize the unique needs and strengths of each community.”
Deborah Andrews is responsible for implementing the new JFS program and is currently arranging meetings with partner agencies and setting up a training schedule.
JFS plans to train people from the other agencies, who will then train their own community volunteers to provide the various services to their seniors. The aim of the program is to keep the seniors in their own homes, and out of emergency departments, for as long as possible.
JFS provides ethno-specific and culturally and linguistically sensitive services to Jewish seniors living in Ottawa, including kosher meals on wheels, Jewish holiday programs and friendly daily calls in the language a senior is most comfortable speaking. The goal of the new program is to bring such programs to other groups.
“For us, as a Jewish agency, there is an element of tikkun olam – we are using a Jewish model of service in a sense of helping the greater good,” Zarecki said.
“The spinoffs include building goodwill among the various ethnic communities, enhancing collaboration and a collaborative effort to meet the needs of seniors… this is one way of breaking down barriers. This is part of our vision of the role of the Jewish agency in the greater community.”
