Community Chaplaincy Campaign
JFS Community Chaplaincy Campaign
Chairs: Susan and Mickey Minsberg
Make your multi-year pledge and first payment to the Community Chaplaincy Campaign online with your credit card.
Download the Community Chaplaincy Campaign info sheet and pledge form to pay by check or credit card (not online) and return it to JFS.
The JFS Community Chaplaincy Program, led by Rabbi Lynn Liberman, a Board-Certified Chaplain, delivers spiritual guidance, ritual observance and a listening presence to individuals and families in their homes and care settings or other settings as needed. It provides renewed meaning and hope to those coping with illness, loneliness, disability, end-of-life issues, and other life struggles. The program helps unaffiliated and marginalized Jews connect with the Jewish community or simply reconnect with their Jewishness. Participants are not charged for Chaplaincy Services.
In 2021, the Community Chaplaincy Program
- Served 323 individuals including individuals in their homes, at 18 senior residences.
- An additional 354 people received support through community programs, and several hundred more through seminars and workshops.
- Provided support to families in facilitating conversations and helping individuals complete advance care planning documents.
What Others Are Saying
“The Community Chaplain reaches out to individual clients – regularly visiting my mother with caring attention and Jewish symbols that touch her deeply. The Chaplain also impacts the broader community – leading wonderful sedarim for residents and family members at the Alton, where there are few Jewish residents – and in so doing increase staff understanding and appreciation for Judaism and the needs of Jewish residents. Finally, the Chaplain touches me by being present for my mother and listening sensitively to my own experience as well. My family is enormously appreciative of the Jewish community for its support of this important program.”
– Nina Samuels, daughter of JFS Community Chaplaincy client.
Our Ask
To grow the JFS Community Chaplaincy Program, we are asking for your support over three years to expand program support through a part time Chaplain within the program.
Expanded Program Support
Through our work in the community, JFS has found that the more we do, the more need we find. The reputation of our Community Chaplaincy Program grows daily, attracting additional requests for services and outreach.
The .8 FTE Community Chaplain is consistently at near full capacity yet continues to get referrals from community partners weekly. The program can meet some additional community need with the addition of a half-time chaplain. We anticipate providing spiritual care support to an additional 75-90 individuals through individual care and group programs. This will also allow us to expand our effective para chaplaincy program that utilizes volunteers to expand the reach of the program.
This additional part-time Chaplain would be a non-permanent contracted staff member. Supporting this position will require multi-year financial commitments from donors. It is also critical that those financial commitments do not come at the expense of gifts that JFS would regularly receive from donors, taking them away from our general fundraising activities.
Total Project Cost: $111,668 over three years
- Year 1: $36,128
- Year 2: $37,212
- Year 3: $38,328
Individual Commitment:
To fund this program expansion and provide time for JFS to identify a more permanent funding solution for the program expansion, we are asking funders to complete the attached form to make a three-year commitment at a meaningful level outside of their traditional JFS giving. These restricted pledges will solely fund this position.