If you watch a high-wire circus act, you’ll notice that not only do the performers have a cable attached from the wire to their body, there’s also a safety net below. If the performer falls and the cable malfunctions, the safety net is there to ensure the performer is protected from serious injury or death.
That’s a lot like the way safety net services are intended to work. They “catch” individuals and families whose lives are falling apart and have no “cable” to break their fall. In many cases, these services are the only support standing between the individual and disaster.
Who are the people whose lives and well-being may suddenly depend on a safety net being there to break their fall?
People with no family (or no family nearby) to turn to for help
- Individuals struggling with disabilities or chronic illness
- New and elderly immigrants who are poorly assimilated into the culture and hindered by their lack of English fluency
- Women and children escaping from domestic violence
- Individuals whose lives are suddenly turned upside down by catastrophic injury or illness
- Single parent families whose economic base has been severely compromised by death or divorce
- Frail seniors who are no longer able to adequately care for themselves
- Individuals contending with addiction or chronic mental illness
- People out of the mainstream without a network of friends or community of support
- The working poor, unable to make ends meet and living one paycheck away from disaster
- Individuals and families who are at the effect of the economic crisis:
- Young adults who were last hired/first fired
- Couples losing their homes to foreclosure
- Families unable to make ends meet due to layoffs or job downsizing
- Seniors with depleted retirement savings
A Comprehensive Net of Support
When someone comes to JFCS for safety net services, it is often because something sudden, unexpected, and traumatic has happened to them. The goal of the JFCS safety net program is to provide community members with the complete, integrated package of services and support they need to regain their practical and emotional self-sufficiency and improve their ability to handle future challenges.
A vital part of the JFCS safety net program is the intake, in which trained JFCS staff carefully assess the needs of the client and design a program of services to address their specific needs.
These may include:
Short-term emergency financial assistance: To pay for housing, utilities, medical bills, clothing, medications, transportation, and other life-sustaining needs as resources allow.
Food vouchers: To address the problem of hunger.
Crisis counseling: To ensure that those struggling with traumatic life transitions—such as job loss, homelessness, divorce, bereavement, domestic violence, or catastrophic illness or injury—get the emotional support they need to move out of anxiety, depression and shock, develop a plan of action, and begin to regain their emotional equilibrium.
Case management: To help individuals and families navigate the complicated social service and health care systems, and enable them to locate and access resources from local government agencies and other Portland metro-area organizations.
Advocacy: To assist clients in getting their needs met by advocating for them with other organizations, and by coaching them on how to effectively represent themselves and make their own case for services.
Homecare support: To enable low-income seniors to continue to live safe, healthy lives in their own homes by providing them with a variety of support services, including monitoring physical, emotional and mental health; menu planning and food preparation; transportation to doctor appointments; and general household chores.
Job search assistance: To help those who are unemployed or underemployed find work, including providing assistance with searching for job openings, resume writing, interview skills, dealing with nerves and anxiety, networking, and accessing other community employment resources.
Immigrant services: To assist new and elderly immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are hindered by their lack of English fluency to effectively negotiate with health care providers, lawyers, landlords, loan officers, immigration officials, and other persons of authority.
Mental health counseling: To ensure that low-income individuals and families dealing with crises and traumatic life transitions; acute mental health problems; lack of insurance; disabilities; and other mental health challenges have access to quality mental health care.
Information and referral: To connect our clients with the full range of local resources. Partnerships with other Portland Metro agencies that provide complimentary services help us avoid duplicating programs and forge a true community “safety net” for at-risk populations.
Holiday Food Boxes: One of the most appreciated forms of support JFCS offers. During the Thanksgiving holiday, we provide over 65 families with a complete Thanksgiving holiday meal, and during Passover, JFCS works with other community groups to provide boxes for elderly and low-income Jewish clients.
Contact Us
For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call 503-226-7079 x128 to leave a voicemail message. |
