Page 6 - Jewish Home Family Annual Report 2019

We are in the midst of a great deal of change and progress, adding new programs and services and building an organization that is prepared for success both today and in the future. But my description never ends there because all of this growth takes place only for one reason, the reason that is the core of all we do and that is to enrich and enhance the lives of older adults.
For more than a century, the Jewish Home has been dedicated to providing care to those in need. I often think about the philosophy of Robert Greenleaf, who coined the term “servant leadership.” Greenleaf understood that both individuals and organizations could be servant leaders and by that he meant that understanding and caring comes first and leadership second. In our case, we do not lead the field of aging services merely to lead, we work to lead because we understand that our first priority, our only priority, is to serve.
Greenleaf wrote that
“Caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built... If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them.”
I think those words aptly describe the philosophy and commitment of both our boards and our professional leadership.
Understanding the need to serve our population as primary, we have continued this year to build and grow important programs. Our Parkinson’s Center, which received prestigious national recognition from the American Public Health Association, is expanding. We’ve added new programs like LaughActive, laughter yoga, and Loud Crowd, focused on speech and speech volume, both of which were funded by generous grants we obtained. We added two new sites to our Rock Steady Boxing program, one at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades and
the other on our Rockleigh campus. They join the existing Jewish Home Assisted Living site to create a broad geographic reach for this growing program. And we continue with our monthly support group and ongoing education for the community.
We are, of course, focused on enhancing life and optimiz- ing health for our elders as we work to develop the new Charles P. Berkowitz Center for Rehabilitation Excellence
We will continue to look forward, to anticipate and to challenge ourselves to understand and meet the needs of our community.
Moving Forward
When I describe The Jewish Home Family,
it is as an organization that is moving forward.
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Carol Silver Elliott
President & CEO
The Jewish Home Family