Thursday, August 20 – Friday, September 18, 2020
People are having a hard time making ends meet. YOU CAN HELP.
Join us in the 2020 Virtual Feeding Families Food Drive Benefiting the Sonny & Janet Meyer Food Pantry.
By donating today, you can help empower families and allow JFCS to say YES! to the needs of community.
In these unusual times, we are grateful for monetary donations.
Donate NOW!
We have added a Learning and Activity Toolkit and a Fact Sheet to the Virtual Feeding Families Food Drive website.
We have some great activities that the whole family, near and far, can participate in!
JFCS Career Coaches, Andrea Brown and Cindy Key, have been accepted by the RISE program. RISE is a new initiative by the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and JPRO to help Jewish community professionals dealing with layoffs and furloughs get back on their feet when they need a helping hand the most.
RISE realizes that when it comes to career coaching, one size does not fit all. That’s where JFCS’s personalized, customized approach fits in. Andrea and Cindy were two of only 30 coaches selected nationally from a pool of 100 applicants to serve as RISE career coaches.
Nationally, the Jewish communal workforce has been deeply impacted by the pandemic and its economic fallout. Layoffs and furloughs are at historic levels for Jewish preschools, camps, community centers, Federations and synagogues.
JFCS is grateful that we are able to bring our expertise and decades of career coaching experience to serve the Jewish community nationally. And, we are grateful to be able to provide these same nationally-recognized services to our local Jewish community through Careers During COVID, a free customizable service package open to anyone in the Jewish community experiencing employment changes or challenges because of the pandemic. Careers During COVID is made possible by the United Jewish Louisville Rapid Response Fund.
Meet Our Career Coaches
Andrea Brown is a professional career counselor with over 10 years of career guidance and assessment experience. She has specialized training in vocational counseling for individuals with disabilities and a passion for working with this population. Andrea believes that a career should be interesting, inspiring and enjoyable and that is why she loves helping individuals find their best career match. She utilizes the implementation and interpretation of a variety of assessment tools to assist individuals with establishing appropriate career goals. Then she assists these individuals in reaching their goals through resume writing and interviewing coaching.
Andrea holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in Rehabilitation Counseling. She is a certified Rehabilitation Counselor with specialized training in financial coaching and supported employment.
Cindy Key has over twenty years of experience as a transition strategist and career coach. She helps individuals from all walks of life, a vast array of industries and many countries, focus to align their skills, interests and experience, then communicate and leverage their unique value, to create new meaningful employment, fine job opportunities, gain a promotion, start a business or achieve important personal goals.
Cindy is a Certified Business Manager (CBM), a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), a Certified Business Coach (CBC), a Certified Personal Branding Strategist (CPBS), SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP), a graduate of the American Society of Training & Development (ASTD) Training and Development Program of the University of Oklahoma and holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Wayland Baptist University. Cindy is also one of the founding coaches with The Institute for Career Transitions (ICT) a non-profit organization founded by MIT-based scholars which brings together scholars and practitioners to support individuals who are navigating challenging career transitions.
Please join us in congratulating Andrea and Cindy on this achievement.
A Virtual Training to Identify, Understand and Respond to Signs of Mental Illness.
JFCS believes each of us has the power to be a first-responder when we encounter someone in crisis. We have invested in training our staff to provide Mental Health First Aid training courses virtually.
Our vision is a community collectively more prepared to respond to those in need and to help them find a path to professional services and recovery.
The first step in addressing the challenge is to combat the stigmas associated with mental health and substance use. Through Mental Health First Aid training, we explore the power of the words we use and how our language can amplify or reduce stigma.
Through Mental Health First Aid training, we also equip individuals to offer support. We are planting seeds so that people in the community are prepared as “noticers.” We empower them to recognize the signs of mental illness and to develop the skills necessary to respond with non-judgmental social support. We know that once people feel comfort and acceptance, they are more likely to seek professional help.
And, of course, we offer professional services at JFCS. In addition to individual, couples, and family counseling, we can also provide our clients psychiatric medication assessment and management.
Mental Health First Aid is just one of the evidenced-based modalities we use. Many of our staff are trained in cognitive behavioral therapy and other best practices that are tailored to meet individual needs. As an agency, we are highly collaborative and networked with other service providers. We often connect people to community resources outside of JFCS, if their needs extend beyond our purview. We are currently working to re-imagine this program to be delivered in a virtual format. More information will be available soon.
Together, we believe we can lift mental health and substance use out of the shadows to make a real and meaningful difference that touches the hidden places in so many peoples’ hearts.
Learn more about Mental Health First Aid and Counseling Services or contact us at mhfa@jfcslouisville.org or 502-452-6341 x 120
After months of job searching since being laid off last year, Colleen* finally received the right job offer, only to have it rescinded as the economic impacts of the novel coronavirus rippled through Louisville.
“Prior to the pandemic, she had respect in her own employability that was shattered when they took the job offer away,” said Andrea Brown, JFCS Career Counselor. “She was making progress in moving past her previous experience with being laid off. The loss of her latest job offer set her back again.”
Colleen first came to JFCS as an older adult looking for job counseling about five years ago when she was laid off from another position. With the help of JFCS staff, she was able to find a job that supported her as well as fulfilled her. After she was laid off from that position, she came back to JFCS last fall. She had tried job searching on her own and wasn’t quite getting the traction she wanted or needed.
“Working together, we went through her resume and talked through her accomplishments to remind her of how talented and skilled she really is,” Andrea said.
JFCS provides career services that are tailored to every individual — from resume reviews and updating LinkedIn profiles to assessments that help guide clients toward work environments or new careers that work best for them. And JFCS is now offering a weekly, online “Job Seekers Networking Group” moderated and guided by JFCS staff.
“Having faced previous layoffs, Colleen was already coming in with an element of grief,” Andrea said. “She was positive at first and didn’t feel alone in her experience since the virus was impacting so many people. But it began to wear on her emotionally.”
She ended up falling back a few steps, losing motivation to job search and feeling isolated like many older adults and high-risk groups during the pandemic. She was even hesitant to join JFCS online networking events until taking Andrea up on her offer to connect with JFCS mental health counseling.
“The initial step of reaching out for help was the hardest part,” Andrea said. “After Colleen started counseling, she was still struggling but there was a momentum building.”
During one career networking session, Colleen made connections within her industry and bounced new ideas off other professionals. Andrea encouraged her to channel that excitement into motivating herself in her job search.
As Colleen continues building momentum, JFCS will be there to support her every step of the way, no matter how big or small those steps may be.
* Name changed for privacy.