Jewish Family & Children's Service of Greater Boston history

The Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum moves to a new campus on Ocean Avenue in 1921 and is renamed Homewood Terrace.

In 1926 United Jewish Charities formed and affiliation with the Greater Hartford Community Chest , a relationship that still continues today with the United Way.

In 1931, the Eureka Benevolent Society moves to a newly built office complex on Scott Street in San Francisco.

1946 Jewish Family and Children’s Service established with the merger of the Jewish Child Welfare Association and the Jewish Family Service.

1948 A New Americans adolescent unit was established at Dorchester House.

1950 Additional educational activities were introduced to Education Committee and Intake committee.

Yvonne z’l and Ernest Schneider wed in Homewood Terrace’s synagogue in 1951, surrounded by friends they made in the children’s home.

November 1961 Ledgewood building, a residential care facility for boys, opened with 14 boys.

December 4, 1964 Jewish Family and Children’s service Women’s Committee’s 30th anniversary took place at Temple Israel.

In 1966, JFSA opens its first branch office on the Peninsula.

Iin 1972, it opens another branch office in Marin County.

The agency launches a volunteer corps in 1973.

In 1974, its Child Guidance Program expands to include child therapy, consultation to teachers, and group counseling for parents.

In 1977, Homewood Terrace and JFSA merge to become JFCS.

In 1978, amid funding cuts and facing increasingly more complex social problems, a new organization was born and a new day had arrived in the world of social services.

In 1981 JFS first received national accreditation from the Council on Accreditation for Family and Children’s Service Agencies.

In June 1982, the agency opens one of the first family resource centers in the nation, Parents Place, and purchases its first property, a Victorian building on California Street in San Francisco, to house it.

In 1985, JFCS opens Adoption Connection, a fully licensed, nonprofit adoption agency, which handles open, infant adoptions and matches birth mothers with adoptive parents.

Also in 1986, the second wave of refuges from the Soviet Union to the United States begins.

In 1987, JFCS collaborates with Jewish Family Services of Los Angeles to introduce the Personal Affairs Management Bill in the state legislature to provide funding for multi-service centers to offer services to the frail elderly.

In 1988, the agency implements the fee-for-service program, Help at Home, to provide home care, nursing care, meal delivery, laundry, personal affairs management, and emergency response service to the growing numbers of Bay Area older adults.

In 1989, JFCS acts as a first responder to the October 17 Loma Prieta earthquake, providing emergency loans, grant assistance, temporary housing, relocation services, crisis counseling, consultation to schools and day care centers, on-site mental health services, and community workshops.

In 1998, JFCS’ émigré department expands its youth development program in collaboration with Parents Place.

In 1999, JFCS’ L’Chaim Center for frail Russian elderly is licensed as an adult day health care facility.

In 2001, JFCS purchases a Scott Street building for Parents Place and a building in San Rafael for its Marin County branch office.

The Anja Rosenberg Kosher Food Pantry which was started in 2002

In 2004, JFS became licensed by the Department of Children and Families to provide specialized services to children and teens.

In 2006 JFS moved from Bishops Corner to the space it now occupies on the Zachs Campus in the Community Services Building.

In 2007, the agency launches the Childhood Trauma Training Institute, training mental health professionals in the impact and treatment of trauma in children ages 0 – 5.

In 2009 JFCS receives a donation of the Gary Shupin House – Independent Living Community for developmentally disabled adults, in San Francisco.

21 May 2012. http://www.jfcsboston.org/AboutJFCS/Overview/tabid/253/Default.aspx

The SHCFP Tribute Wall unveiled July 20, 2014: a glass and ceramic mural created by James Simon to honor all the donors to the Food Pantry.