In this inaugural year operating the RAISE program, JFCS has placed four adults with developmental disabilities in successful, paid, work opportunities. 

Based on an Orlando Jewish Community model, RAISE has been a great success here in Bergen County!

JFCS employs (and pays) our RAISE participants for seven hours per week: Two three-hour jobs, plus a weekly one-hour Lunch & Learn.

• Employment: Accompanied by a one-on-one volunteer job coach at each position, RAISE Employees work at two three-hour jobs per week. The Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, Temple Sinai, and our own JFCS are the placement sites this year.  For our next cohort, slated to begin in January 2025, we will hope to include these same job sites as well as some additional sites as well.

• Lunch & Learn: There is also a one-hour weekly Lunch & Learn which follows a robust curriculum for workplace success. This educational, team-work focused meeting is also a social highpoint of each week. 
  Facilitated by a JFCS clinician, Lunch & Learn focuses on social skills in the workplace, providing weekly opportunities for skill building, skill practice, support, and camaraderie among the four participants.

JFCS is thrilled to soon be completing our first cohort (February – September 2024).  We will be providing guidance in transition to employment for our four RAISE participants.

The RAISE program operates under JFCS’s Re-Launch Career Services, which has helped over a thousand jobseekers to compete in the market and secure new positions. 

Having recognized that typical career services do not accommodate every jobseeker, JFCS launched this program to assist our RAISE participants in being set up for success.  

As JFCS works to strengthen the community every day, RAISE will support the goal of Empowering People and Transforming Lives.  

For more information on this program, please contact Sandra Leshaw: SandraL@jfcsnnj.org / 201-837-9090 x225