JCHC Chronicles - Summer 2017

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NEWSLETTER CONTENTS

Chronicles SUMMER 2017

Letter from the President ........................................... 1 Congrats to our 2017 LITE program graduates! ......... 1 Letter from the CEO ................................................... 2 A Special Afternoon of Music with the NJSO ............. 2 Plaza Residents Learn Self-Defense Techniques .......... 2 Memory Care comes to Lester .................................... 3 Laurie Loughney Attends Conference in Israel............ 3 JCHC Strong: Keeping Our Seniors Safe .................... 3 Lester Residents Enjoy International Art Project ........ 4 Celebrating a Special Anniversary with the JCHC....... 4 Village Apartments is in Bloom ................................... 4 35 Years and Counting – Thank You, Monel! ............... 4 Resident Association Leaders Meet ............................ 5 The JCHC’s Circle of Life Legacy Program .................. 5 Encore, Encore! ........................................................... 5 Tributes ....................................................................... 6 JCHC to Present Program at LeadingAge Meeting .... 6

JEWISH COMMUNITY HOUSING CORPORATION OF METROPOLITAN NEW JERSEY 760 Northfield Ave., West Orange, NJ 07052 | 973-731-2020 | www.jchcorp.org

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT I started my term as Board President of the Jewish Community Housing Corporation on July 1, 2014. While we have not finished everything we’d hoped, I am pleased to have helped us continue to meet our present mission and future goals as caring senior communities. For instance, the JCHC has enabled residents with roots in the MetroWest community to remain here and continue to be active members, and continue to share their lives with their families and friends. We have created programs that enhance our residents’ lives. And, we continue to provide educational, spiritual and physically enhancing services in a time of diminishing resources. The past three years have been rewarding in so many ways. I have had the honor to serve with a board and with officers whose broad experience and expertise enable our organization to thoroughly understand and address the challenges that we face, and work with a professional staff whose dedication is only matched by its compassion. Their many years of work on our behalf, both individually and collectively, have created stability for our residents and trust and confidence from our board. Above all, I have learned that our residents’ spirits make all our efforts worthwhile.

Congratulations to Our 2017 LITE Program Graduates!

On May 18, 2017, we celebrated our seven graduates of our Leadership in Training Experience (LITE) program. The six-month program is a series of educational seminars in areas of self-discovery, ethical frameworks to do our jobs well, learning about the elderly, and how to provide superior services. As their assignments, the participants took the Mitchell Goldberg, JCHC Director of Regional Dining educational concepts Services with valedictorian Jeffrey Vasquez at the 2017 and applied them in LITE graduation luncheon. Jeffrey is the chef at the practical ways within their Lester Senior Housing Community. departments. This year’s theme was “Eye of the Tiger”; participants felt that the song’s lyrics encouraged them to rise up to challenges.

It is with this support that I have tried to guide the course that JCHC will take in the future. The demand for housing for an aging population is affected by historic demographic changes. Many baby boomers, members of the greatest population boom in our history, are reaching retirement. At the same time, their life expectancy (and that of their parents) has increased by almost twenty years. We are also facing changes in both federal and state willingness to provide financing to not only meet current needs but address our future needs as well. It is increasingly clear that we will need an innovative approach in order to continue providing quality services to our seniors. The residences that we built almost forty years ago—even with our continual updates and careful maintenance—are starting to show their age; sooner rather than later, they will need major expenditures to best serve future generations. We are in the process of putting together the financial resources and architectural plans that will address those needs. At Lester, we are opening a memory care unit in the Weston Assisted Living Residence. With the assistance of Federation, we have also spent the last three years envisioning a new community on the Whippany campus. I look forward to continuing to work on this project to bring the plans on paper to life, in a vibrant village on a state-of-the-art campus where our residents can continue to grow and explore. We are also well underway in modernizing and expanding the units and common areas at Village Apartments to maximize this wonderful location as South Orange Village develops. I am proud to have been given the opportunity to meet my moral and religious obligation to honor my elders and I look forward to working with my successor, Brian Saltzman. I am certain that his compassion and ability to understand the difference between a problem and a setback will provide the JCHC with the leadership that it needs. Most of all, I look forward to having more time to spend with my growing family and meeting with our residents, who share in our desire to grow and thrive.

Alan Cohen President, Board of Trustees

Meet our 2017 LITE graduates. In the front row (left to right) are Barbara Shaver, congregate aide; Lilliana Orihuela, CMA at the Weston Assisted Living Residence (Lester Senior Housing Community); and Knox Johnson, porter at Jewish Federation Plaza. Standing are Jay Greenberg, Regional Facilities Manager; Tryonne William-Parks, painter; Hiren Patel, accountant; Jeffrey Vasquez, chef, at Lester Senior Housing Community.

Chef Jeffrey Vasquez from the Lester Senior Housing Community was selected as the valedictorian of the course. At the celebration luncheon—which featured a beautiful Japanese food buffet and delicious appreciation cake—Jeffrey gave a moving speech about how the LITE program has helped him become a better employee, and that he learned about himself and how to be a better communicator. His daughter Kaylee, a student at Penn State University, attended. “When I came to JCHC as the chef six years ago, Mitchell Goldberg (Director of Regional Dining Services) asked me why I wanted to come here to work. I said that I am a family man and I wanted to spend more time with my family, and this gave me the opportunity to work a schedule that could make it happen. However, now Lester’s kitchen is ‘home’ to me … and that is a great feeling. I feel like I am doing good for the elderly and that makes me feel good. The theme of the Eye of the Tiger is that we are fighters and we will be passionate about working hard to help our residents and our co-workers as well.” CEO Harold Colton-Max complimented the staff for this accomplishment and presented the certificates of completion, along with their supervisor, to each attendee.


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