New Campus Means New Beginning for JF&CS

In a ceremony filled with gratitude and heart, Jewish Family & Career Services cut the ribbon Wednesday, May 10, on the its expanded, renovated campus at 4549 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody.

Crediting former CEO Gary Miller with the vision for the expansion because the IndependenceWORKS program was “bursting at the seams,” former JF&CS President John Perlman, who chaired the Campaign to Complete the Campus with Cherie Aviv, thanked all involved with the project planning, fundraising, “friendraising” and construction.

Raising more than $6.7 million allowed the team to “blast past” their goals and help pay for landscaping and maintenance of the facility, Perlman said.

The new construction and renovations integrate most of the staff and services of JF&CS onto one multifunctional campus. The grounds now include three gardens plus the Giving Garden, which will yield fresh produce to supplement the offerings of the Kosher Food Pantry.

Aviv spoke about the impact of the new building and grounds and of the renovated Walter and Frances Bunzl Family Foundation Clinical Services Wing. She said JF&CS clients enter “comfortable, warm and inviting spaces” where they are treated with dignity.

The new IndependenceWORKS building accommodates the day and pre-vocational skills programs of the Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Services. The light-filled hub, the gathering space of the building, complete with cubbies for the clients upon their arrival, includes a teaching kitchen and is surrounded by an art room, a computer lab, a teaching laundry, a sensory room and supplemental classrooms.

Calling attention to the new Legacy of Leadership wall in the renovated lobby, CEO Rick Aranson thanked the 258 families and 26 foundations supporting the campaign. “Your investment in our future will surely change lives.”

After the ribbon cutting, Rabbi Joshua Heller hung a mezuzah and described JF&CS as “a place where those who have been laid low may have a chance to rise up” and “those on a journey will have a place to go.”