Highlights of the Year

Our Federation Annual Meeting was held Aug. 16, at which time we elected directors to the Youngstown Area Jewish Community Board. This year, we brought back our tradition of hosting a dinner prior to the Annual Meeting, which attracted 75 individuals. The Annual Meeting featured keynote speaker, Barb Ewing, CEO of the Youngstown Business Incubator. We also honored a number of superb individuals for their volunteer service to the Federation and community. The write-ups of the individuals receiving awards are included in the High Holiday issue of the Jewish Journal (Click here to read). 

At the Annual Meeting, we distributed the Federation’s Annual Report, which details all the activities of our agencies over the past year. I encourage you to review the individual messages from the chairs of our agencies. The meeting was the last for Suzyn Schwebel Epstein as president of the Federation for three years, who will be replaced by Neil Schor. The following are some highlights of Suzyn’s last year as president:

• At the JCC, we just finished up the best attended year of Camp JCC EVER. In 2022, we averaged 209 campers for the 10 weeks of Camp, this year 240 (with our largest week totaling 273 campers).
• Our Early Learning Center is a five-star rated center, the highest level given by the state of Ohio. We added an additional classroom in July and we are currently full and entering the 2023/24 school year with a waiting list.
• After three years of COVID, buses have been rolling all over our region now that our Arts & Culture bus tours have returned. Recently, trips were made to Cleveland to see “Once on This Island” and to Pittsburgh to see “Once,” both with other stops along the way. 
• This summer, Federation helped send three more local teachers to Poland with Classrooms Without Borders. Thanks to that experience, one of the educators from Boardman is creating an elective course on the Holocaust, hate, and genocide. This upcoming year, JCRC is building upon those activities, creating a comprehensive plan to combat hate and antisemitism, particularly in area schools.
• JCRC and our Federation security teams continue to strengthen our relationship with local law enforcement officials to better serve our community’s security needs.
• This past year, we celebrated Israel’s 75th anniversary with a series of programs, and Bonnie Deutsch Burdman, our executive director of community relations & government affairs,  participated in two state leadership missions to Israel. These trips have deepened our relationships with political leaders and have led to much needed state funding for our agencies. In fact, our professional leadership team has raised over one million in grants over the past year.
• The Federation continued to help the Isakov family from Ukraine resettle in Youngstown, with two of the family members employed at Adult Day Services at Heritage Manor.
• Through Jewish Family & Community Services, more than 350 households in need received help meeting the rising cost of food, gas, and utilities. On top of their counseling duties, JFCS staff also assisted older adults who want to remain in their homes safely and stay connected to loved ones through its Aging Well programs. Those who are homebound also received freshly made meals through our JMeals program jointly run by JFCS and the JCC.
• We completed late last year the renovation and expansion of Heritage Manor and now have 72 private rooms. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rate nursing homes on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, and Heritage Manor is a 5-star facility, one of only two in a five mile radius of our campus. Currently, we are over 94 percent occupied, which is a 14 percent better occupancy rate than other homes in Mahoning County.
• Levy Gardens recently received a 2023 Best of Senior Living Award, given to the top 2 to 3 percent of senior care providers nationwide based on reviews from residents and families. Ninety three percent of Levy apartments have been occupied all year, and thanks to the generosity of a number of donors, we just added a back patio to commemorate Levy’s 25th anniversary. This improves dining and entertainment options for the tenants. The patio will make it easier for Akiva students to get to Levy for their intergenerational programming with Levy’s tenants, which were so successful this year, and culminated with a trip to the Maltz Museum in Cleveland this past May.
• Akiva students in grades three to eight who took state tests this year scored well above the state averages. Parents are taking note with our enrollment growing from 157 students last year to 166 this year. Akiva added a new program for some of its youngest learners this past June with a three week extended kindergarten program to make sure the children are ready to hit the ground running in first grade this fall.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the superb work of our communications and marketing team that market so many of the programs/services we offer on our campus. So much of what we do for the community would not be possible without the generosity of our donors to the Annual Campaign, which raised over $1.2 million, approximately $37,000 more than the previous year.

There’s so much more that can be written about the great work that Federation does in the community, and this could not have been accomplished without the enduring support of our professionals, volunteers, and lay leadership, led by our president Suzyn Schwebel Epstein.

Best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Andy
Andrew Lipkin, Federation CEO