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For over 40 years Jewish Family Services of Ottawa (JFS) has used the values of dignity, kindness and compassion to guide us as we serve those who need it most. Across all our services and supports we guide our neighbors from crisis to calm, from anguish to awareness, and from isolation to connection.
As a multi-services agency JFS supports many of Ottawa’s vulnerable communities through senior support services, settlement and integration, specialized support of Ottawa’s Jewish community, homeless outreach and a broad range of counselling services in multiple languages, through our centrally located clinic and community-based walk-in locations.
Our Settlement Services work in partnership with other community service providers, providing high quality, seamless settlement services to newcomer adults, seniors, children and youth through:
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Needs assessment and referrals, in person and online, using a case management approach;
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Information and orientation for individuals and families, in person (1:1 and groups) and on online;
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Support services that remove barriers to accessing settlement services, ensuring equitable access to all IRCC settlement services;
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Building and developing community connections to organizations that aids in increasing their social networks;
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360° supports for clients with unique barriers, including services tailored to meet the specific needs of client groups facing multiple barriers to settlement and integration e.g. vulnerable children and youth, LGBTQ2+, seniors;
Services are provided in 10 languages to ensure that:
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Clients access services that meet their needs;
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Clients make informed decisions about life in Canada; and
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Clients are connected to communities and institutions.
JFS also addresses the growing need for newcomer mental health and well-being support through our Counselling Group.
The Counselling Group helps ease the transition by offering newcomers extensive social support, counselling, advocacy and referral services that help them adjust to their new home. In addition to being culturally-responsive and providing services in multiple languages, we also have a multi-disciplinary team that includes social workers, psychotherapists, settlement workers and play therapists.
Maximizing the potential of newcomer children and youth is important to us. Among the many services we provide are play therapy, skill development programming, and school-based support. We are also able to offer counselling and therapy for those who may be dealing with past trauma or mental distress.
We want all of our city’s newcomers to be informed and empowered to make the most of their new life in a new home. This means ensuring that they feel welcomed, supported, and emboldened to thrive.
Counselling services are available in Arabic, English, French, Creole, Farsi/Dari and Spanish. Learn more about our Counselling Services
For ethnocultural seniors our Diverse Seniors Support Services team provides culturally and linguistically appropriate supports for vulnerable immigrant seniors in racialized communities throughout the Ottawa region. The services offered as part of this program ensure diverse seniors receive quality supports that are sensitive to their language use and cultural orientation, and meet a broad range of their daily and long-term needs.
All of our services are provided in a decentralized model; located at and in collaboration with settlement and other community partners and are informed by ongoing engagement of a broad range of stakeholders and clients.
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