About Us
Our Mission
JAFCO’s mission is to provide care, safety and support to children and their families within the Jewish community and beyond who are impacted by abuse, neglect, trauma, or developmental disabilities…giving every child a place to belong.
JAFCO provides a full continuum of high-quality services including foster care, adoption, family preservation, mentoring, independent living and developmental disability programs. The JAFCO Children’s Village, consisting of an Emergency Shelter and six Group Homes, is one of the most unique and innovative programs in the nation. The JAFCO Children’s Ability Center supports families raising children with developmental disabilities by providing family enrichment, resources, and respite care all within one state-of-the-art center. JAFCO also is providing foster care, adoption, family preservation and support services to families raising a child with a developmental disability in our Philadelphia office.
2023 – JAFCO Children’s Ability Center
Channel 6 News
2023 – JAFCO Children’s Ability Center Justin Kohlhagen
Inside South Florida
2020 – JAFCO CAC Tour
Vision
JAFCO’s vision is to provide a model child welfare program which can be replicated by other communities around the country providing a full continuum of high-quality family preservation, case management, foster care, adoption, emergency shelter, group home, independent living, therapy, mentoring, family enrichment, and respite services to both typical and special needs children and their families. We believe that the care of children in our community is our responsibility, one we accept with joy, pride and love.
Our long-range vision is to promote the development of our unique comprehensive services to abused, neglected and special needs children in other Jewish communities around the country — whether those services are provided by local existing autonomous agencies, or by JAFCO directly.
Philosophy:
JAFCO believes that the care of our children is a community responsibility.
We believe that while JAFCO was created to fill an unmet need in the Jewish community, it is our privilege, our pleasure and our responsibility as a Jewish community to offer our quality services to any child and family in need.
We believe that by recognizing and respecting the signs and symptoms of trauma in our clients and other stakeholders, we can mindfully integrate our commitment to the Trauma Informed Care Model and Person Centered Approach into our policies, procedures, practices and daily interactions.
We believe that nothing is more tragic than a family torn apart and that providing a child with a familiar cultural and religious environment will assist that child as they heal from the trauma of abuse and neglect and separation from their biological family.
We believe that communities will respond to the responsibility of caring for abused and neglected and special needs children when appropriately educated as to presence of local children needing their support, and when an organizational framework is established that provides concerned people with opportunities to participate in meeting the needs of such children.
We believe that children served by JAFCO should be treated no differently than the traditional way loving “Jewish parents” would act toward their biological children, offering them the best life has to offer in all aspects of their social, emotional, physical, educational, cultural and spiritual development.
We believe that caring for dependent children should not be viewed as charity, but should be viewed as a parent caring for a child — with joy, pride, love and support…giving every child a place to belong.
History of JAFCO
by: Shani McManus, Jewish Journal Staff Writer
Ronald D. Simon may be just 55 years old, but as President and founder of Jewish Adoption and Foster Care Options, also known as JAFCO, he ranks as a true-life pioneer in the child welfare and foster care field. Moreover, the proven success of The JAFCO Children’s Village, located on a five-acre site in Sunrise and providing a wide range of services for more than 350 abused and neglected children, may possibly stand as the model for future state-run foster care programs nationwide.
Since he grew up with 10 siblings, it is no surprise that Simon, who was born in Philadelphia and moved with his family to Miami Beach at age 13, would devote his life to improving the lives of children. The Delray Beach resident, who married his high school sweetheart, Deni, and is the father of two grown sons, initially became involved in child welfare during the 1980’s‚ when he headed a national training program, the first such organization to initiate preparation classes for foster parenting.
Simon earned his doctorate in education in 1982 at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. While still involved in education as president of Alternate Educational Systems, which develops and operates model independent educational programs in the state of Florida, and as headmaster at the Randazzo School in Coconut Creek, his true career is in social services. “A lot of decisions in life happen by chance, without planning,” Simon says. “I felt this was my calling.”
The idea for JAFCO grew out of Simon’s‚ years of work with social services and child welfare, and took root in 1992 when, with the help of Nova staff associates Sarah Franco and Wendy Jenkins (who later became JAFCO founding Executive and Clinical Director), he saw a need. We would come across Jewish kids, and (we) found they were totally separated from the Jewish community, he says. So we decided to form our own agency, and since we were experts in this field, we wanted to create something in the Jewish community that would be significant.
JAFCO started as a private charity funded by the Simon family, with his uncle, Jack Taylor, putting up the seed money, along with his father, Charlie Simon, and himself. The concept of JAFCO is an original idea and revolutionary, Simon says. Where JAFCO differs is that it is a privately-funded community-based agency. The Jewish community says these kids are really a part of our family. You won’t find this in state welfare; we view them as our kids. It is our hope that the model we created in Florida will become the model for the rest of the country.
Future plans may include opening JAFCO prototypes in other communities around the country one day. A current project will expand JAFCO services to include a campus to help developmentally disabled children and their families. Simon is grateful to the Jewish community for making his dream come true. “Without Ron Simon, JAFCO would never exist”, says Sarah Franco, JAFCO Executive Director. “He is one of the most caring and intelligent human beings I know and thankfully his love for children has spread throughout our JAFCO family.”
Preserving Our Jewish Heritage
Nothing is more tragic than a family torn apart. When a child is removed from his family, he leaves behind what he has known and takes with him his fears, anger, hurt and insecurities. We believe that we can provide one less obstacle in the healing process by providing a child with a familiar cultural and religious environment. We believe every child deserve a safe and loving home.
Founded in 1992 by the Simon Family, JAFCO was created to ensure that Jewish children who were being removed from their home due to abuse or neglect and in one moment lose everything that is important to them, their home, their family, their pets, their friends, would at least be able to take with them the one piece of their identity that comes from their connection with their Jewish heritage.
Prior to the creation of JAFCO the Jewish community had not taken any action to care for these children who ended up lost in a large state foster care system that was not able to maintain their Jewish identity. While JAFCO was created specifically to meet an unmet need in the Jewish community, it is the Jewish tradition to take care of any child in need and respect their culture and religion as well.
The JAFCO Jewish Children’s Village and the JAFCO Foster Care and Adoption Program are the placement options for a child whose family is unable to care for them.
- Adoption
- Foster Care
- Group Homes (The Children’s Village)
At the JAFCO Jewish Children’s Village, we teach the children about the beauty of Judaism by…
- Nurturing them with Kosher food
- Celebrating Shabbat dinner and services
- Learning about being Jewish at Hebrew School
- Giving each child a Bar or Bat Mitzvah of their own complete with a beautiful celebration
- Celebrating Rosh Hashanah with a beautiful dinner and attending services
- Observing Yom Kippur with the traditions of tashlich, fasting and a break-fast dinner
- Inviting the community to our annual Tu B’shvat Seder and Tree Planting
- Celebrating Passover with a beautiful Seder
- Keeping the miracle of Chanukah alive with special gifts, candle lighting and an annual party
Frequently Asked Questions
Meet the Team
EXECUTIVE AND DEVELOPMENT STAFF
Sarah Franco, MS
Chief Executive Officer
Main: 954-749-7230
Direct: 954-315-8680
Wendy Jenkins, LCSW
Chief Clinical & Operations Officer
Direct: 954-749-7230, ext. 110
Justin Kohlhagen, PsyD
Executive Director – Children’s Ability Center
Main: 954-315-7033
Direct: 954-315-8697
Jill Lapensohn
Executive Director – FamilyMatters
Main: 610-525-1040
Direct: 484-385-0726
Rebecca Jarquin, LCSW
Director – Eagles’ Haven
Direct: 954-618-0344
Shea Pucci, LMFT
Clinical Director
Main: 954-749-7230
Direct: 954-315-8683
Katie Ginsberg, LCSW
Director of Foster Care and Adoption
Main: 954-749-7230
Direct: 954-315-8676
Shelli Gold
Director of Development Operations
Main: 954-749-7230
Direct: 954-315-8671
Janet Epstein
Philanthropy Director
Main: 954-749-7230
Direct: 954-315-8696
Rebecca Salus Hodge, MSW
Director of Grants and Partnerships
Main: 610-525-1040
Direct: 484-385-0725
David Rudolph, PHR, SHRM-CP
Director of Human Resources
Main: 954-749-7230
Direct: 954-315-8690
Maher Malak
Chief Financial Officer
Main: 954-749-7230
Direct: 954-315-7031
Sheree Spaulding
Comptroller
Main: 954-749-7230
Direct: 954-315-8684
Michael Moran
Direct: 954-226-9925
CHILDREN’S VILLAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Stewart Greenberg
Chair
Richard Allen
Vice Chair
Dara Berger
Secretary
Maurice D. Plough, Jr.
Imm. Past Chair
Barry Sylvetsky
Treasurer
Dr. Ronald Simon
Founding President
Allen Chelminsky
Dr. Jerome Chermak
Vicki Freed
Dorinne Gerstin
Mara Gober
Abbey Kaplan
Justin Leo
Marsha Levy
Douglas Meade
Sholom Neistein
Jeffrey Schacknow
Denise Simon
Keith Singer
Dr. Lisa Sirota Weiner
Helene Weicholz
Fran Zeitz
CHILDREN’S ABILITY CENTER BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Melissa Barnhardt
Chair
Amy Sylvetsky
Vice Chair
Laurie Rich Levinson
Treasurer
Marjorie Plough
Secretary
Louise Allen
Chair Emeritus
Marc Abrams
Susan Auerbach
Leslie Berman
Perry Isenberg
Stefanie Kushner
Nicole Lopez-Alvar
Rita Messner
Stacy Mager
Sandi Morris
James Orleans
Rachel Sapoznik
Dr. Ronald Simon
Sharon Wender
CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Stuart Rader
Chair
Marci Langley
Vice Chair
Laurence Herrup
Treasurer
Larry Robinson
Secretary
Randi Winter
VP of Fundraising
Rick Allen
Linda Brodie
Kenneth Fisher
Stewart Greenberg
Leslie Kaminoff
Bill Kushner
Maurice D. Plough, Jr.
Dr. Ronald Simon
Steven Weiss
Ed Wenger
JAFCO FAMILYMATTERS BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Linda Brodie
Chair
Mark Taplinger
Vice President & Treasurer
Michael Simon
Secretary
Marc Abrams
Rana Bell
Alan Casnoff
Debbie Casnoff
Amy Chipetz
David Cohen
David Kaplan
David H. Levy
Larry Robinson
Brett Sandle