Jewish Family Services Recognizes Shelley Rivkin with Jewish Community Professional Award
By Richard Fruchter, CEO, Jewish Family Services
Shelley has been a great ally for JFS for more than a decade. We frequently ask for Shelley’s thoughts and opinions regarding new initiatives that JFS wants to bring forward to benefit the community. Shelley has been a stalwart advocate of programs such as Mental Health Outreach, Youth-at-Risk (our YOU Matter program), Housing and Food Security, as well as being a ready consultant for our funding allocation cycles. Her calm demeanor has helped our agency in difficult times of change. Most recently, Tanja and I and our small Food Security Task Force had the opportunity to see her in action up close. She is like a Chess Grandmaster in her ability to read the board and anticipate a half dozen moves in advance in order to bring us ever closer to our eventual community building goal. Her orchestration of community process is a wonder to behold.
Shelley has many years’ experience working with a broad range of community organizations on a variety of social policy issues.
Before coming to Jewish Federation, Shelley worked at the Justice Institute where she was known for building bridges across professions and disciplines to ensure that the voices and needs of vulnerable adults and children were front and centre.
Since joining Jewish Federation in 2007, she has worked collaboratively with a wide range of partner agencies and community volunteers to respond to and address community needs. Her portfolio has ranged from community security to youth at risk and she has been the driving force behind a number of Federation’s new initiatives including the regional communities’ strategy, innovation in part time Jewish education and her most recent work with JFS on the Jewish Food Security Task Force.
In addition to her work at Federation, Shelley is an adjunct professor at the School of Social Work at UBC and Langara College.
When I asked a few volunteer and professional leaders to tell me about what made Shelley special as a Jewish communal worker I received an abundance of eloquent and heartfelt submissions. I thought I would mention a few tonight.
“In my humble opinion, no one deserves this award more than Shelley.
Her work ethic is immense but even more important is her unique soft-spoken diplomatic approach to resolving issues. Her hard work and drive helped not only with the Jewish Food Security Task Force, but also on addressing issues regarding outreach to communities living outside the Oak Street corridor, housing for folks with low income, support for troubled youth, Jewish education and so much more.” And:
“Shelley is a true believer in all things community. She sees us all as her colleagues, regardless of the diverse positions (and personalities!) we have or we may hold on various issues. She always strives to work collaboratively in order to build consensus for the greater good of our community. This is not an easy feat!
Shelley is a very straight arrow. She is always sincere and honest: saying what she means and meaning what she says. Shelley always follows through and doesn’t let anything fall through the cracks.
“[Shelley] sees all sides of an issue, is compassionate, really smart and has an uncanny ability to get to the heart of a matter. When I look back on my community work over the past 20+ years, working with Shelley has really been a great highlight.” And:
“Rumour has it that Shelley is as passionate about Coke Zero as she is about her work. The one anecdote that best exemplifies her commitment to community is when she tripped in her office, broke her hip, and went to the hospital just as the first bomb threat was called in to our JCC. Shelly managed the entire community response from her bed in the ER – now that’s commitment.” And finally:
“Shelley has fought to make our city shine as an example to others. She is truly one of a kind. Her commitment to our Jewish community is not just professional but deeply personal. We are lucky to have someone with such depth of knowledge and love for community leading our community affairs operation at the Federation.”