Story highlights
- Jewish Family Services (JFS) and Muslim Family Services of Ottawa (MFSO) say our partnership is helping both their communities and staff cope with the challenges brought forth by the ongoing violence in Gaza and Israel.
- Over the last year, we helped address an immediate need for culturally appropriate care in the communities served by JFS and MFSO, and ensured that the burden on front-line staff was reduced.
- Our investment gave JFS and MFSO a reason to come together and talk about how they can lean on one another.
- United Way East Ontario remains committed to this work. We are always seeking new partners and donors to join us so that everyone across our region can reach their full potential
As violence continues in Gaza and Israel, local Jewish and Muslim organizations – with the support and partnership of United Way East Ontario – are working together to provide vital mental health services at a critical time.
Since the fall of 2023, feelings of fear, isolation, and horror, underlined by intergenerational traumas, have been affecting the mental health of so many in our communities – including those working on the frontlines. Local service providers saw a spike in demand for culturally appropriate and linguistically diverse mental health supports.
That’s why we stepped up, with an immediate investment to support Jewish, Palestinian, and Muslim serving organizations, to help their respective communities with mental health and trauma supports, and an investment into hate prevention and community resilience programs.
Now, more than nine months later, Jewish Family Services (JFS) and Muslim Family Services of Ottawa (MFSO) say our partnership is helping both their communities and staff cope.
“I know, not only Arabs, but everybody, in a different way, is affected by this situation, psychologically,” says Kadra Good, Acting Executive Director, MFSO. “I think we are providing services in ways we could never have anticipated before.”
Supporting community mental health and well-being through targeted funding and culturally appropriate care
Whether through culturally appropriate debrief sessions, counselling subsidies or group facilitation, JFS Executive Director Sarah Caspi explains that United Way’s investment allowed her organization to respond to community needs without over-burdening staff.
Culturally appropriate care has always been a focus at JFS, but over the past year, the need intensified.
“Even my own staff would say, ‘Can I ask for a Jewish clinician? Is that okay to ask for?’ Even that piece of being able to say, ‘Yes, you can,’ [has been a big help]” says Sarah.
In addition to bringing on more counsellors to help facilitate their programming, MFSO says they’ve also been able to offer healing circles at their location to support university and high school students.
Executive Director Abdullah Harris says many continue to suffer from what they’re seeing in the Middle East.
“It allowed us to prioritize something that was really important to us, that we might not be able to do off the side of our desks. And being able to say, ‘We’re able to do this because of United Way believing that we can make a difference in our community’ was really important.”
“Without the funding we wouldn’t have had any alternative other than to say, ‘We can’t help.’ You guys stepping up to support—the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.”
With United Way’s help, MFSO has been able to enlist mental health professionals from outside their organization to ask for supervision and get advice on how they can take conversations with clients a bit deeper.
Jeanine Bradley is a clinical social worker with MFSO, who currently has about 10-15 clients on her caseload. She not only offers counselling services, but helps them navigate immigration, connect with their families back home, and find safe, affordable housing.
“If we aren’t able to provide support to these vulnerable communities, what is the alternative for them? If we can’t help young Muslim men find work, what’s the alternative? If we don’t try to keep families together, what’s the alternative? We are providing very critical programs that make a difference in the community.”
Our investment has also allowed employees like Jeanine to take much needed breaks.
“We experience vicarious trauma when we talk to our clients,” she explains. “Anybody who is really engaged with a client, they will feel it. We have to practice a lot of self-care, and we need time off, and the beauty of having this funding if that we can bring other people in … Sometimes you need several days to really spring back.”
Finding common ground in tackling community-wide trauma
Sarah says there is a certain comradery between JFS and MFSO, especially since this investment was made, as they’ve both been dealing with communities in pain.
“We’re all so busy coping and trying to provide services, but the investment by United Way gave us a reason to come together and have conversations about how we can lean on one another,” she says.
As a larger organization, JFS has been able to offer the services of some of its Arabic-speaking counsellors to MFSO. They’ve also offered use of their facilities if needed. Abdullah says they have talked about programming together and he’s happy to have established a relationship with JFS.
“I think what we’ve been really trying to focus on is being an example of how the world can be—working together for a common purpose. And for us, that common purpose is people, making sure that people are able to live and be themselves in this community.”
Sarah says every little spark of compassion makes a big difference in our communities.
Challenges persist
Kadra talks about an email that she just got about a mother who lost 12 of her family members during the conflict in Gaza. This woman had been working at a local daycare but was recently let go after missing too much time. She is stressed and depressed and still needs to find schools and a daycare for her children.
Kadra says MFSO is regularly getting calls from people overseas and in other parts of Ontario, asking for help navigating services and MFSO is doing their best to help in any way they can, including via Zoom calls.
These people need psychological support and community-wide support, Kadra explains.
“Trauma is not just about being from Gaza but having a friend or family who are living through the ongoing genocide.”
“What we are seeing in the community is more Israeli nationals and Gazans starting to come in. There are some challenges around how they are being brought in, in terms of what access they have to healthcare, schools, things like that,” says Sarah, from JFS’ point of view. “From a local and mental health space, we’re seeing a lot more Israelis needing services, so we are looking to hire more Hebrew-speaking counsellors”
Sarah adds that crisis counselling isn’t JFS’ biggest need these days, but there are longer-term issues that are coming to the forefront: PTSD; grief and loss; migration issues; triggers; kids struggling in school—some having to learn a whole new education system and maybe having been out of school for quite some time.
United Way believes in accessible, culturally safe, community-led care
United Way supporters fuel a network of frontline services, like those provided by JFS and MFSO, that ensure people have access to quick and affordable mental health and crisis care.
We have been operating through a worsening mental health crisis since the beginning of the pandemic, which has only bolstered hate and polarization in our communities.
“We need cohesive, well-resourced, community-wide approaches to preventing and responding to these challenges. No one organization alone can solve them.”
That’s why 44 organizations representing 150+ partners rally together as United for All to counter hate in all its forms, and to build safer, compassionate, resilient communities for everyone.
“We remain committed to this work and are always seeking new partners and donors to join us so that everyone across our region can reach their full potential,” says Dennise.
