MONTREAL AGENCIES MERGE TO FORM

The Boards of Directors of Jewish Employment Montreal, Jewish Family Services and Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Montreal are delighted to announce that the three agencies have merged to create Agence Ometz, a single social service agency. 

The goal of the new agency is to deliver integrated services – something the three agencies could not when they were operating independently.  In taking the best practices and systems from among all three agencies, a structure has been created that avoids redundancies and makes better use of the community’s finite resources. 

The decision to merge follows more than a year of deliberation and careful planning, which include consultation with Jewish community professional and lay leaders. 

“Guiding us in this process was our consideration for the best interests of our clients who are, for the most part, individuals and families experiencing a period of vulnerability and looking to us for help and empowerment,” said Dr. Mitch Shiller, immediate- past president of Jewish Family Service and President of the new agency. 

“There are all kinds of reasons for this vulnerability and it almost always features more than just one dimension:  Perhaps they are new immigrants to Montréal, trying to make their way in an environment of which they know little in terms of work, schooling or housing opportunities. 

“Or it may be that a parent’s serious illness has a trickledown effect on the family, with its income and means drastically reduced and the frightened children having trouble at school.  It could be a situation in which a family is led by a parent who is newly single and caught in the vise of poverty. 

“Whatever the case, they will be welcomed at Agence Ometz with an array of services – always personalized and always culturally sensitive.” 

Agence Ometz is to be led by Howard Berger, until now the Executive Director of Jewish Employment Services, and by Gail Small, who was Executive Director of Jewish Family Services before the merger. 

OMETZ is the Hebrew word for courage.  The name was chosen as an expression of confidence that the merger represents a bold vision for the future – and to reflect the agency’s aspirations for its clients.