Retired JFCS head confident about agency

By Deborah Moon

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Former Jewish Family and Child Service Executive Director Marvin Kuperstein heads into retirement confident that the gains he made during his four years leading the agency will continue.

“I have reflected on the achievements we—an excellent staff and strong board—have had since I arrived in July 2003,” said Kuperstein during a relaxed interview with the Jewish Review a couple weeks after his Oct. 12 retirement, during which he cited achievements in six areas: creation of a strategic plan, development of a strong administrative structure, connections with community leaders, collaborations, obtaining grants and staff morale.

“Staff morale under his tenure has been at an all time high,” said Marian Fenimore, the newly appointed interim executive director and 10-year veteran of the agency.
   
Kuperstein said that creating a strategic plan that restructured the agency was critical to JFCS achievements in the past four years. The plan created two formal program areas—services to the elderly and clinical services including counseling and workshops—on which the agency concentrates the majority of its efforts. The TASK program, which provides services and programs for individuals and families coping with disabilities, is the agency’s third priority, he said.

   
“The establishment of program priorities is one thing I feel very, very positive about,” he said.
   
Creating a strong infrastructure for the business side of the agency was another important area, according to Kuperstein. That included adding both staff with necessary skills and new computers and software necessary “to track things any agency needs to know.”
   
“Now we have a strong infrastructure with professional administrative and support staff,” he said.
    Kuperstein said that reaching out and reconnecting with community leaders and leaders of other agencies and foundations in both the Jewish and general communities was “the most enjoyable part of my job and very important.”
   
“From that came our fourth success—collaborations,” said Kuperstein. “I really believe collaborations are essential. It’s very important for us to get to know and develop partnerships. … Over the years we’ve developed a lot of things with agencies and synagogues.”
   
“I think we will see a lot of neat things happening because the Jewish agencies are thinking collaboratively, which is so important in a small community where funds are not unlimited,” he said.
   
Fenimore said she hopes to continue the work on collaborative projects that began under Kuperstein’s direction. She especially pointed to the integrated senior access program that JFCS developed in cooperation with Cedar Sinai Park and Neighborhood House to meet the needs of Russian elders and the creation of Sinai Family Home Services, a new home care agency created by JFCS and CSP.
   
“I want to continue programs we’ve made and look at how we can better serve the community through those collaborations and projects,” she said.
   
Kuperstein said that JFCS has been very successful in getting grants to help it “zero in on services to the elderly, clinical services and education.”
   
“The staff at JFCS is terrific and that (focus) will continue,” he said.
   
Kuperstein praised the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland for being an excellent partner that continues to fund JFCS as a beneficiary agency. But he said the grants have enabled JFCS to build its program capacity.
   
JFCS had less than $10,000 in grants the year Kuperstein arrived in Portland.
   
“By the second year, we had brought in over $100,000 in grants and that continues,” he said. “I think there needs to be more attention paid to ongoing funding sources to keep up the growth that has occurred.”
   
“I really feel that the evolution of the agency has included staff and board members, so my leaving won’t take all this away,” he said. “A new director will come up with new approaches I would never have thought of. I feel like the agency is going to do well.”
   
Kuperstein said his retirement is a reflection of the growing trend in America for baby boomers to retire when they turn 50 or 60.
   
“People are in better shape and good health and what people see as retirement is changing,” he said. “I’m not going to just sit on the beach. With this new generation, you won’t see as much ‘full’ retirement—some due to economics and some due to lifestyle and the fact that people stay healthy and alive until age 85 to 90.”
   
Kuperstein said he and his wife, Laura Jane, plan to stay in Portland and spend time with family—including their two grown daughters, Rebecca, an orthodontist and mother of 3-year-old granddaughter, and Risa, who works in the judicial system, all of whom live in Portland.
   
He said once he settles in to retirement he may consider a part-time position that would draw on his skills without requiring the “very long hours” of a Jewish communal worker.
   
“It was time I paid attention more to what I wanted to do at this time in my life,” he said.