JEVS Human Services

JEVS Human Services (JEVS) was founded in 1941 to meet the employment needs of the region’s Jewish community, many of whom had fled anti-Semitism and discrimination in Europe. The organization has grown and evolved to meet the needs of people from all walks of life seeking to realize their vocational and personal potential. JEVS’ mission is to enhance the employability, independence, and quality of life of individuals through a broad range of programs and create innovative and sustainable solutions to address current and future community needs. JEVS serves more than 27,000 individuals each year, including the unemployed, underemployed, immigrant populations, returning citizens, senior citizens, individuals with disabilities and individuals seeking addictions recovery. JEVS’ goal is to expand economic and life opportunities for individuals seeking to build independence, connection, & well-being for 100,000 people over the next 3-5 years. In the past year, JEVS served:
• 24,000 low-income people
• 12,000 people who were unemployed
• 873 youth
• 6,968 people with disabilities
• 3,757 people currently or formerly involved with the juvenile or adult justice system
With approximately 42,000 unemployed Philadelphians and 400,000 living under the poverty line, JEVS addresses financial instability by offering employment programs that provide clients with the resources they need to find stable employment. Our employment programs include aptitude, academic and interest assessments, trade and vocational training, academic skills building, job readiness preparation, service learning, internship opportunities, and wrap around supports.
JEVS also provides support for individuals living with disabilities and behavioral health challenges. Our programs for people with disabilities include skill training, job readiness, and career services; vocational rehabilitation and recovery services; adult residential and day services; and in-home personal assistance and support coordination.
As a result of JEVS’ programs, participants achieve greater economic stability, enhanced education and skills, better physical health and safety, and improved social and psychological wellbeing. Every service we provide is designed to help people develop the skills needed to be successful. JEVS Human Services believes that every person deserves the opportunity to live with dignity.

There are five (5) strategies motivating JEVS’ work:
Strategy #1: Deliver high-quality, evidence-based, person-centered services. JEVS’ overarching strategy is to deliver high-quality services that integrate evidence-based practices, ensure a participant-centered approach that honors lived experience, and is sharply focused on quality assurance and social impact.
Strategy #2: Attract, train, and retain exceptional staff. JEVS’ service strategies are developed by leaders within their field and implemented by exceptional front-line staff with the skills, training, and ongoing support they need to provide the highest level of service.
Strategy #3: Braid, maximize, and leverage resources. JEVS is adept at braiding private contributions, public sector grants, and fee-for-service contracts to support programs.
Strategy #4: Evaluate, learn, and innovate. JEVS is committed to measuring what matters and learning from our data to improve decision-making, program design, and service delivery. We proactively look for areas of collaboration within and beyond our agency and work to develop innovative solutions to current and future community needs.
Strategy #5: Develop strong partnerships. JEVS is renowned for our strong collaborative orientation, ability to operationalize and scale programs quickly and well, and deep knowledge of the needs of job-seekers, employers, and government partners alike, all of which make it an exemplary partner.

JEVS is Philadelphia’s “go-to” agency for effective workforce development and independent living support for individuals who are seeking to build independence and well-being. JEVS operates 39 distinct programs, has an annual budget of $107M, is governed by a 23-person board, and employs 1,000 full-time staff. Among its core competencies, JEVS:
• Excels at case management and case coordination, having served high-risk populations facing multiple barriers to employment and independence for over 24 years.
• Has exceptional job placement capacity having placed the unemployed—including traditionally hard-to-place individuals—for over 70 years.
• Has more than 1,500 active employer accounts and volume hiring in a number of key growth industries including healthcare, transportation, security, hospitality, banking, grocery, janitorial, and retail sectors, with longstanding repeat customers who value the care we take to match the right candidate to the right employment opportunity.
• Offers training programs that are employer-driven, and we actively engage industry experts to understand their current and anticipated hiring needs to calibrate training curricula accordingly.
• Earns high marks for customer service, based on customer surveys distributed to our participants, which are consistently returned with high satisfaction levels across the board.
• Has significant organizational capacity and agility, with expertise launching and successfully implementing innovative and large-scale initiatives, and strong internal infrastructure to support startup and transitioning of large program operations.

JEVS is renowned for its collaborative orientation and its ability to partner effectively with a diverse range of associates: small community organizations, citywide networks, government funders, and national partners. JEVS has significant organizational capacity and agility, with expertise launching and implementing innovative and large-scale initiatives. We have decades of experience managing every aspect of government-funded programs from hiring staff, to implementing and assessing services, to using an array of funder-specific information systems to produce timely and accurate program reports and assure compliance.

At JEVS we are proud to serve nearly 30,000 clients every year. Our services range from vocational training and academic skills building to housing support and recovery assistance. Our agency is passionate about serving the Philadelphia region's most vulnerable and underserved populations, including the unemployed, immigrant populations, senior citizens, and individuals with disabilities. Our dedication to quality service has earned us high marks on participant surveys that are consistently returned with high satisfaction levels. In addition to quality customer service, we regularly outperform our contracts with government agencies.

JEVS is committed to investing in data and analytic systems to deepen our agency’s evidence-based culture. By utilizing key performance indicators and social impact reporting, we assess monthly progress against some 500 financial and social impact measures for each of our programs. We are ensuring continuous improvement of our services and programs utilizing net promoter scores and KPI data to assess strengths and weaknesses and opportunities to expand impact. Between 2015 and 2019, the number of programs reporting key performance indicators grew by 154%, and reports increased in frequency from quarterly to monthly. In 2019, JEVS entered into a multi-year partnership with the nationally-recognized evaluation and assessment organization, Equal Measure, to build the organization’s evaluation capacity and to undertake evaluations of targeted programs.

As a leader in the field of workforce development and human services, local and national foundations and think tanks seek our support in designing and implementing innovative initiatives. In the summer of 2019, JEVS won the highly competitive Minds that Move Us national competition for innovation in adult career pathways for our Pathways to Prosperity program that integrates employment and behavioral health services for returning citizens with disabilities.

Our dedicated staff, professional executive leadership, and loyalty to our clients has made us one of Philadelphia’s Top Workplaces on the Philadelphia Inquirer Top Workplaces survey for two years.