San Francisco’s Most Inspirational Lunch Hour
The Strictly Business Awards Luncheon celebrates the life-changing power of work. We honor the achievements of our hard-working job seekers who have built in-demand skills and found work through JVS.
Jewish Vocational Service is rooted in core values to repair the world (in Hebrew, “tikkun olam”) — starting with our Bay Area community. We believe that work has the power to transform lives and we’re committed to helping people to help themselves. The links below reflect the many lives we’re transforming, including youth, Jewish college students and adults of all backgrounds and skill levels.
Summer internship for Jewish college students
Learn about our work with San Francisco youth
Rosalind, SFRAW
For Rosalind school had always been a challenge and she felt like an outsider. As a child of immigrants, English was not her first language and she struggled with reading and writing, which led to low confidence. She dreamed of being able to contribute to her family...
read more
Luisanna, John Muir Health
Luisanna had a difficult childhood – she never knew her father and spent most of her youth dealing with her mentally ill mother. Despite these obstacles, she graduated high school and found a job as an administrative assistant, where she worked for six years. Suddenly...
read more
John, MDLIVE
John had a successful career in financial services and technology, until a horrific accident nearly killed him. After seven years of recovery, he was medically cleared to go back to work, but his entire industry had changed. John quickly realized that he needed to...
read more
Bank of the West, Financial Services Training Partner
“It is wonderful to know that while we are meeting our own hiring needs, we are also helping JVS get community members back to work.” – Jenny Flores, Head of Community Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility, Bank of the...
read more
Skills to Work in Healthcare – Yasmeen’s Story
At JVS we believe the best way out of poverty, is a job. Despite the remarkable growth of the tech industry, inequality is increasing in the Bay Area faster than in any other part of the country. Good jobs at living wages exist, but thousands of people remain...
read more
What We’re Reading
What’s on your fall reading list? Here’s a bit of what we’ve been reading in the world of work: On Age Discrimination We weren’t shocked to read The New York Time’s piece about how job searching gets more difficult with age. Age discrimination is real, and we work...
read more
Patricia, UCSF
Patricia, a native San Franciscan and mother of three, had a solid job until the recession hit. She witnessed her office shut down piece by piece when operations – and her job – moved overseas. Initially, she was not worried; she was a Navy veteran with over 25 years...
read more
Sean, Carpenters Local 22
Sean knew from a young age that he wanted to work with his hands. He had spent countless hours learning from his father and helping his family’s curtain installation business in San Francisco. School didn’t interest him much, and skipping classes were the norm during...
read more
What your unemployed friend actually needs
Do’s and Don’ts to support your friend who is in transition, between jobs or just plain unemployed A recently unemployed client shared, “Becoming unemployed is emotionally wrought, especially if you’re like me and your whole identity is wrapped up in your career.”...
read more
#AwesomeAdmins Featured at Dreamforce
As part of the massive Dreamforce conference, Salesforce gathered expert trainers, including JVS, to lead a session about innovative job training programs that are helping people transform their skills to become Salesforce professionals. JVS’s Skills to Work in...
read more