All in a Day’s Work

OUR COMMUNITY

Vintage photo of JOIN participants. Debra Silver is on the far right.

All in a Day’s Work

JVS’ 38-year job counselor retires — after launching hundreds of careers.

ALISON SCHWARTZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

She was just married and new to Detroit when Wisconsin native Debra Silver got a job at JVS Human Services back in 1982. She thought it would be for a couple of years.

Instead, the social worker turned career counselor — who admits she knew nothing about career counseling when she first started — forged a 38-year career with the agency.

During that time, she has guided the working lives of more than 1,000 local people and inspired close to 400 Jewish college students to consider a career working in the Jewish community through a paid summer internship program called JOIN.

Silver, who lives in Beverly Hills and is a member of Temple Emanu-El, is set to retire in August and reflects that her career has been incredibly rewarding. “Being given the chance to impact people, to empower them to make changes in their lives, was my calling, I think,” she says.

Silver’s journey across the Midwest began in Milwaukee, at a singles event where she met her future husband, Scott. Debra had just finished her postgraduate social work degree at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in Missouri and had secured a job at a crisis intervention center in Milwaukee. Meanwhile Scott, originally from Detroit, was thinking of returning home to open a business offering vocational rehabilitation case management closer to his family.

Love and marriage swiftly followed, and with the couple now living in Michigan, Silver needed to find a job. Luckily one of her husband’s aunts knew someone who worked at JVS Human Services, and this contact gave Silver the names of some staff for her to network. That networking led to a job offer.

“My initial job was to be a full-time career counselor, but I honestly didn’t know anything about the career part. What I did know was that I had really good counseling skills from my work in clinical social work, and JVS felt that I could train to become a career counselor,” Silver says. “As it was, I fell in love with career counseling because of the difference I could make in people’s lives.”

When three children came along — Randall now 36, Eric, 34, and Sarah, 30 — Silver made her career at JVS work, sometimes job sharing, and then, as the children got older, she increased her hours. Ten years ago, she became supervisor of career development services.

Natalie DuBois with her baby, Judah

Three People Whose Lives JVS’ Silver Has Infl uenced

Natalie DuBois, 32, director of family support services at Jewish Family Service, says the JOIN program shaped her career. “I wanted to be a social worker, but I wasn’t sure what direction to go in,” says DuBois of Oak Park. “JOIN supported my passion for Jewish communal service, gave me a taste of possible options, and I have worked in the Jewish community all my career. Debbie has been a constant support and mentor to me throughout my career.”

Rabbi Jennifer Kaluzny of Temple Israel was studying Judaic studies at the University of Michigan when she took part in the JOIN program. “I always knew I wanted to be a rabbi, but I also knew it was important to understand not just how to serve a congregation, but how to serve a community. I wanted to understand how the Jewish community worked in terms of the agencies involved in servicing the needs of different people,” she explains.

Rabbi Kaluzny was placed at the Jewish Community Relations Council and had the opportunity to visit many agencies in the area. “JOIN was a great program Rabbi — political action, Jennifer social action and a Kaluzny meaningful way for students to get up close and personal with the community.”

Moshe Newman, 32, of Southfield, benefitted from career counseling with Silver. He came from an Orthodox

INSPIRING STUDENTS

One important aspect of Silver’s job was supervising the

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