Jewish Addictions Community Services (JACS) welcomes two members to its team.
Jordana Jackson, JACS’s new addictions specialist, is a certified addiction counsellor. In addition to having a wealth of experience working in addiction and recovery spaces throughout Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health authorities, she is the founder and director of AWARE (Addicts With Aspirations Recovery Entertainment), a therapeutic performance-arts program. Jackson is already making a difference at JACS, creating navigation support structures and providing counseling for clients.
Elana Epstein, JACS’s new group facilitator, is a certified recovery coach. More importantly, she has years of experience being a mother of a child who struggled with addiction and is now in recovery. At JACS Family Circle, Epstein is using both her spiritual and professional skill sets to hold space for individuals whose friends and family have been affected by addiction. These group counseling sessions are an important aspect of JACS.
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Elvira Molochkovetsk takes on the role of a community connector in Victoria. This position is a joint Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island (JFVVI) and Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver project. Her goal is to connect and engage all community members but, in particular, those who do not attend any existing synagogue or Jewish association.
Over the past two years, Molochkovetsk has been part of the JFVVI as a PJ Library parent, volunteer, connector and, for the past year, as PJ Library coordinator for Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. PJ Library has focused on connecting people with children up to the age of 13 and, in her expanded role as a connector, Molochkovetsk will be expanding it to reach out to teenagers, seniors and young entrepreneurs.
The parents of four kids, Molochkovetsk and her husband, Dimitri, have run family businesses for the last decade. Almost three years ago, they moved to Victoria from Winnipeg, where they lived for seven years. They both grew up in Israel and have family there.