CHANUKAH EDITION
SECTION E PAGE 4
Its a late weekday afternoon at the Jewish Group Home in a pleasant suburban-looking house tucked cozily inside a Southeast Denver neighborhood.
Some of the houses seven residents all of them developmentally disabled adults are returning from their day activities, resembling anybody else coming home from work: jackets on, empty lunch buckets in hand, tired expressions on their faces changing to the contentment of homecoming.
Others are already getting ready for dinner, placing the tablecloth, setting the table, filling glasses with drinks.
The place is comfortably neat and spotlessly clean, the TV is quietly intoning the evening news, the residents are telling tales of their day, sometimes laughing.
In other words, home sweet home.
Which is precisely the idea.
The members of this unique family are happy this afternoon to see Arnie Kover, director of disability and employment services for the Jewish Family Service, who supervises both the SHALOM Denver workshop and the Jewish Group Home.
Kover has been overseeing the Home since it opened in 1982. Several of the residents of 2012 have lived there since then, and by now Kover has become not only a well-recognized face but an old friend.
The affection between them is impossible to miss.
So is Kovers pride in the Group Home.
Its a beautiful program, he says with a wide smile. Its a small but mighty program.
Small, he elaborates, because the Denver Jewish community could easily use more homes like this one. Kover doesnt have statistics, but hes sure that there are a good number of Jewish families in Denver and the region who could benefit from a safe and secure environment for the developmentally disabled.
And mighty, Kover adds, because living in a group home environment is an amazingly effective way for individuals who are often shunned and marginalized by society to reach their full potential.
The rest of this article is available in the IJN’s print edition only. Contact Carol to order your copy at (303) 861-2234 or email carol@ijn.com.
