Sarah Franco
Foster Care, Adoption and Family Support Services
As the founding CEO of JAFCO (Jewish Adoption and Family Care Options), Sarah Franco has played an integral role in the growth of the agency from a one-person grassroots foster care, adoption and family preservation agency with an annual budget of $50,000, to a staff of 200 employees and an annual budget of $14 million providing an entire continuum of quality support services to families and residential options for children who have been impacted by abuse, neglect, trauma and developmental disabilities.
Franco, who started JAFCO 30 years ago at her kitchen table, credits the vision of the agency’s founder, Dr. Ron Simon, and the dedication of its COO, Wendy Jenkins, who leads the agency’s clinical team and programs.
“The JAFCO model brings our community and private sector together in partnership with government around the issue of children abuse and when led by a professional social service agency, we created a solution to an unmet need,” Franco explains.
Her accomplishments are the lives of the more than 17,000 children served at one of the four JAFCO sites: the Jewish Children’s Village (opened in 2002) to provide a home for children in foster care; the Children’s Ability Center (2014), supporting families raising children with developmental disabilities; FamilyMatters family preservation office in Philadelphia (2014); and Eagles’ Haven (2018), a wellness center serving the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting community.
“What I’m most proud of after 30 years are our amazing JAFCO alumni and the fact that we have the ability to really help a child or family. We are set up to respond immediately and we do,” Franco points out. “Help is available 24/7/365.”
Franco’s passion for her work stems from her personal role as a mother to Evan (Kara), new grandmother to Atlas, and her family history as a second-generation Holocaust survivor, whose parents survived the concentration camps, but then found themselves alone in the world, without a family.
“To have the opportunity to work with our amazing staff, donors and volunteers to help children and families who are hurting, is the greatest privilege of my life.”
JAFCO (Jewish Adoption and Family Care Options), 4200 N. University Drive, Sunrise, 954-749-7230, jafco.org
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