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Fair CAHAL and TOVA merger will cut costs
By Malka Eisenberg
Issue of March 13, 2009 / 17 Adar 5769
Two local organizations, CAHAL and TOVA, will be combining operations immediately to cut costs and raise funds to continue to serve the community efficiently and effectively, in a move approved by the board of directors of both organizations.
The planning for the move began in mid January, said Richard Altabe, vice president of CAHAL and executive vice president of TOVA.
“Everybody was very supportive and thought that it was an excellent idea,” he said, noting that no one was laid off. “It’s an operational restructuring to reduce costs from nonduplication of phones, office space and the merger of fund-raising where appropriate.”
The annual appeal in the synagogues until now rotated between the organizations, one year for CAHAL the next year for TOVA, Altabe explained. The yearly appeal can now be joint, he suggested.
“The office was a financial burden for TOVA,” said Shimmie Ehrenreich, CAHAL’s executive director. “We offered to share facilities, the conference room, consolidated the phones, offices. If we reconfigure we can fit them in. I’ve been managing the finances of TOVA the last couple of years anyway.”
Other cost cutting measures will include joint mailings and shared events, he said. CAHAL currently runs concerts and TOVA holds summer barbecues to raise funds, he pointed out.
“The impetus for the move was a direct result of an article by Azriel Ganz in The Jewish Star,” said Altabe, who is a past principal of Yeshiva Darchei Torah and current principal of Magen David Yeshiva High School in Brooklyn. “It gave us food for thought and motivated us to go through with this historic decision.”
“Both organizations will be stronger,” he continued. “We are anticipating that the local community will welcome the move and increase their support. Both programs are unbelievably successful.”
CAHAL, Communities Acting to Heighten Awareness and Learning, was founded in 1992.
“Each school had a handful of kids not keeping up with the mainstream,” explained Ehrenreich. “The yeshivas got together to combine the students and get decent size classes. The original people were Dr. Norman Blumenthal, Richard Altabe and principals of community yeshivas (and day schools). They formed a coalition to educate children with special needs.”
Eleven yeshivas currently hold 13 CAHAL classes, totaling 110 children in grades K through 12. Hundreds of learning disabled children have received a yeshiva education through CAHAL since it began.
TOVA, Torah Viable Alternatives, was founded in 1997 as an offshoot of CAHAL.
“It came from a principals’ meeting for CAHAL purposes,” said Ehrenreich. “One begat the other.”
The program offers mentors, young men and women, for students deemed to be “at risk” from fifth grade through high school in yeshivas, and students who have switched to public schools. A social worker is in charge of the mentoring, places interns, oversees and develops training and manages cases.
Andrea Borah is the clinical director of TOVA and has been with the organization since its inception.
“We have always been together,” she noted. “It’s not a big deal. We’re sister agencies.”
“We have an excellent reputation even out of town,” Borah emphasized. “Students and parents are contacted monthly and case management will continue. We check in with the schools periodically. We’re saving money and maintaining services.”
Altabe noted that TOVA-type programs now operate in Baltimore, Monsey, Lakewood and Brooklyn with “discussions to bring the model to many other communities throughout the country, because mentoring is probably the single most successful intervention to prevent children from becoming at risk.”
As the two local grass-roots organizations continues to service local children and do their utmost to minimize expenses, the hope is that the community will step up and increase their support, since one donation will now help two organizations simultaneously.
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