JCHAI was founded in 1987 by Jewish families who were dissatisfied with the existing options for their adult children with disabilities. The organization started as a group home in Wynnewood and has since grown to more than 300 members.
In 2007, Jarett Levitan became the executive director of JCHAI.
“It’s a very, very different organization, and part of it is just over time, we really learned a lot about helping people with disabilities living as independently as possible in the community,” Jarett Levitan explained. “While we started in this more residential model, we also started helping people with social programming. We have educators who go out into the community and meet with people one-to-one [to] teach them independent living skills.”
While JCHAI members are mostly non-Jewish adults, Jarett Levitan said JCHAI’s importance comes from the fact that, “there will always be ways for our Jewish members to continue to experience their Jewish identity because we make that available to them.”
