The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington announced that the Federation and Makom moved into the Federation building as joint owners of the building, part of an expanded partnership between the two organizations, according to a Sept. 11 press release.
Expected to begin in early November and conclude by early spring 2025, the move will transform the Rockville building into a “central hub for Jewish organizations,” according to the press release. The space, mostly on the first floor of the building, will create more accessible supports for community members with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Makom, formerly Jewish Foundation for Group Homes, aims to support and empower people with intellectual and developmental disabilities by providing community living, in-home supports and employment opportunities, according to their website.
A Hebrew word meaning “place,” Makom attempts to ensure that everyone has a sense of belonging and a meaningful connection to their Jewish life. Makom currently has more than 450 employees who serve 250 people — mostly adults — with IDD, said David Ervin, the CEO.
Because of this expansion, Makom needed a larger physical space, Ervin said. The organization recently added clinical services to their repertoire, including speech therapy, behavioral and mental health support, diet and nutrition support and nursing, which will be housed on the building’s second floor.
The addition of clinical services came as a response to the pandemic and the discovery that the disabled community experienced disproportionately higher rates of morbidity and mortality from Covid-19, Ervin said. In early 2024, he and his team began searching for a space that would allow for ambulatory care.
“We’ve got clinicians who are quite literally working out of the trunks of their cars and delivering great support, but doing it 100% mobile,” Ervin said. “We couldn’t find clinical space out there in the community that was either architecturally accessible and more affordable.”
He added that by a stroke of luck, space in the Federation building became available after a chiropractor’s practice moved from the second to the third floor: “It was completely coincidental.”
Gil Preuss, the CEO of JFGW, said the Federation building had always been envisioned as a Jewish communal space since it was renovated to serve as Federation headquarters in 2014.
“Ever since the Federation first purchased the building over 10 years ago, the idea was to fill it as much as possible with Jewish community organizations,” Preuss said. “So when the possibility came along when Makom was looking for a larger space and we had space, we started the conversation that what they needed, we were able to provide.”
He spoke to the partnership between the Federation and Makom.
“They are a critical partner agency at Federation that we fund,” Preuss said of Makom. “They lead this agenda [of inclusion] through their variety of programming and we hope to continue working together.”
The Federation headquarters is also currently home to the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and Sunflower Bakery, a program that provides job training and employment for young adults with disabilities.
Ervin said he is excited to be part of a Jewish communal hub and hopes that Makom can more easily serve as a resource for Washington, D.C.-area families in this location, adding that Makom’s previous location on East Jefferson Street was “on a dead end.” Its new location, on Executive Boulevard, is more central.
“It’s this lovely point on the map, sort of the epicenter of Jewish communal organizations,” Ervin said.
“Our expectation is that as Makom continues to grow, the lease and arrangement with them enables them to expand their space within the building over time, and that Makom is going to be able to provide even more services, even more training opportunities and even more supports of both existing clients, but also to the growing population that they’re serving,” Preuss said. “On that front, it’ll enable them to continue expanding the incredible work that they do.”
Preuss plans to bring in more Jewish communal organizations within the next month in order to strengthen ties across the various organizations and meet the needs of the community.
Both Preuss and Ervin said they look forward to the future of the partnership.
“Our community is far, far richer when people with intellectual and developmental disabilities take their rightful place in the community,” Ervin said. “I think this is perfectly aligned with Federation’s outlook on the community around issues and inclusion. The alignment just can’t be better … I can’t even begin to imagine the possibilities with us coming together and living under one roof in this joint venture.”
