News & Impact

Stanford Social Innovation Review by Curtis Chang I recently spent some time with one of the most well-regarded agencies in the Bay Area: Jewish Family and Children Services (JFCS). JFCS is the oldest public charity west of the Mississippi and serves the elderly from the entire community, not just the Jewish one. In the 1980s, it began to struggle financially. Amid this fiscal crisis, Anita Friedman took over as the executive director and vowed to reinvent the agency’s business model or go out of business trying. Read More from the Stanford Social Innovation Review… Read More

San Francisco Chronicle by Leah Garchik All in the San Francisco family: The Jewish Family and Children’s Services has been flooded with offers of support for the Brown twins, Marian and Vivian. Among the letters received by JFCS marketing man Robert Miller was this from Evelyn Miller Adler, which cam along with a contribution… Read More from the San Francisco Chronicle… Read More

J Weekly by Emma Silvers When people started hearing that San Francisco iconic 85-year-old twin sisters in need of help, offers of assistance started pouring in – and Jewish Family and Children’s Services was among those leading the charge. Read the Full Article from J Weekly… Read More

San Francisco Chronicle by Sam Whiting For once, the Brown twins are not in matching outfits. Marian B. is in hers, a leopard-print cowboy hat and car coat, but her sister, Vivian A., older by eight minutes, is in bedclothes at Davies medical center. “My sister has Alzheimer’s, so she has to have 24-hour care, because they’re afraid she will go out and get run over or something,” says Marian, offering a straight answer to the question everybody who sees her on the streets stops to ask. “Where’s your sister?” Read More from the San Francisco Chronicle… Read More

KCBS Radio 740 AM / 106.9 FM by Susan Kennedy Donations have poured in to help the iconic Brown twins remain together since the older sister, Vivian, developed Alzheimer’s requiring round the clock care that landed her in the hospital. Until her stay at Davies Medical Center, Vivian A. Brown was rarely seen apart from her identical sister Marian B. Brown. And the two always wore matching outfits that won them local celebrity and appearances in national advertising campaigns pitching airlines, computers and sneakers. Read More from KCBS Radio… Read More

KGO-TV, ABC 7 by Carolyn Tyler Two of San Francisco’s most well-known personalities are dealing with an enormous challenge. What they are going through highlights a national problem facing seniors. Marian and Vivian Brown are in the San Francisco Hall of Fame. But now they are fighting to stay in the city they love even though the health care they now need is hard to find and very expensive. Marian and Vivian Brown are identical twins; colorful characters in San Francisco since they arrived from Michigan more than 40 years ago. See More from KGO-TV & ABC 7… Read More