Los Angeles Jewish Home Holds Groundbreaking Celebration For New Westside Campus

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Apr 08, 2014, 07:00 ET

PLAYA VISTA, Calif., April 8, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Supporters, dignitaries and friends gathered recently as the Los Angeles Jewish Home held its groundbreaking celebration for the new Gonda Healthy Aging Westside Campus featuring Fountainview at Gonda Westside, in Playa Vista, CA.

Molly Forrest, CEO-President, Los Angeles Jewish Home, Louis Gonda, Leslie Gonda. (PRNewsFoto/Los Angeles Jewish Home) (PRNewsFoto/LOS ANGELES JEWISH HOME)

(L to R) Jeffrey Glassman, chair, board of directors, Los Angeles Jewish Home, Joyce Brandman, Joyce Eisenberg-Keefer, and Richard Ziman, chair, Jewish Home Foundation. (PRNewsFoto/Los Angeles Jewish Home) (PRNewsFoto/LOS ANGELES JEWISH HOME)

Founded in 1912 and based in Reseda since the mid 1970s, the Jewish Home will now also have a physical presence on Los Angeles' Westside. The Gonda Healthy Aging Westside Campus will feature Fountainview at Gonda Westside, a 175-unit Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) for independent seniors, as well as 24 units for assisted living and memory care. The new Gonda Campus will enable the Jewish Home to provide housing and healthcare services for approximately 600 seniors beyond the 4,300 currently served through a variety of community-based, in-your-home, and in-residence programs and services.

The new campus is made possible through the generosity of the Leslie and Susan Gonda (Goldschmied) Foundation, Ben B. and Joyce E. Eisenberg Foundation, and The Joyce and Saul Brandman Foundation, as well as hundreds of significant supporters who are leaders in the community. Scheduled for completion in 2016, Gonda Westside will feature the Brandman Building as well as the Joyce Eisenberg-Keefer Courtyard/Gallery and the Joyce Eisenberg-Keefer Sky Terrace. Plans also call for the Jewish Home to open a 60-bed skilled nursing facility and a second Brandman Centers for Senior Care, a Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), on the Westside.

"Seniors are the fastest growing population segment and with that comes significant increases in demand for quality healthcare and housing," Molly Forrest, Jewish Home CEO-President said. "We are grateful so many in the community have provided the necessary support to make the dream of a Westside presence a reality."

The Home has a waiting list of approximately 300. The length of time for admission depends on the level of care and availability of the appropriate care setting. Therefore, the wait can vary from a very short time to more than a year. About half of those on the waiting list live on the Westside. With the new campus, the Home will increase the total number of seniors served in the community and in-residence to approximately 5,000 annually. Currently, the Jewish Home serves about three times as many seniors in the community as it does in-residence.

Leslie Gonda, after whom the campus is named, has carried the vision of a Westside Jewish Home campus for a number of years. "I have always understood the responsibility of taking care of the elderly," Gonda said. "I knew the Jewish Home had the track record and could do it on the Westside."

Joyce Eisenberg-Keefer, a noted philanthropist and passionate supporter of the Home said: "Like all of the Home's state-of-the-art facilities, programs and services, the Gonda Healthy Aging Westside Campus will offer seniors comprehensive, high quality and innovative care for which the Home is world-renowned."

Jewish Home leader and dedicated philanthropist Joyce Brandman is similarly enthusiastic about the Jewish Home expansion to the Westside. "My husband and I always felt strongly that the Home needed a Westside campus. There is nothing like the Home on the Westside to serve the needs of seniors," she said.

The non-profit Los Angeles Jewish Home is among the largest providers of senior healthcare services in Los Angeles. Each year, more than 4,300 seniors benefit from the Home's community-based and in-residence programs. Community-based programs include the Brandman Centers for Senior Care (BCSC), a Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), Jewish Home Care Services, Skirball Hospice, Jewish Home Center for Palliative Medicine, the Ida Kayne Transitional Care Unit, the Auerbach Geriatric Psychiatry Unit and community clinics. Two village campuses in Reseda serve seniors with independent living accommodations, residential care, skilled nursing care, short-term rehabilitative care, and Alzheimer's disease and dementia care. The Home has broken ground on the Gonda Healthy Aging Westside Campus in Playa Vista, CA scheduled to be completed in 2016. Further information regarding the Jewish Home can be found online at www.jha.org or by calling (818) 757-4407.

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SOURCE Los Angeles Jewish Home