Danielle Dolgoy: Advocating for growth, change, healing and learning at JFSE

By Jenna Vetsch

(AJNews) – Jewish Family Services Edmonton (JFSE) welcomed Danielle Dolgoy as their new Executive Director at the end of February this year. She has stepped into a role where her compassion, dedication, and courage as a leader will undoubtedly continue to create a positive impact within the communities she serves.

Danielle has a strong connection to the Edmonton Jewish community. She grew up attending Beth Shalom Synagogue, made her way through Talmud Torah School, and was involved in United Synagogue Youth. Her experiences within these spaces helped shape Danielle’s Jewish identity and the way in which she gives back to those around her. She speaks about the strong ties to her ancestors and knowing her family’s story. “I know the struggles that they went through and how highly they regarded their duty to be good citizens and stewards of our Jewishness.”

Observing their volunteerism, leadership, and advocacy efforts for Jewish and non-Jewish causes are central to her understanding of what it means to invest in your community and the future. Danielle acknowledges the generational gap between her grandparents, parents, and herself. She also sees the evolution of how people define a builder of the Jewish community and supporter of the broader community. With this change, comes a shift in the balancing act between obligation, opportunities, and downtime that is crucial for the longevity of social activism.

After high school, Danielle pursued an undergraduate degree at the University of Carleton in Ottawa, Ontario. She enrolled in a combined program of humanities and art history which was a 4-year honours interdisciplinary degree in literature, history, philosophy, and religion. It was during this time that she developed the skill of finding connections between seemingly unconnected things. Danielle conveys that a powerful part of her education was learning “there is a universality, which is a common thread, that weaves between cultures.”

Danielle moved back to Edmonton after graduating, worked three part time jobs, and met her now-husband. Her desire to continue learning was still fervent, so Danielle moved with her spouse to Montréal where she applied to Concordia University for a graduate diploma in Communications and Media Studies. With challenges finding work in the communications field there, she gained experience at a gourmet grocery store as a cheesemonger. Being close to her Jewish community has always been important though. After residing in Québec for a couple of years, they travelled across Canada again to plant their roots in Edmonton.

Since then, Danielle has continued with her education. From courses in management and human resources to a program at the Banff Centre on Truth and Reconciliation, her value of ongoing learning is evident. Her work in Edmonton has mostly been in the arts and culture space, but settlement and social work has always been woven into her endeavours. It was in high school that Danielle’s compassion towards under-represented people sparked a lifelong pursuit for providing community-based supports. She began volunteering at the Edmonton Newcomer Centre. Then, as an undergrad student in Ottawa she worked at The Youth Door Centre where she provided care to youth refugees from the Karen community through settlement and integration support. Back in Edmonton, she worked for another newcomer agency called Action for Healthy Communities where she would go into schools and provide arts and community-based programing for youth from various cultures and communities.

Danielle’s 3+ years with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra focused on outreach to under-privileged and under-served communities. When she worked at the Edmonton Heritage Council, over that 7-year period, a central aspect was supporting ethnocultural communities. Danielle reflects that “all along, through 20 years of working, there have always been little gems of work that were grounded in community-based support. Particularly targeting newcomers — immigrants and refugees.” She explains that this has often looked like empowering individuals to tell their stories on their own terms, in their own time, and in their own way which is at the heart of what JFSE does for the communities they serve.

Danielle talks about intentionality as it relates to building a thriving community. Showing up in spaces that might be uncomfortable, choosing to volunteer on a board/at an event, or opening one’s mind to new ideas are purposeful decisions that can make all the difference. “Supporting JFSE and putting action to words is like giving a gift to our future selves so that we are not stretched as thin as our parents are looking after our grandparents.” She is deeply committed to the critical work they do for the health and wellbeing of people in Edmonton, Jewish and non-Jewish. It requires actionable support from the community to remain in existence, and she is calling the community in to help ensure JFSE is around for as long as their services are needed.   

When in a field designed to help others, it is crucial to fill one’s soul cup. For Danielle, this looks like growing her little garden, cooking and sharing a meal with family and friends, going on family walks with her husband Joey, son Lucca, and dog Buffy, and singing a cherished lullaby to her baby at bedtime. A common belief shared among women, mothers, and caregivers is that they need to “do it all.” Danielle believes our generation of women in leadership is carving out a new way of lifting others up while maintaining boundaries to protect our own needs and goals. This involves cultivating the tools and internal capacity to assess what is truly important and learning to leave the work at the office when you are done for the day. Only you can make that assessment for yourself though. For Danielle, family is high on that priority list, and she understands that outside of her work, her kid is at home waiting for mom, and she wants to have cheese and crackers with him.

“I am honoured to be part of this wave of what it means to be a strong and powerful leader in a position to advocate for growth, change, healing, and learning,” she said, “because that’s what our community needs.” Danielle speaks very highly of her husband and expresses immense gratitude to have someone who fully supports her and understands why she could not turn down this call to the serve the community at JFSE.

“I am here [as Executive Director] because I believe in the future of our Jewish community,” added Danielle. She is deeply committed to JFSE being here for everyone in need. She made an intentional choice to step in and take the helm of this not-for-profit, because she recognizes the importance this agency is for our community.

Danielle feels this is a pivotal moment for the future of Jewish Family Services Edmonton and its longevity. Learn specific ways in which you can support them and explore their abundance of services by heading to www.jfse.org.

Jenna Vetsch is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter at Alberta Jewish News.