NCJW Essex Section’s Linda and Rudy Slucker Center for Women was established in 1981 to serve the community as a nonsectarian center for women in Essex County and the surrounding areas. The Center for Women is funded by NCJW/Essex and is also a grantee of the State of New Jersey, Department of Children and Families, Division on Women.  The Center offers career services, computer classes, workshops and support programs for women and children.  In the decades since its founding it has served thousands of women.

Career Counseling services allow clients to work one-on-one with skilled staff who offer career guidance to women who would like to become “job-ready.” Through individualized career counseling, resume writing and interview skills, job search strategies and access to the Career Closet (career clothing for interviews), clients become ready to enter or re-enter the workforce.  Clients are displaced homemakers, whose financial situation have changed because of separation, divorce, death of a spouse,, living with a disabled spouse, or has a spouse deployed in the military.

Counseling provides clients with the skills they need to enter or re-enter the workplace, encouragement to cope with new life situations, confidence to develop a new career path, and technology skills essential for finding employment, in addition to a wide range of other services.  All programs are nonsectarian and open to ALL women.

In 2016/17, the Center for Women served 1,328 women in transition. Shari Harrison, president of NCJW/Essex, says “hearing from the women we’ve helped with career services through our Linda & Rudy Slucker NCJW/Essex Center for Women touches my heart every time.  They are grateful for our professional guidance, certainly, but even more appreciative of our compassionate approach to getting them back on their feet.   Food slipped quietly into a bag, along with vouchers for interview outfits and even hair styling …. we are told this is what makes their experience with us uniquely personal.”