Sept. 2025
Wendy Schneider
The story of how Hamilton’s Beth Tikvah Foundation came into being begins with a devoted brother’s vision of a warm home-like environment where his two developmentally delayed brothers could live out their lives with dignity in the heart of the Jewish community. Stan Tick’s vision became reality in 1990, when his brothers, Bernie and Teddy, together with four others moved into a modest house on Arkell Street in Westdale.
For the next 24 years, despite Beth Tikvah’s efforts to build its presence in the Jewish community, uncertainty lingered over whether the provincial government might eventually fold the agency into one of the city’s larger social service providers.
That trajectory changed in 2014, when the board — under the leadership of the late Frank Simkevitz — hired Chris Barone as executive director. Barone still recalls Simkevitz encouraging him to see Beth Tikvah as a blank canvas—an opportunity to shape something lasting. It was a challenge Barone felt compelled to accept.
“I was the director of services at Rygiel Supports for Community Living, overseeing 36 homes and 300 staff,” Barone recalls. “If I stayed, I’d be continuing what someone else had built. But with Beth Tikvah, I had the chance to create something new—something rooted in everything I’d learned throughout my career, including past mistakes and improvements I’d witnessed.”
And he did just that. Under Barone’s leadership, Beth Tikvah has evolved from a small agency managing one home with six staff into a respected, full-service organization. Now headquartered alongside the Hamilton Jewish Federation at JHamilton, the agency employs 85 staff and supports 25 individuals across eight shared apartments, in addition to the original home on Arkell Street.
Like its counterpart, Toronto’s Reena Foundation, Beth Tikvah draws its Jewish identity from its founding values and history. Although only three of its current clients are Jewish, Barone regularly fields calls from Jewish families—typically four to five each year—concerned about planning for their adult children’s future care. His guidance is consistent: start by registering with Developmental Services Ontario (DSO), the essential first step toward securing support when the need arises.
“If they’re registered, when the time comes … they’re prepared and ready,” said Barone, adding that the last thing he wants to see is a parent contacting them in an emergency situation and the preliminary steps have not been taken.
He emphasizes the importance of a smooth, thoughtful transition. “These are major life changes. It’s not fair to the individual to have one chapter end and another begin without proper support.”
An increasing number of Beth Tikvah’s clients are young adults aging out of the foster care system — many of whom have lived with the same foster families since early childhood.
“Imagine living with the same family since you were three or four, and then suddenly turning 18 and being told you can’t stay,” Barone explained. “That’s where we come in. We support the transition and reassure them that just because they’re living with us now doesn’t mean those long-standing relationships have to end. They can and should continue.”
Looking back over the last decade, Barone says he’s most proud of how far the organization has come.
“We’re no longer this small unheard of agency off to the side … To see this kind of growth in just 10 years is amazing,” he said, “We had an office that was in the attic of 81 Arkell, where every two hours I had to run down to move my car because I was going to get a ticket to the point where we have an infrastructure … I think everyone in Beth Tikvah is very special to the point where we all are like one arrow shooting forward. We all have the same vision.”
Beth Tikvah’s longtime board chair Ian Binnie agrees that the original Beth Tikvah vision has been sustained “to a remarkable degree.”
“For the whole time that Chris has been in charge there and that he’s built his staff, we’ve seen consistent good results … all the reports that we get from various sources indicate that most of the people who we’ve taken in have adapted well to the staffing model and to living in an apartment and, you know, basically thriving in the outside world.”
Binnie also credits the board’s dedication for much of the organization’s success.
“We’ve had great continuity, and the board has been remarkably helpful,” he said. “But like every public service agency, the challenge is finding directors with the right skill set — especially those with financial and management experience.”
He believes Beth Tikvah’s long-term connection to the Jewish community depends on two things: attracting more Jewish clients and increasing Jewish representation on the board.
“If you don’t have a strong management structure and a committed board, the organization drives into a wall,” he said. “And when that happens, the people who suffer most are the residents who rely on us.”
