September 2003
For more information, contact Jodee Fishman Raines, (248) 203-1487
At its August 11th board meeting, The Jewish Fund approved $376,000 in grant payments for 11 primarily health-related programs. The majority of the programs will benefit the local Jewish community.
In keeping with its mission to improve the lives of vulnerable Jewish individuals, two new grants will help families and young children by expanding state-of-the art, proven programs into the Jewish community. The first, a three-year, $105,000 grant to Jewish Family Service, features an expansion of the award-winning Healthy Start/Healthy Families program. In collaboration with Healthy Start, Jewish Family Service will provide home visits to families with infants that need extra assistance. JFS will help the parents develop effective parenting skills and provide other supportive services to the family. A $20,000 grant to P’Tach, will introduce Sensory Integration equipment and therapies into Orthodox Jewish day schools to improve the quality of play-based learning for all children and address the special needs of students who require more attention. The addition of the sensory therapies will complement existing services being provided in the schools by JARC and P’Tach.
Jewish Fund grants also support health care programs beyond the Jewish community and help strengthen relations between the Jewish and general communities.
HAVEN was awarded a $10,000 grant to provide medical care to victims of sexual assault while effectively collecting evidence for prosecution. The program, called START, is based upon a proven national model. START has already helped 150 victims in southeastern Michigan and achieved a 100% conviction rate of those perpetrators brought to trial. Hospice of Michigan received $15,000 to develop an outreach program to increase hospice services to the African American community. To help accomplish this, HOM will work with the Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy Network’s Certified Pastoral Education program and Sinai-Grace Hospital’s Parish Nursing Program, two other programs supported by The Jewish Fund.
The Jewish Fund was created in 1997 from proceeds of the sale of Sinai Hospital to the Detroit Medical Center and has since awarded over $23 million in grants to expand health and human services to residents of metropolitan Detroit.
- Following is a complete listing of the dollars allocated and purposes of the latest awards.
- Alliance for Jewish Education (Bloomfield Hills, MI) – $35,000 for a second year to provide short term, one on one assistance to Jewish preschool children with special needs.
- HAVEN (Pontiac, MI) – $10,000 for one year to provide medical care to victims of sexual assault while effectively collecting evidence for prosecution.
- Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit (West Bloomfield, MI) – $5,000 for a second year to contract with Jewish Family Service for social work services for 6-10 year old children who have ADHD and other impulse control problems.
- Hospice of Michigan (Detroit, MI) – $15,000 for one year to develop an outreach program to increase hospice services to the African American community.
- Jewish Family Service (Southfield, MI) – $107,000 for a sixth year to provide escorted, door-to-door transportation to frail Jewish seniors.
- Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy Network (Southfield, MI) – $100,000 over two years to expand its outreach and education programs.
- JVS/COJES (Southfield, MI) – $36,000 for a third year to combine efforts to recruit and train in-home support and care staff for JVS, Jewish Apartments and Services, Jewish Family Service and Jewish Home and Aging Services.
- Kids Kicking Cancer (Birmingham, MI) – $40,000 for a fourth year to continue and expand a karate program for children with cancer.
- P’Tach (Oak Park, MI) – $20,000 for one year to provide sensory integration services to pre-school students in the Orthodox Jewish day schools.
- St. Joseph Mercy Hospital/JFS (Pontiac, MI) – $105,000 over three years to provide in-home visits to improve the parenting skills of Jewish families with young children served by Jewish Family Service that are at-risk of poor child outcomes.
- United Way Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit (Detroit, MI) – $18,000 for a second year for the Nonprofit Facilities Center to assist nonprofits whose mission is to improve the health of the residents of metropolitan Detroit. The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and United Jewish Foundation also are supporting the program in partnership with The Jewish Fund.
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