August 2004
For more information, contact Jodee Fishman Raines, (248) 203-1487
At its May and August 17th, 2004 board meetings, The Jewish Fund approved $779,000 in grant payments for 12 primarily health-related programs, bringing total grants paid by the Fund since its creation in 1997 to just over $25 million. The majority of the newly funded programs will benefit the local Jewish community.
After a year and a half of study and planning, a three-year, $310,000 grant to Jewish Family Service will help develop a network of free and reduced price medical care for uninsured and underinsured Jews in our community. Stated Jewish Fund Board Chair David Page, “The Jewish Fund was created to continue Sinai Hospital’s tradition of excellence and compassion. We therefore have long been concerned that our community’s neediest populations receive quality health care. This program promises to be an efficient, effective way to improve access to health care for those who cannot afford adequate insurance.”
According to a study conducted by JFS last year with a Jewish Fund grant, an estimated 4,800 members of our Detroit Jewish community cannot afford adequate health care. The study found that many people in our community’s lower income groups must “sacrifice necessities” in order to pay for health care. Still others are forced to go without needed care and medications. The study showed that the problem clearly expands beyond the senior population (which has Medicare) and is really a problem of the “working poor.”
The new program developed by JFS to address these needs, called Chessed, has pledges from over 150 area physicians and dentists to provide pro bono services to the Jewish community and is attempting to secure commitments from local hospitals and diagnostic groups. Chessed should be ready to see patients by early-mid 2005.
Jewish Fund grants also support health care programs beyond the Jewish community and help strengthen relations between the Jewish community and other communities.
The Anti-Defamation League of Metropolitan Detroit received a two-year, $108,000 grant to provide multi-cultural education to school-aged children in the City of Detroit through public and charter schools, community programs and the Museum of African American History. Research has shown that learned prejudice and discrimination can be reduced with anti-bias curricula and programs, and ADL’s World of Difference® program is a market leader in providing diversity training.
In addition, Starfish Family Services was awarded a $35,000 grant to establish a prenatal program for low-income women in western Wayne County, while the United Way Community Services received a $12,000 grant to provide loans and assistance to help meet nonprofits’ building needs.
The Jewish Fund was created in 1997 from proceeds of the sale of Sinai Hospital to the Detroit Medical Center and awards grants to expand health and human services to residents of metropolitan Detroit. Of the $25 million granted to date, $11 million has been paid to programs helping older adults, $3 million to programs serving children and adults with special needs, $6 million to high priority programs at the DMC, especially Sinai-Grace and Huron Valley-Sinai Hospitals, and $5 million for innovative programs designed to assist other vulnerable Jews and non-Jews.
Following is a complete listing of the new dollars allocated and purposes of the latest awards:
- Alliance for Jewish Education (Bloomfield Hills, MI) – $30,000 for a third year to provide short term, one on one assistance to Jewish preschool children with special needs.
- Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit (West Bloomfield, MI) – $60,000 over 3 years to contract with Jewish Family Service for social work services for middle school-aged children.
- Jewish Family Service (Southfield, MI) – $310,000 over 3 years to develop a network of free and reduced price medical care for uninsured and underinsured Jews living in metropolitan Detroit.
- Jewish Family Service (Southfield, MI) – $150,000 for a second year to provide direct financial assistance to Jewish families and individuals in crisis. (This is part of a second year, $330,000 grant in response to continued urgent needs in the Jewish community.)
- Jewish Family Service (Southfield, MI) – $82,000 for a seventh year to provide escorted, door-to-door transportation to frail Jewish seniors.
- Jewish Family Service/COJES (Southfield, MI) – $100,000 over 3 years (commencing in Sept. 2005) to support and expand the federally funded Supportive Communities program, a pilot program that helps older adults residing in “naturally occurring retirement communities” to age in place.
- Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy Network (Southfield, MI) – $50,000 for a second year to expand its outreach and education programs.
- JVS (Southfield, MI) – $180,000 for a second year to provide career development and employment services for unemployed individuals, primarily Jewish. (This is part of a second year, $330,000 grant in response to continued urgent needs in the Jewish community.)
- Kadima (Southfield, MI) – $80,000 over 2 years to provide on-site art therapy and other therapeutic programs at Kadima for adults with mental illness.
- St. Joseph Mercy Hospital/JFS (Pontiac, MI) – $35,000 for a second year to continue a culturally sensitive home-visiting and mental health program to help improve childhood/family outcomes in large Jewish families that are overburdened with other needs.
- Starfish Family Services (Inkster, MI) – $35,000 for one year to establish a group prenatal education, counseling and medical support program for low-income women in western Wayne County.
- United Way Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit (Detroit, MI) – $12,000 for a third 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 also is supporting the program in partnership with The Jewish Fund.
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