December 22, 2008

(San Francisco, CA) – In response to the increased demand for services due to the economic downturn, the leadership of the Jewish Community Federation convened a series of meetings to develop strategies for a rapid response to the growing hardship in its service areas’ Jewish and general communities.

As part of the Federation’s rapid response, the Jewish Community Endowment Fund (JCEF) approved a series of emergency grants last week to help Bay Area Jewish charities and schools meet the additional demand for their services. These needs range from increased demand for counseling and placement services for recently laid-off workers to families who can no longer afford school tuition, or who are at risk due to financial hardship.

Among the grants, $70,000 was awarded to Jewish Family and Children's Services (JFCS) to help to address additional requests for emergency financial assistance for individuals and families in crisis, $75,000 to Jewish Vocational Service to hire an additional full-time Employment Specialist, and $50,000 to the Jewish Day School Scholarship Fund.

These funds will be put to immediate use addressing the community’s needs in this troubled time.

JVS is now helping more than 2,000 clients, a 50% increase from the typical volume. This grant pays for an additional full-time Employment Specialist to provide vocational counseling and placement assistance to those affected by the economic down-turn, including laid off-workers in need of job training and counseling services and allows JVS to respond to the increased demand instead of putting people on a waiting list.

More than 4,000 families in Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties families are receiving assistance in the form of crisis counseling and emergency financial aid for food, shelter, medicines and other urgent needs from JFCS, and this grant supplement funds previously provided by the JFCS for emergency financial assistance. The funds are to be used for direct financial assistance to Jewish individuals and families.

A quarter of all Jewish preschools have already reported drops in student enrollment due to financial hardship. The grant will help Jewish Day Schools to meet emergency mid-year requests from families who need additional help to keep their children enrolled. The funds will be used to assist families who currently receive the maximum scholarship available from an individual school, but are still unable to pay the remaining amount of their children’s tuition fees because of a parent’s loss of job or income.

For more information please contact:
- Angela Ingel, Marketing Director, 415.512.6246, angelai@sfjcf.org

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