Community Outreach
Jewish Fund approves health and human service grants totaling $2.1 million.
"Helping the
community's elderly
is one of the top
priorities of the
Jewish community
and of the Jewish
Fund."
N
ineteen programs providing
health and human services
in metro Detroit have
received $2.1 million in
grants from the Jewish Fund.
The majority of the funds will be
used to serve the Jewish community's
frail elderly, including $674,000 for
in-home support services and
$475,000 for a day care program for
seniors with Alzheimer's or similar ill-
nesses.
"Helping the community's elderly is
one of the top priorities of the Jewish
community and of the Jewish Fund,"
said Mark Schlussel, Jewish Fund
chair.
"The in-home support and day care
programs demonstrate our communi-
ty's strong commitment, creativity and
compassion in caring for its elderly.
You will not find services like this at
this level anywhere else in the region."
The in-home services are provided
in a coordinated manner by Jewish
Apartments and Services, Jewish
Family Service and Kadima to 1,400
seniors each year. Services include per-
sonal care, medication reminders,
social work services, housekeeping and
meal preparation. The program pro-
motes the seniors' independence and
dignity by permitting them to contin-
ue to live in their own residences.
There are cost savings as well. The
program costs an average
$5,200/client per year as opposed to
$54,000 for a nursing home or
$30,000 for assisted living, and has
proven effective at keeping seniors out
of these more costly living situations.
The adult day care program, for-
mally known as the Dorothy and Peter
Brown Jewish Community Adult Day
Care Program, is operated jointly by
Jewish Home and Aging Services and
JVS. The program enhances the self-
esteem, well being and dignity of the
seniors, while providing respite and
supportive services for the family.
Helping individuals with special
needs is another high priority of the
Jewish community and the Jewish
Fund. The January grants include
$120,000 over three years to the
Agency for Jewish Education to pilot a
program that provides short-term,
individualized assistance to Jewish pre-
school children with special needs;
$75,000 for a third year to the Jewish
Community Center to integrate chil-
dren with disabilities into the Center's
recreational and social programs;
$75,000 for a third year to the Jewish
2/8
2002
32
---- Mark Sehlussel, Jewish Fund chair
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit for
vouchers to help families purchase
therapy, recreation, respite and other
services for their special needs depend-
ents; $75,000 to JVS to provide med-
ical support for individuals with severe
disabilities in its sheltered workshop;
and two grants totaling $100,000 to
Kadima for prescriptions and social
work services for mentally ill adults.
In addition, two grants totaling
$150,000 were awarded to the Detroit
Medical Center. The DMC grants
include $50,000 to the Weisberg
Cancer Treatment - Center to help buy
a linear accelerator used in radiation
treatment and $100,000 to Sinai-
Grace Hospital to help create an
Express Care-Urgent Care Unit that
will help reduce wait time at the Sinai-
Grace Emergency Room by separately
serving those emergency room patients
that have less emergent needs.
Some of the other funded pro-
grams include a new project at Jewish
Family Service that will facilitate and
coordinate spiritual healing programs
in the Jewish community; a pilot
effort by AIDS Partnership Michigan
to work with the Sinai-Grace
Infectious Disease Clinic; a partner-
ship between Children's Hospital of
Michigan and Karmanos Cancer
Institute to serve children with cancer
and their families; and continued
sponsorship of the Jewish Community
City Year team in partnership with the
Federation and its finance arm, the
United Jewish Foundation.
The Jewish Fund was created in
1997 from proceeds of the sale of
Sinai Hospital to the DMC and has
since awarded over $22.5 million in
grants.
Following is a complete listing of the
latest awards:
• Agency for Jewish Education
$105,000 over three years for
individualized assistance for special
needs pre-school children.
• AIDS Partnership Michigan:
$40,000 to provide mental health
counseling and help improve med-
ical adherence of HIV patients at
the Sinai-Grace Infectious Disease
Clinic.
• Children's Hospital of Michigan
and the Barbara Ann Karmanos
Cancer Institute: $185,000 over two
years to help children with cancer
and their families.
• City Year: . $75,000 to continue
sponsorship of the Jewish
Community team.
• The Detroit Institute for
Children: Up to $60,000 for a certi-
fied nurse practitioner to improve
medical treatment for children with
special needs and their families.
• Jewish Apartments and Services,
Jewish Family Service, Kadima:
$674,000 for in-home support serv-
ices for low-income seniors.
• Jewish Community Center:
$75,000 for a third year to integrate
children with disabilities into the
Center's recreational and social pro-
grams.
• Jewish Family Service: $108,000
over two years for the Kehilah
Program, a new program that will
facilitate and coordinate spiritual
healing programs in the Jewish com-
munity.
• Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit: $75,000 for a
third year to provide vouchers to help
qualifying families buy services such
as therapy, recreation and respite for
their special needs dependents.
• Jewish Home and Aging Services,
JVS: $500,000 for a day care pro-
gram for seniors with Alzheimer's or
similar illnesses.
• JVS: $75,000 to support the med-
ical component of a sheltered work-
shop for severely disabled adults.
• Kadima: $25,000 to help buy psy-
chotropic medications for low-
income, mentally ill adults.
• Kadima: $135,000 over two years
for in-home social work services for
low-income, mentally ill adults.
• Reggie McKenzie Foundation
Inc.: $35,000 for a third year for a
program designed to educate sev-
enth-12th grade at-risk youth in
Highland Park to help them make
healthy life choices and introduce
them to health careers.
• National Bone Marrow
Transplant Link $20,000 to devel-
op a strategic plan with a strong
fund-raising component.
• National Conference for
Community and Justice-Michigan
Chapter: $20,000 to provide diversi-
ty training at two Jewish Apartments
and Services buildings to improve
both resident-to-resident relations
and resident-to-staff relations.
• Volunteer Impact: $45,000 over
two years to continue and expand the
organization's work to assist Jewish
organizations in recruiting, training,
coordinating and utilizing long-term
volunteers.
• DMC/Weisberg Cancer
Treatment Center: $50,000 to pur-
chase a linear accelerator used in
radiation treatment.
• DMC/Sinai-Grace Hospital: .
$100,000 to help create an Express
Care-Urgent Care Unit that will help
reduce wait time at the Sinai-Grace
Emergency Room by separately serv-
ing those emergency room patients
that have less emergent needs.