I

f you go to the “About Us” tab on 
the website of Here to Help, a local 
foundation that gives direct grants to 
Oakland and Wayne county residents in 
need of one-time assistance, you can find 
the “Starfish Story.” 
In the story, a young man is throwing 
beached starfish back into the ocean, one 
by one. When an older man comes across 
the sight, the younger man explains he’
s 
trying to keep the starfish alive. The older 
man responds that there are so many 
starfish — he’
s never going to be able to 
save them all. 
“It made a difference to that one,” the 
young man said as he threw another star-
fish back in. 
This is the idea behind Here to Help, 
started in 2006 by Bob and Robin 
Schwartz of Huntington Woods. 
The couple was looking for a change 
and decided to explore philanthropy. 
After reading up on private foundations, 

which commonly give grants to public 
charities, they decided they wanted to do 
something different: They wanted to help 
individual people. 
“We wanted to be direct, hands-on,” 
Bob Schwartz, a former lawyer, told the 
Jewish News, a “saving-one-person-at-a-
time approach.” 
The Schwartzes got IRS approval to 
establish Here to Help, and soon the fam-
ily-funded foundation was up and run-
ning with five main grant programs: Roof 
Over Head helps with security deposits 
and rent assistance; Working Cars for 
Working People gifts grantees a used 
vehicle; Let’
s Keep the Lights On offers 
grants for utility and water bills; Home 
Sweet Home aids with furniture purchas-
es; and Road Ready Repairs assists with 
vehicle maintenance costs. 
In June, they announced the creation of 
a sixth program called Returning Help to 
Returning Citizens, which helps formerly 

incarcerated individuals furnish their 
homes. The program can also help pay 
for job training, assist with the housing 
search, act as a referral source for other 
programs and more. 
“We’
ve worked with returning citizens 
since conception,” Schwartz said. “Many 
times when we assisted with furniture, 
we would visit their apartment or home 
they were renting, and we were some-
what astonished initially at the holes that 
needed to be filled just to have the basic 
necessities of pots and pans and micro-
wave.” 
According to Schwartz, Here to Help’
s 
one-of-a-kind, direct-to-recipient grant 
model has allowed them to directly 
help more than 9,000 people since their 
founding. Here to Help usually gives 
grants to 500-600 people annually, he 
said. 
Their services are even more important 
this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic has 

 A Helping
 Hand in
Southeast
Michigan

The Here to Help Foundation offers
emergency grants to Oakland
and Wayne County residents and
returning citizens.

MAYA GOLDMAN 
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

14 | JULY 23 • 2020 

Bob 
Schwartz

Jews in the D
cover story

