by Linda S. Haase on November 22, 2022
JUF has allocated more than half a million dollars to address the needs of refugees arriving in the Chicago area from war-torn Ukraine, the first distributions from $1 million set aside for local newcomers as part of
JUF's Ukraine relief effort
.
A JUF lay committee met in the fall to make the first round of grants, providing $510,000 to four projects:
- Sinai Chicago received $250,000 to grow Mental Health Capacity at the Antillas Clinic. This Clinic addresses the health and mental health needs of local refugee arrivals through a culturally sensitive, trauma-informed lens. These funds will help Sinai add mental health staff and deepen its bench strength, and also enable Sinai to leverage a matching opportunity.
- JCFS Chicago - HIAS received $155,000 to swiftly grow employment services, job training, and case management support for new Ukrainian arrivals. These grant funds also enable JCFS to leverage a matching opportunity.
- Dina and Eli Field EZRA Multi-Service Center received $25,000 to expand English as a Second Language classes and case management support, in line with a growing wait list.
- Selfreliance , a new JUF grantee, is a Ukrainian credit union and service organization in the heart of Ukrainian Village. Selfreliance has served as a hub for thousands of Ukrainian arrivals, and received a grant of $80,000 to help enable them to scale up services.
To ensure an effective approach to meeting the needs of newly arrived Ukrainians, JUF partner agencies are convening monthly to confer, share information, and monitor service demands, with data being collected across the system to quantify need, agency capacity, and resource gaps.
Jewish providers, along with non-Jewish Refugee Social Service providers with deep touchpoints in the Ukrainian community, have been invited to submit requests for funding through a rolling grant process.
Linda Haase is JUF's Senior Associate Vice President of Marketing Communications.
