The Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago’s Holocaust Community Services program has been awarded a $105,000 matching grant from the Jewish Federations of North America’s new Center for Advancing Holocaust Survivor Care.

The Jewish Federations of North America launched the Center for Advancing Holocaust Survivor Care in 2015, following an award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for up to $12 million over five years to advance innovations in person-centered, trauma-informed services for Holocaust survivors in the United States. These grants mark the first time in history that the U.S. government has provided direct funding for Holocaust survivor programming.

Holocaust Community Services’ Outreach Program will promote physical and emotional well-being and increase service accessibility by bringing services to survivors in their primary language and locations. The Outreach Program will include three components: 1) community-based health education programming; 2) in-home mental health counseling; and 3) companionship programs with trained volunteers. The program targets two significantly under-served survivor populations: survivors from the former Soviet Union and isolated, home-bound survivors who struggle with accessibility.

Of the more than 100,000 Holocaust survivors in the United States, nearly one-quarter are aged 85 or older, and one in four lives in poverty. Many live alone and are at risk for social isolation, depression and other physical and mental health conditions stemming from periods of starvation, disease and torture.

Chicago’s Holocaust Community Services program is an inter-agency program founded by the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago in 1999 to provide safety-net services to local Holocaust survivors — especially those who are living in poverty. The program is currently administered by CJE SeniorLife, in partnership with Jewish Child & Family Services and HIAS Chicago, and receives significant funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany. As the demand for services has skyrocketed, HCS has added partnerships with additional Jewish communal agencies, including The ARK, Maot Chitim and EZRA Multi-Service Center. In 2015, the program served nearly 900 survivors, one in two of whom received financial assistance.

“Now is the opportunity to make an enormous difference in the quality of the lives of our local Holocaust survivors, lending them support and understanding of their unique needs and challenges,” said Yonit Hoffman, Ph.D., Holocaust Community Services Program Director.

“Taking care of Holocaust survivors, ensuring that they have their physical and emotional needs met, is of the utmost importance and a fully attainable goal if we continue to work together,” said Mark Wilf, chair of Federations’ National Holocaust Survivor Initiative.

The Center for Advancing Holocaust Survivor Care and its partner organizations, the Association of Jewish Family & Children’s Agencies and the Claims Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, are working together to promote such innovative service delivery models. The grant money is a combination of federal dollars and philanthropic dollars raised by Jewish Federations as part of JFNA’s National Holocaust Survivor Initiative, which seeks to raise $45 million to support the survivor community.