The Jewish Women’s Foundation of
Metropolitan Chicago has awarded $349,890 to 21 unique projects that improve
the lives of Jewish women and girls locally and around the world.
The grants focus on projects that
promote social change at the individual, community and institutional levels. The
total includes the foundation’s second multiyear grant and grants from The
Ellie Fund.
“The Jewish Women’s Foundation trustees
seek to expand and improve opportunities in all aspects of Jewish women’s and
girls’ lives through strategic and effective grant making,” said JWF Chair
Gerri Kahnweiler. “Each of the 2014 grantees advances the quality of life for
Jewish women and girls by investing in their security, well-being and overall
potential." The foundation is an independent project of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.
JWF awarded the largest grant in
its history to SHALVA’s Legal LiaisonProgram. The $75,000 grant – $25,000
a year over three years – is JWF’s second multiyear impact initiative. The Legal Liaison Program integrates an
attorney into the victim’s support process. When SHALVA’s clinical staff
identifies a need, clients are referred to a legal liaison, who explains legal
documents and procedures, facilitates communication with the victim’s attorney,
and addresses issues such as child custody, bankruptcy and orders of protection.
The liaison also is responsible for recruiting attorneys to provide pro bono or
affordable legal representation to SHALVA’s clients, as well as promoting
awareness and education on the legal needs of domestic violence victims within
the community.
In the past, SHALVA has addressed
clients’ legal needs through referrals, education and support services. With
the addition of the legal liaison, SHALVA’s staff will be able to address a
wider spectrum of client needs. Legal issues are the fastest-growing need
facing SHALVA’s clients. “The issue of violence against women and girls in the
Chicago Jewish community is a priority for our foundation, and we are thrilled
to support this all-encompassing program,” Kahnweiler said.
From a pool of over $2.5 million
in grant requests this year, JWF trustees identified and selected those projects
that best reflect the foundation’s mission. The process included detailed
reviews of grant proposals and budgets, conference calls with program staff,
and site visits.
“Our trustees are an intelligent
and thoughtful group of women,” said JWF Grants Chair Shari Slavin. “They
carefully consider which programs would most benefit Jewish women and girls today
and in the years to come. Our model works extremely well and is proven each
year with the quality of our grants docket.”
In addition to SHALVA’s Legal
Liaison Program, new grantees this year include ATZUM: Task Force on Human
Trafficking; Adva Center: Community
Empowerment to Improve the Lives of Women and Girls; Beit Morasha: Women's
Halakha Program for Senior Scholars; Jewish Women International: Sexual
Assault Prevention Program; National Council of Jewish Women Chicago North
Shore Section: Jewish Community Against Sex Trafficking Coalition Chicago;
Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU, Inc.: Reproductive Rights Project; Shalom
Bait, Asociacion Civil de Prevencion de la Violencia Familiar: Pursuing
Justice, the Law as a Tool of Change; and TrueChild: Improving Health, Economic
Empowerment and Leadership Among Jewish Tweens by Addressing Feminine Gender
Norms.
JWF also renewed grants to
AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps; Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation:
End Demand Illinois Campaign; Center for the Advancement of Women in the Public
Sphere at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute: The Gender Index: Monitoring and
Promoting the Status of Women in Israel; Center for Women’s Justice Public
Interest Litigation Project; Eden Center: Crisis and Health Intervention
Training for Israeli Mikvah Attendants; Jewish
Community Center: BeTween: A Jewish Community Planning Initiative; Jewish
United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago: Ma’yan Research Training
Internship.
Additionally, JWF’s Ellie Fund,
established by founding JWF Trustee Ellen Block, awarded seven grants to
organizations working to help girls and women reach their full potential. These
include:
Chicago Alliance Against Sexual
Exploitation: Empowering Young Men to End Sexual Exploitation Program; JUF/Jewish
Federation: Ma’yan Research Training Internship; Mavoi Satum: Justice and
Support for All – Legal Representation and Social Support for Mesoravot Get; NATAL-Israel Trauma Center for
Victims of Terror and War: Empowering Women: Training Early Childhood Teachers
to Become Leaders, Influencers, and Important Community; and The Voices and
Faces Project: The Stories We Tell; Women Moving Millions.
Overall, JWF increased the
support of local projects to nine and seven international. The foundation increased
the number of new grants to 10 and renewed six others.
A detailed list of this year’s
grantees is as follows:
Economic
Security/Legal Reform for Women & Girls
ATZUM:
Task Force on Human Trafficking (TFHT): Working on the grassroots level with other NGOs,
TFHT engages the public, government, and law enforcement agencies to confront
and eradicate sex trafficking in Israel. This project combines a multi-pronged
approach which includes lobbying for reform in the areas of prevention, border
closure, services for victims, and prosecution of traffickers, pimps, and
johns. TFHT is at the forefront of efforts to ensure that the currently seated
Knesset legislate a Nordic Model law, designed to criminalize the purchase of
sexual services and protect the prostituted person. Grant amount: $5,000
Center
for the Advancement of Women in the Public Sphere (WIPS) at the Van Leer
Jerusalem Institute: The Gender Index: Monitoring and
Promoting the Status of Women in Israel: Launched in 2012, the Gender Index measures the rates
and trends of gender inequality in Israel across a variety of issues including
but not limited to, income, political representation, educational attainment,
and rates of violence. This multidimensional tool monitors changes over time,
and can be used to create a snapshot of the depth and breadth of gender
inequality throughout the country. By raising awareness among data generating
organizations, women’s groups, and policy makers this project demonstrates how
gender specific data can and should be used to inform policy recommendations. RenewalGrant amount: $15,000
Center
for Women’s Justice (CWJ): The Public Interest Litigation
Project: This
project promotes women’s rights by filing precedent setting lawsuits in civil
courts across Israel to address discriminatory decisions and policies decided
by Israel’s rabbinic courts. Get
refusal and extortion (husbands who refuse to grant their wives a divorce) are
among the top priorities of these lawsuits.
Through litigation and public awareness activities, CWJ challenges
unfair rulings and wins monetary damages for wives who were denied a get, thereby deterring husbands from
using the get as a tool for
extortion. By promoting legal reform in the Israeli civil court system, this
project secures justice and fair treatment for women throughout the country. Renewal Grant amount: $15,000
Chicago
Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE): End Demand
Illinois (EDI) Campaign:
This organizing and advocacy campaign is dedicated to transforming Illinois’
response to prostitution and sex trafficking through pioneering legislative and
policy reform. EDI is grounded in the belief that the sexual exploitation of
women and girls through prostitution and sex trafficking will never end until
our community refocuses its resources on holding those who create and support
the demand for the domestic sex trade (i.e. pimps, johns and traffickers)
accountable. CAASE recognizes that
systemic change can emerge through faith communities, and is committed to
engaging the Jewish community in this important effort. Not only is this
initiative based in Chicago, but it continues to produce groundbreaking reform
for Illinois that can be replicated throughout the United States. Renewal Grant amount: $10,000
Roger
Baldwin Foundation of ACLU, Inc.: Reproductive
Rights Project: This project seeks to ensure that
women in Illinois can access the reproductive health care and information they
need regardless of the religious beliefs of their employers and health care
providers. Using the full force of the ACLU’s integrated advocacy efforts, the
project will aim to secure legal and public policy victories that will prohibit
the use of religion to deny essential medical care and justify discrimination.
Among other things, this project will simultaneously undertake a public
awareness campaign, sharpening litigation, and develop legal and public health
strategies to advance legislative efforts.
Grant amount: $18,000
TrueChild:Improving Health, Economic Empowerment and Leadership Among Jewish
Tweens by Addressing Feminine Gender Norms:
This project recognizes that many programs aimed at girls and young
women fail to fully take into account how the cultural influence of rigid
gender norms can impact behavior.
Grounded in the understanding that doing work with a “gender lens”
requires conducting a full gender analysis, this project will help create best practice
models for gender-based programming in Chicago’s Jewish community. Engaging
both parents and professionals who work with girls, TrueChild will also create
new resources that can be used to inform and teach Jewish girls how to think
critically about harmful and rigid feminine norms. Grant amount: $15,000
Education/Leadership
Development for Women & Girls
Adva Center: Community Empowerment to Improve
the Lives of Women and Girls: This grassroots community organizing project is
designed to give Israeli women the tools they need to become politically active
in both formal and informal settings throughout their community. The program
aims to increase women's political and economic power by providing them with
knowledge about their economy and society and about the inner workings of their
local and national governments. Through education, women in communities
throughout Israel will become empowered to effect change in their local
municipalities. Grant amount: $11,700
AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps: AVODAH
engages Jews in their 20s and 30s in a year-long service learning program to
combat poverty and promote social justice.
The program consists of work placements at Chicagoland anti-poverty
agencies; communal living of corps members; mentoring; and educational sessions
that include social activist training, education on the dynamics of urban
poverty, and Jewish study. JWF funding supports the incorporation of
gender-specific education into the corps members’ regular trainings. By
increasing corps members’ connection to social activism, civic engagement, and
Jewish values, this program is developing the next generation of young female
Jewish leaders and activists who are committed to social justice and gender
equality. Renewal Grant
amount: $8,500
Beit Morasha: Women's Halakha Program for
Senior Scholars: The Women's Halakha Program at Beit Morasha trains
women senior Torah scholars to qualify for rabbinic exams and serve as
religious scholarly and educational leaders. These women have the opportunity to
study and take examinations parallel to the requirements for male rabbinical
candidates in Israel. For the first time in Jewish history, women Torah
scholars have become the educational core of advanced Torah study for women and
girls in Modern Orthodox society. The program also aspires to encourage
inclusion of women in senior Jewish scholarly leadership positions such as
rabbinic organizations, conferences, and leadership of Jewish centers of higher
learning, shifting community and individual behavior. Grant amount: $10,000
Jewish Community Centers (JCC): BeTween: A Jewish Community
Planning Initiative:
A two year grant from JWF
(2013-2014) enabled JCFS and partnering agencies to complete the needs
assessment and finalize recommendations for BeTween implementation. BeTween
aims to enhance the social, mental, spiritual, physical and emotional health of
pre-teen Jewish girls in the Chicago area, and ensure that parents and other
adults in their lives have the awareness and skills to support them. To reach
this goal, JCC will launch three programs in 2015, which emerged as the most
promising practices: Girl Scouts, Girls on the Run, and Smarty Pants
Yoga. BeTween will also continue to serve as an ongoing vehicle for
incubating, hosting, expanding and generating referrals for other community
programming targeting pre-teen girls. Drawing from input received from parents,
service providers and teen girls, this project promotes a coordinated,
sustainable initiative that cuts across community settings and nurtures all
parts of a Jewish tween girl as she is becoming a woman. Renewal Grant
amount: $13,700
Jewish
United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago:
Ma’yan Research Training Internship:
This 15-month internship program provides a girls only space where participants
engage in serious inquiry about the topics that matter most to them. This
project helps girls develop critical thinking and research skills and allows
teens to engage in feminist discussions through bi-monthly meetings. RTI
achieves a secondary goal of producing new, well-researched evidence of the
needs and experiences of Jewish teen girls, which can be used by community
professionals to improve existing programs. This project is a partnership
between the New York-based Ma’yan, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Chicago and DePaul University’s Beck Research Initiative for Women, Gender and
Community. Grant amount: $15,150
National
Council of Jewish Women Chicago North Shore Section (NCJW):
Jewish Community Against Sex Trafficking Coalition Chicago (JCAST Chicago): JCAST Chicago works to eradicate
sex trafficking in the Chicagoland area through public awareness, community
engagement, and advocacy at local, state and national levels. Inspired by Jewish values, JCAST partners
with interfaith and human rights groups, non-profit organizations, government
officials, and law enforcement agencies. By serving as the Jewish voice against
sex trafficking in Chicago, JCAST seeks to ensure that the Jewish community
understands how sex trafficking affects our community, and recognize how we as
Jews, have a moral imperative to advocate for policies, services for victims,
and greater awareness. Grant amount:
$16,000
Health
& Well-Being for Women & Girls
Eden Center: Crisis and Health Intervention
Training for Israeli Mikvah Attendants:This project seeks to change the
objective of mikvah (ritual bath)
attendants from performance of the mikvah
ritual to working towards becoming an advocate for women’s health and
well-being. Through a series of educational programs, Israeli mikvah attendants will address pressing
issues such as domestic violence, post-partum depression, and breast health.
This project seeks to shift individual and community behavior by educating and
empowering mikvah attendants to
recognize, inform, and advocate for the myriad of women with whom they
interface on a regular basis. Renewal
Grant amount: $20,000
Jewish
Women International (JWI): Sexual Assault Prevention
Program: Through
this program, JWI seeks to address misconceptions and change the way college
students perceive and respond to the critical issue of sexual assault on
campus. Working with the Hillels at Northwestern University and the University
of Chicago, JWI will develop and implement workshops on sexual assault for
Jewish students that covers key issues including statistics and facts, tips for
bystander intervention, ways to assess consent from a partner, and strategies
for supporting victims. This co-ed program will emphasize the need for personal
and community responsibility, and provide realistic tools for men and women to
use as they step in as active bystanders and seek to change the culture on
college campuses. Grant amount: $24,000
Shalom
Bait, Asociacion Civil de Prevencion de la Violencia Familiar:
Pursuing Justice, the Law as a Tool of Change:
Shalom Bait is the only Jewish organization working directly to meet the
needs of Jewish victims of domestic violence in Argentina. Located in Buenos Aires, Shalom Bait provides
Jewish victims of domestic violence with legal counseling and representation as
they engage in legal battles against their abusers. Shalom Bait staff also work to increase
public awareness, train professionals in the community on how to intervene in
cases involving domestic violence, and engage in advocacy efforts to enforce
and strengthen the domestic violence laws in Argentina. This project works to break the silence
surrounding domestic violence and promotes and protects the rights of
victims. Grant amount: $18,000
Multiyear Grant to Prevent
Violence Against Women and Girls in the Chicago Jewish Community - Year 1
SHALVA:
Legal Liaison Program: SHALVA,
the oldest independent Jewish domestic violence agency in the United States,
works to address domestic abuse in Chicago Jewish homes and families through
counseling and education. To better
assist clients, SHALVA’s Legal Liaison Program will hire attorneys to provide
legal information and support to women who are engaged in lengthy legal battles
with the men who abused them. The
program will also educate divorce attorneys and judges on the differences
between and the complexities of a divorce where there has been abuse versus a
contentious divorce. The program seeks to create awareness of how abusers use
the legal system to further the abuse, reassert control and wear down their
partners. The Legal Liaison helps SHALVA’s clients better understand the
complicated legal process and facilitates communication with their attorneys.
Additionally, the Legal Liaison works to identify and recruit attorneys who
will provide pro bono legal representation for SHALVA’s clients. By providing crucial post-separation
assistance, this project promotes the long-term safety of Jewish women impacted
by domestic abuse. Grant amount: $25,000 per year for three years for a
total of $75,000 – first installment
The
Ellie Fund of the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago
Chicago
Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE): Empowering Young
Men to End Sexual Exploitation Program: This school-based prevention program engages young
men in high school as allies in efforts to address and prevent sexual violence
and exploitation. Through a series of workshops, young men learn about the
exploitative dynamics and violence that exists in the sex trade in order to
deter their involvement in this industry as consumers as well as facilitate a
more personal understanding of how sexual violence and exploitation affects
them and their communities. Companion sessions are also held with high school
aged young women. Learning about sexual
exploitation not only deters men from purchasing sex, but it also has the
possibility to affect change in young men’s relationships with women and
empower them to become part of the solution to end sexual exploitation
and violence. RenewalGrant amount: $12,000
Jewish
United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago:
Ma’yan Research Training Internship:See above description. The grant will support the first cohort of
interns. Grant amount $20,000
Mavoi
Satum: Justice and Support for All –
Legal Representation and Social Support for Mesoravot Get: Working
in Israel, this project provides social and legal support to agunot, women
whose husbands refuse to give them a religious divorce (get). For many women, the process of securing a get can take many years, and ongoing
legal and social support is crucial to ensure that women’s rights are
protected. Through this project women receive individual legal consultation and
representation in both civil and religious courts as well as social support to
help them address feelings of powerlessness and rebuild their lives. RenewalGrant amount: $20,000
NATAL-Israel
Trauma Center for Victims of Terror and War:Empowering Women: Training Early Childhood Teachers to Become Leaders,
Influencers, and Important Community Resources: This program provides
trauma awareness and leadership training to early childhood teachers, enabling
them to become strong public advocates in NATAL’s nation-wide campaign to raise
awareness of war and terror-related trauma as it affects children and families.
With teachers as advocates, children will be able to get the vital help they
need to reverse the impact of trauma and prevent the development of life-long
debilitating symptoms. As strong public advocates, teachers will play an
important role in ensuring the future health and well-being of the next
generation of Israelis- and thus of Israel. Grant amount: $22,840
The
Voices and Faces Project: The Stories We Tell:
This award-winning, Chicago-based storytelling initiative looks at how
public testimony can be used as a tool for social change, and will bring the
testimonies of Jewish survivors of sexual violence to the attention of the
public. Believing that survivors can make political and cultural changes in our
society, this project will provide survivors with an opportunity to give voice
to their experiences and reflect how those experiences place an explicit demand
on the standards of justice in our culture. By sharing the testimony of those
who have lived through or witnessed gender related violence, the project seeks
to challenge the public responses to violence against women. Grant
amount: $25,000
Women
Moving Millions (WMM):
WMM is a community of individuals who have made gifts and pledges of one
million or more to organizations and initiatives promoting the advancement and
empowerment of women and girls. This community believes that women and girls
are the single best investment towards creating healthy societies, economic
growth, and global stabilization. WMM is committed to funding systemic change
and building a peaceful and equitable world. These funds will be used to
increase awareness of the need to invest philanthropic resources in projects
aimed at helping women and girls. Grant
amount: $10,000
For
more information on grants awarded or the Foundation, contact Sara Kalish,
Senior Program Officer, at (312) 444-2846 or email SaraKalish@juf.org.
