JWF awards aim to improve lives of women, girls

The Jewish Women’s Foundation of New Jersey recently awarded three grants in New Jersey and one in Israel for 2014. JWF is dedicated to empowering women and girls through education, advocacy, and strategic grant making. This year’s awards totaled $72,460, representing JWF’s largest financial commitment since its founding more than eight years ago.

JWF is an advisory council of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater MetroWest, the planned giving and endowment arm of Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ.

This year’s awards included:

• $25,000 — Unchained At Last, based in Westfield, the only nonprofit in the United States dedicated to helping women leave or avoid arranged/forced marriages and rebuild their lives.

• $22,960 — Newark Beth Israel Medical Center Foundation for its work at Newark’s Barringer High School, for Healthy Body/Healthy Mind, a program for overweight girls.

• $9,500 — JESPY House in South Orange, a challenge grant to raise the money necessary to fund “Twenty-First Century Technology Opportunities for JESPY Women.”

In addition, JWF made its first major grant to an Israeli amuta (nonprofit organization) through the generosity of an anonymous donor:

• $10,000 — Ruach Nashit (Women’s Spirit), the only organization in Israel that ties women victims of violence to financial independence.

Earlier in the year, the JWF made five smaller grants:

• $1,000 — National Council of Jewish Women-Essex County Section, Livingston, for One Billion Women Rising for Justice, a program in March whose aim was raising awareness about violence against women and girls.

• $1,000 — Rachel Coalition of Jewish Family Service of MetroWest, Florham Park, to provide professional child-care services at the agency’s offices for their clients while accessing services.

• $1,000 — Mom2Mom, a program of Rutgers University Behavioral Healthcare, to fund a Mother’s Day Resilience Building project bringing together mothers of special-needs children, who volunteer for its peer support hotline with those who have used the hotline, for a day of respite and mutual support.

• $1,000 — JESPY House, South Orange, for a sex education program for developmentally disabled women to enhance their feelings of self-worth.

• $1,000 — Friendship Circle, Livingston, for Mom’s Night Out, a series providing respite to mothers of children with special needs.

For information, contact director Susan Friedman at 973-929-3005 or SFriedman@jfedgmw.org.