BJCWF's Granting History

The Boston Jewish Community Women's Fund started making grants in 2001.

Since our founding, nine years ago, we have given out $1,366,000 in grants to organizations that address underrepresented women and girls in the Boston area as well as Israel.

Take a look at our nearly decade long history of grantmaking!

Grants that serve women and girls in Boston’s Jewish community:

• Etty Project: A theatre production and teaching workshops based on the diaries of Auschwitz victim Etty Hillesum.

• Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters: Presenting littles with images of capable women, career options and choices for their futures.

• Jewish Community Centers: Teaching adolescent girls to develop Powerful Voices by addressing issues they identify as important to them.

• Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly: (1) Breast cancer information outreach to elderly Russian women to raise awareness and encourage screening. (2) Build capacity to recognize and respond to mental health issues and work with tenants to accept mental health services.

• Jewish Family & Children’s Service: (1) Kol Isha Russian Domestic Violence Project; (2) services in Russian to victims of human trafficking; (3) Teen Safe educational program.

• Jewish Family Service/Metrowest: (1) Strengthening the bonds between homeless mothers and children; (2) sensitizing the synagogue community to issues of eating disorder and body image in Bat Mitzvah age girls and building self-esteem.

• Jewish Organizing Initiative: Training activists for community work.

• Jewish Outreach Institute: Mother’s Circle: Support and education for women of other faiths committed to raising Jewish children.

• Jewish Women’s Archive: (1) Develop a curriculum focused on women’s achievements for school children; (2) Fund a new online project, Bat Mitzvah Interactive, to fuse community service, family stories and Jewish women’s history into individual bat mitzvah experiences.

• Mayyim Hayyim: (1) Creating new rituals for new uses of mikvah; (2) Healing Guide for Jewish women with cancer; (3) Embracing Waters Initiative to work with survivors of domestic abuse and train volunteer and professional leaders who work with them.

• MzVibe: Issues-focused webzine for Jewish girls.

• Moving Traditions – Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing: A five-year program promoting self esteem, leadership skills and Jewish identity in girls grades 6-12 in 7-10 area synagogues.

Grants that serve women and girls in Boston’s secular community:

• Adolescent Consultation Services: Girls’ group treatment program at Cambridge Juvenile Court Clinic.

• Bird Street (Upham’s Corner) Community Center: Helping girls develop positive self images and combat rising violence among girls through intense and inventive programming.

• Boston Medical Center - Hey Mama: Translation into Creole of a birth and early parenting guide for at-risk, low-income Haitian women.

• Boston Area Rape Crisis Center: Training for first responders and counseling for adolescent survivors of sexual violence.

• Center for Women and Enterprise: Training women to create small businesses.

• Germaine Lawrence School: Arts therapy program for troubled girls unable to express themselves verbally.

• Homes for Families: Teaching homeless women to be advocates for the homeless.

• On The Rise: Day program for homeless and abused women.

• One Family Scholars: Support for training for homeless women going from welfare to work.

• One Voice Echoes: Writing project for abused women.

• Project Hope: Training welfare mothers to be childcare providers.

• RAW Art Works: Arts education and therapy for inner city girls in Lynn.

• Reach Beyond Domestic Violence (REACH): Advocacy training for Latina immigrant survivors of domestic abuse.

• Reaching Out About Depression (ROAD), Cambridge Health Alliance: Workshops, advocacy and peer-counseling for low-income women affected by situational depression.

• Science Club for Girls: Mentoring and tutoring in science for girls in kindergarten through high school.

• Second Step: Mentoring for survivors of domestic violence, base on a life-coaching model.

• Strong Women, Strong Girls: 100 college students mentor 300 Boston school girls, grades 3-5 to build healthy habits, concrete skills and strong relationships.

• United Teen Equality Center, Lowell: Empowering young women to develop strong self images and change their communities.

• Victim Rights Law Center: Civil legal interventions for women who have been sexually assaulted, enabling them to return to everyday activities.

• Women’s Educational Center: Services to survivors of domestic violence and other trauma.

Grants to benefit women and girls in Israel:

• Adva Center: Advocacy to place more line items benefiting women in the Israeli government budget.

• Economic Empowerment for Women: Business incubator to support low-income women in Haifa who have started micro-enterprises.

• Hotline for Migrant Workers and Isha l’Isha: Securing legal representation for victims of sex trafficking.

• Israel Women’s Network: Advocacy for women’s issues and legal assistance for precedent-setting cases.

• Jerusalem Rape Crisis Center: Training educators to recognize signs of sexual abuse in young children.

• Kidma at the University of Haifa: A program for immigrant girls to combat relationship violence.

• Kol Ha’Isha: Teaching business skills to help poor women become self-sufficient.

• Mahut Center: Skills training, job search assistance, job placement for low-income women.
  

• Neve Yosef Community Center: A transgenerational project linking Ethiopian women and their daughters through traditional embroidery skills.

• Rackman Center at Bar Ilan Univeristy: Advocacy for women’s rights in divorce proceedings.
  

• Shalshelet: Introducing divorce mediation acceptable to religious courts.

• YEDID: Economic skills training for immigrant girls to help break the cycle of poverty.

• Yellin College: Support for training and skill development for poor women so that they can enter the workforce and earn a sustainable wage.