~ JFS Awarded Grant From United Way to Serve Pineville Community ~

March 2021 Charlotte Jewish News

By Howard Olshansky Executive Director, Jewish Family Services

Jewish Family Services (JFS) is pleased to announce that it has received a grant from the United Way of the Central Carolinas to provide mental health, parenting, and case management services to residents in the Pineville community who are struggling with mental health issues or who need assistance connecting to services that will help them manage their day-to-day lives.

Not too long ago, the United Way invited JFS to apply for a Community Impact Grant. Never having been a recipient of one of its grants before, JFS was pleased to be acknowledged for the good work we do surrounding mental health and to be tapped on the shoulder to apply for these dollars. Knowing there was already a relationship in place between the Jewish community and Sterling Elementary School, which is in the Pineville community, it made sense to take a closer look at the United Way’s priorities and how JFS could use its expertise to meet a community need while also expanding our services.

North Carolina has long had higher poverty rates than the United States has as a whole; in 2019, the state had the 13th highest poverty rate in the country, and at 13.6%, the poverty rate was three percentage points higher than the United States rate of 10.5% (American Community Survey 2019). The Pineville community’s poverty level surpasses even that, with 20% of its population living in poverty and with social service support in that area limited.

In consulting with existing community partners like the schools and Pineville Neighbors Place, a grassroots organization that helps connect members of the community struggling with food and financial insecurity to resources, it became apparent that there is a gap in the need for mental health services and resources currently available in the Pineville community. This is where JFS comes in.

Though the primary focus of this grant will be to provide mental health services, we know that if a family is struggling to make ends meet, it is not going to engage in emotional supports until its basic needs are addressed. So using its current, successful practice model, JFS takes a comprehensive look at someone’s whole situation and then addresses the person’s needs, developing and implementing a care plan that matches particular needs to the specific resources required to strengthen day-to-day functioning.

As a one-stop shop social service agency with comprehensive offerings focused on emotional health and well-being, crisis response and assistance, senior engagement, and community education and awareness, JFS can select in-house services or community-based programs to create the best possible outcome for the individual or family. This approach ensures a client in need of mental health support is in a position to gain the maximum benefit from the therapeutic intervention.

Another core piece to this community engagement program is parenting and family support. JFS is aware that many families are challenged by managing family dynamics and relationships within the family structure and especially with children and youth behaviors. Using the Triple P parenting program model, an evidence-based parenting program, JFS can help parents enhance their parenting skills and establish healthy family relationships.

Further enhancing parenting support, the grant is designed to strengthen parental engagement with the child’s school. According to the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments, at both the elementary and secondary level, when schools, parents, families, and communities work together, students earn higher grades, attend school more regularly, stay in school, and are more motivated. This is true for students of all ages, backgrounds, races, and ethnicities. Therefore, JFS anticipates creating strong partnerships with both Sterling and Pineville Elementary Schools.

To assist with the successful implementation of all these services, the grant calls for hiring a licensed therapist who has the skill set to provide the necessary clinical treatment and the capacity to engage within the community, which is critical to establishing and building relationships within the community that will result in connecting families with the resources needed for them to be successful.

JFS couldn’t be more thrilled to receive this grant, as it also advances one of JFS’s strategic goals of promoting the value of tikkun olam by using its experience and expertise to contribute to enhancing the quality of life in the greater Charlotte community.