Meet the Impact100 East Bay 2024 Impact Grant Finalists and hear about the exciting projects competing for our $100,000 Grant. Watch the video to learn more about their organizations and the exciting projects they are proposing:
Food Security Collaborative: Five nonprofits in Contra Costa County (Loaves and Fishes of Contra Costa County, Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano County, Meals on Wheels Diablo Region, St. Vincent De Paul of Contra Costa County, White Pony Express) will work together to create a "hot map" to identify communities that lack food access, learn where the cohorts' services overlap (and deal with that), and determine the most efficient way to resolve gaps in food distribution. This map will inform how the agencies work together to serve food insecure people.
Jewish Family and Community Services (JFCS): Create a program to serve newly-arriving refugees. This program, which will last up to 90 days, will be staffed by volunteers, plus a program coordinator. Among services provided, the volunteers will help with housing, school registration, government benefit registration, navigating the US financial system, job placement, and treatment for psychological/medical issues. Completing this project will allow JFCS to gain recognition as a Private Service Organization (PSO) partner with Welcome Corps, (created by the US Department of State, in coordination with US Dept of Health and Human services to help refugees build new lives), which will allow them to greatly expand one of JFCS-EB's highest organizational objectives.
Narika: Establish learning circles to educate survivors of domestic violence about personal finance. This nonprofit focuses on survivors who originated from the Indian subcontinent plus other neighboring countries, but is open to all survivors. The program's goal is to teach survivors to organize a household, find employment, open/manage checking accounts, etc. Financial abuse, which isolates the victims, and keeps them dependent on the abusers, occurs in 99% of domestic abuse.