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Action Alert: Support the Holocaust Survivor Assistance Program
and the Emergency Food and Shelter Program
 
As Congress considers federal funding for Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19), please ask your representatives to sign on to the following letters urging House appropriators to fully fund these 2 programs of critical importance to Jewish human service organizations:
 
  1. The Holocaust Survivors Assistance Program through the Administration for Community Living at $5 million in FY 2019. The Holocaust Survivor Assistance program is a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Community Living, the Jewish Federations of North America's Center for Advancing Holocaust Survivor Care, and community-based health and supportive services providers to better address the unique needs of the country's aging Holocaust survivor population. There are approximately 100,000 Holocaust survivors living in the United States today, with an estimated 30,000 living in poverty.
    • As many of you know, Holocaust survivors are an extremely vulnerable population, whose traumatic experiences during their childhood at the hands of the Nazis (and for many also under the former Soviet Union), complicate their ability to seek, receive, and benefit from critical supportive services they need as older adults. The timing is particularly acute for Holocaust survivors who require greater services to meet their complex needs as they become increasingly frail. This program helps ensure that Holocaust survivors are able to live in dignity in their homes and communities, and foster the development of replicable models of care to serve other aging victims of trauma, such as veterans, refugees, and first responders. Through this cost-effective program, we can help to prevent the very things survivors should never have to face again - eviction, hunger, inadequate medical care, loneliness, social isolation, and despair.
    • TAKE ACTION: Contact all of the representatives in districts that your agency serves and ask them to sign on to this important letter by Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27). Deadline to sign on is Wednesday, March 14.
  2. The Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) at $150 million in FY 2019, returning EFSP funding to prerecession levels. EFSP serves over 14,000 human service agencies in more than 2,500 counties and cities across the country, through a collaborative effort between the private and public sectors.  The program's mission is preventative in nature and responsive to economic emergencies, and places special emphasis on assisting the elderly, families with children, Native Americans and Veterans.
    • Over the past 35 years, the Jewish Federations of North America has partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other leading charitable organizations in the administration of FEMA's Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP). EFSP funds nonprofit and public shelters and other service organizations for items such as food, consumable supplies for shelters, and rental and utility assistance to households in dire need of emergency economic assistance. For individuals and families in economic crisis, EFSP provides a modest but critical safety-net to assist public and nonprofit providers prevent long-term and chronic homeless and hunger. With these and other contributing factors facing millions of Americans every year, the nation's homeless prevention programs, including FEMA's EFSP program, need to be adequately funded. 
    • TAKE ACTION: Contact all of the Representatives in districts that your agency serves and ask them to sign on to this important letter  by Reps. Alcee L. Hastings (FL-20) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30) to relevant House Appropriations Committee leadership. Deadline to sign on is Tuesday, March 13th. 
Thank you in advance for making your voice heard on this essential programs. Please share your advocacy efforts with JFNA Senior Director of Legislative Affairs Rob Goldberg or NJHSA Washington Representative/JFNA Director of Government Affairs Mindy Brodsky and contact them if you any questions.

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