“So Close to Home,” is a campaign to strengthen our physical and emotional HOME in the East Bay, where we all build safety, stability, community, and love. We invite you to join us!
In the next three weeks we will encourage you to support people establishing new homes, stabilizing their current homes, and aging in place in their home, while creating a community that cares for one another.
A generous group of donors have sprung into action and have pledged to collectively give $36,000 to help replenish and extend these critical services by matching every donation we receive in the next three weeks.
Help Us Reach Our Fundraising Goal
This May we are highlighting four critical programs that need funding RIGHT NOW.
We aim to offer respite services to all who
request help.
With the new immigration court in Concord, more clients are seeking help
We are increasing our outreach for Community Welcome Teams & Housing Hosts—and are running low on supplies for clients.
We urgently require support for financial assistance for families in need.
Reflect: by watching the video stories of some of our clients and reading about how you might empower someone who needs extra support right now. We are profoundly grateful to these members of our community who have shared their stories with us—and we have much to learn from them.
Act: by offering your financial support. As we need funding across departments and for critical infrastructure, we request unrestricted donations to support the areas where the assistance is most needed. Help us meet this “So Close to Home” $36,000 challenge match to provide care and stability to strengthen East Bay families.
Advocate: with us in Sacramento. Come with us to the JPAC Capital Summit in Sacramento on May 14th and 15th to advocate for a robust antisemitism bill package and bills supporting vulnerable communities including expanded refugee care services. Register here.
Take action by making a gift in honor of a caregiver and help provide much needed respite to a husband, a wife, a son, or daughter to be able take an hour or two to care for themselves mentally and physically. Your gift of respite care will be financially doubled by our generous matching donors up to $36,000. And you can fill out a card to gift to your mom or someone special, honoring their commitment to your family.
In February 2024, a new Federal Immigration Court opened in Concord, speeding up immigration deportation cases and dramatically increasing the number of immigrants in our community needing legal representation. The new court is just blocks from our office. That means that new clients are showing up at our door asking for our help. We need to increase our capacity NOW to serve the new surge of immigrants facing deportation without legal representation. Can you help us make this possible? This May a collective group of donors has generously pledged to match every unrestricted donation made, up to $36,000, so that we can expand our deportation defense assistance.
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Advocate: Call on our leaders to Restore Funding for Critical Asylum Programs
Every day in our work, we see how our asylum system is in crisis. Years of neglect and funding cuts have left thousands stranded and vulnerable, undermining our nation’s moral standing and security. Draconian policies have weakened asylum protections, leaving vulnerable individuals at risk of exploitation and violence. Without proper support, asylum seekers face dire consequences, and America’s moral integrity suffers. Join us to demand action from our elected officials to restore funding, reverse harmful policies, and uphold the integrity of the asylum process. Now is the time to raise our voices and demand change. Together, we can ensure that the United States remains a place of hope for those fleeing persecution in their own countries.
Act: Some of our greatest needs right now include personal care items, basic household cleaning supplies, and toiletries. You can find an example of the items we need, and easily purchase them, through this list. Gather some friends together, purchase supplies, and create the kits together before delivering them to our office in Concord! This is a great family-friendly opportunity.
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Other urgent needs include baby wipes, diapers in sizes 4, 5, and 6, and any of the items listed on our Gift Registry, especially gift cards. Gift cards to Amazon, Visa, or Target are always a tremendous help. It is so empowering to be able to give our clients a gift card so they can shop for themselves.
Advocate: Spread the word. We are seeking volunteers for our Community Welcome Team program. This is a group volunteering opportunity. Teams consist of 4-8 members and are matched with a family to assist them with resettlement over 3 months. If you are interested in volunteering directly with a refugee family, this is the opportunity for you!
Did you know that 1/3 of Bay Area Jews live here in the East Bay? And that from our very beginning, over 147 years ago, JFCS East Bay has been here actively supporting our East Bay Jewish community with a social safety net? East Bay community rabbis know because they often refer people to us for assistance. What you probably don’t know, is that every year since 1877 we have continued our commitment to serve members of our Jewish community with emergency funds, resources, and counseling when help is needed most, but funding this work has become harder and harder.
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Right now we have a waiting list of people who have come to us for help, but we ran out of funding to provide one time grants of cash assistance in February. This May a collective group of donors has generously pledged to match every unrestricted donation made, up to $36,000, so that we can continue assistance through our Jewish Community Safety Net.
Before the well ran dry, we were able to provide an unhoused Jewish student at UC Berkeley with gift cards to purchase groceries and hygiene supplies while supporting them with therapy and guidance. We helped an unemployed Jewish man in his 60’s to pay his outstanding PG&E bills, and got him connected with other resources and on a sustainable path to self-sufficiency.
Many of our supporters have shared how they received help from a Jewish Family Service organization at one point in their lives, and that they feel honored to pay this kindness forward.
