A $100,000 research grant has been made to the National Jewish Welfare Board by the Florence G. Heller Foundation of Chicago, it was announced here prior to the official opening tomorrow of the 1972 national biennial convention of JWB. Some 600 Jewish communal leaders are scheduled to attend the three-day convention. The grant was announced by Charles Aaron of Chicago, an officer of the Florence G. Heller Foundation and a past president of JWB.
Morton L. Mandel, president of JWB, said that the grant, which requires matching funds, will finance research projects and demonstration programs conducted by the Florence G. Heller-JWB Research Center to improve the efforts of local Jewish Community Centers throughout the country in dealing with problems caused by rapid social change which has affected the general society and its Jewish sector. The research center is named for the late Florence G. Heller, Chicago philanthropist who was president of JWB.
The research projects and demonstration programs to be financed by the grant will be carried out in local communities by Jewish Community Centers and are designed to provide an in-depth understanding and demonstration and evaluation of new approaches to dealing with specific problems affecting youth, Jewish families, older adults and other groups in the Jewish community.
The projects in New York and Philadelphia will research the needs of senior citizens and new approaches to meeting these needs. In New York, the effectiveness of an older adult information and referral service will be probed. In Philadelphia, the impact of volunteer services provided by senior citizens will be evaluated. The Chicago project will study the effectiveness of contacts maintained by social workers with families, while the Los Angeles project will probe the effects of an intensive experience in Israel on American Jewish teenagers.
Four research projects which have already been approved for financing by the JWB Research Center will involve the following Jewish communal agencies: Educational Alliance, New York City; Jewish Ys and Centers of Greater Philadelphia; Jewish Community Centers of Chicago, and the Los Angeles Jewish Centers Association.
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