(Press Release) Lois Davis of Beachwood has created a $1 million endowment fund to support the Hebrew Shelter Home. Working with the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and Jewish Family Service Association (JFSA), Davis established the fund to annually support the home’s capital improvements and programming for families who are homeless and/or victims of domestic violence.
It is Davis’s hope that The Lois J. and Larry Davis Family Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland will inspire others to join this effort and help raise the endowment to $3.5 million which will significantly reduce the need for annual fundraising for the home.
Supporting the Hebrew Shelter Home is nothing new for Davis. She became involved in 2003 when she was asked to support home improvements to the Hebrew Shelter Home when it was located on Taylor Road in Cleveland Heights. Disappointed in the home’s conditions, but very impressed with Ginny Galili, Executive Director of Families at Risk Services at JFSA, Davis expressed her hesitancy to give for the original purpose. Instead, she offered to make a more substantial gift if others could be inspired to join her in the effort to build a newer, safer, and more comfortable Hebrew Shelter Home, and the rest is history.
“In order to ensure the safety of the Hebrew Shelter Home, donors cannot visit, nor can they meet the recipients of the Home’s services, making it difficult to spread the word about the needs and raise necessary funds,” Davis said.
The Hebrew Shelter Home, managed and administered by JFSA, a local partner agency of the Federation, provides temporary shelter in a kosher home for women and children in the Jewish community facing homelessness and domestic violence. Since 2008, 307 individuals have found safety and support at the home. JFSA staff helps the women and children heal from trauma and connect them to appropriate social services as they begin to build safe and independent lives.
“This is a transformational gift that will provide support for the most vulnerable women and children in our community for years to come,” said Grant Dinner, Hebrew Shelter Home Board Chair and member of JFSA Board Executive Committee. “We are grateful for Lois’s desire to lead by example and hope that her wish for others to join will be fulfilled.”
If you are interested in joining the effort to support the Hebrew Shelter Home, please contact Karen Leizman Moses at JFSA at kmoses@jfsa-cleveland.org, or Carol Wolf at the Federation at cwolf@jcfcleve.org.
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