JFCS Receives United Way Suncoast Grant for Family Financial Stability Program

September 18 – Sarasota, FL—Jewish Family & Children Services of the Suncoast (JFCS) was recently awarded a $70,000 Financial Stability grant as part of the United Way Suncoast’s 2020 Community Investment Program. The grant allows JFCS to go forward with its Employment and Financial Stability Program. The program is focused on those families that have jobs, make too much to qualify for many social services and struggle to make ends meet. 

United Way has focused attention on what it calls ALICE families, Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed households. ALICE represents the households with income above the Federal Poverty Level but below the basic cost of living. For many families in our area, the cost of living outpaces what they earn. Individuals living in these households struggle to manage even their most basic needs – housing, food, transportation, child care, health care, and necessary technology despite the fact that one or two members of the household are employed. ALICE is your child care worker, the cashier at your supermarket, the salesperson at your big box store, your waitress, a home health aide, and an office clerk.

The goal of JFCS’s Employment and Financial Stability Program (EFSP) is to improve program participants’ employability, job retention and household financial management through education and job skills training in order to achieve measurable improvements in employment and financial well-being. Program supports include: needs and strengths assessments, career development and coaching, resource identification and acquisition, and employability skills and financial management training. The program is being run in partnership with the local Workforce Development community

To qualify for the EFSP program, a household must meet ALICE income guidelines, have at least one school-age child and live in Sarasota County. Applications for the program are currently being accepted and can be obtained by contacting JFCS.

“As a lifelong workforce development professional and career coach, I am very excited about this opportunity to partner with working families in Sarasota,” says JFCS Case Manager Chris Canaday. “My aim is to enhance the lives and livelihoods of our clients by providing them with services, guidance and community connections precisely focused on their empowerment and self-determination.”  

For more information about the JFCS Employment and Financial Stability Program, please call 941.366.2224 ext.138.

Inspired by the Jewish tradition of helping all people, Jewish Family & Children Services of the Suncoast provides counseling, personal support, and financial assistance to youth, adults, families, veterans, seniors and individuals who are homeless in Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte, and Lee Counties. Services are delivered to people in need regardless of their religious background. More information is available at www.jfcs-cares.org.