Focus Areas
As stated in the RFP and Program Guidelines, in the past, Federations’ Leadership Councils have funded PCTI programs that serve Holocaust survivors, diverse populations of older adults, and family caregivers. The older adults with a history of trauma have included LGBTQ+ older adults, immigrants and refugees, crime survivors, and veterans.
Jewish Federations and the Leadership Councils have flexibility in determining which service populations they will serve under this grant and what topics they will address.
JFNA encourages Leadership Councils to continue this flexible approach and consider three additional areas of focus as described below. JFNA and ACL are interested in how Leadership Councils engage in these focus areas. JFNA encourages Federations to make these focus areas agenda items at Leadership Councils. JFNA does not require subgrantees to engage in all of the focus areas. However, JFNA will ask for best practices on the following focus areas:
- Expand PCTI care to more foreign-born older adults. Subgrantees serving foreign-born older adults will receive up to $25,000 in additional funds, due to a supplement JFNA received from ACL. In order to receive additional funds, subgrantees must serve more foreign-born older adults. Expansion could include expanding the number of foreign-born older adults the Federation is currently serving in a specific population and/or reaching out to new populations. Federations may choose either approach or both of them. Federations will be asked to describe those being served.
- Explore PCTI approaches to returning to in-person programs after COVID-19 restrictions. The ECS program is well positioned to advance innovations that promote the safe and welcoming re-integration of the service populations into in-person programs as COVID-19 becomes less of a risk factor. Leadership Councils can assess client needs and concerns caused by the pandemic and share strategies for bringing these populations back to in-person services and supports. Leadership Councils are also an excellent space for social service providers to support each other through the difficult times the post-pandemic world will bring. The lessons Federations and Leadership Councils can document from these collaborative approaches will provide a valuable roadmap to help agencies respond to, and recover from, future crises.
- Explore programs with a focus on resilience of the eligible service populations. The Leadership Councils will help raise awareness about resilience as a preventive, health promoting characteristic, assess and share resiliency-building strategies for the service populations, and fund programs that include a resiliency-building component. Lessons learned from these programs will be shared with JFNA subgrantees and the Aging Network to develop promising practices in PCTI-based resilience-building programs for the service populations.