A Record Year for JHF

Just a few months into 2022, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) has been entrusted with over $25 million in public and private funds to ensure critical public health programs reach our community. This level of funding makes 2022 one of JHF's most significant years in its 31-year history as a valued partner and grants manager. These funds provide for essential community projects in HIV/AIDS, maternal health, senior living and long-term care, and workforce development, among other initiatives. 

For 30 years, JHF has demonstrated its ability to work collaboratively with governmental, charitable, and community-based partners to address pressing health needs. This began during the earliest days of the Foundation when JHF became a regional fiscal agency to help people living with HIV/AIDS across southwestern Pennsylvania. Over the decades the HIV/AIDS programming administered by JHF has grown significantly, and the Foundation still serves as the area's fiscal agent for federal HIV funding through the Ryan White Part B, as well as State 656, HUD HOPWA (Housing and Urban Development—Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS), and the Minority AIDS Initiative. JHF also serves as the fiscal agent for AIDS Free Pittsburgh, a public health initiative to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

JHF has also been designated as one of the lead agencies to advance women's health initiatives. Through the Pennsylvania Perinatal Quality Collaborative, JHF leads quality improvement efforts in maternal healthcare across Pennsylvania. JHF unites birth sites, neonatal intensive care units, and health plans across the Commonwealth to actively identify perinatal processes that require improvement and quickly adopt best practices to achieve common aims. Focus areas include maternal opioid use disorder and neonatal abstinence syndrome. JHF's operating arm the Women's Health Activist Movement Global advances programs for safer childbirth and the maternal health workforce. JHF's maternal health will further expand thanks to the recent announcement [link] of the COVID-19 Nurturing Maternal and Child Health Initiative.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, JHF brought decades of experience in long-term care education to help provide critical training and resources to senior care workers across Pennsylvania. JHF served as a lead educator for statewide senior and long-term care networks to help residents and staff stay safe and informed throughout each phase of the crisis, including current work as part of the PA Long-Term Care Learning Network. Through the Revisiting the Teaching Nursing Home Initiative, JHF convenes experts across Pennsylvania to pilot a new model for senior residential living to address longstanding issues in senior care. JHF is also the state administrator for Dementia Friends Pennsylvania, an initiative to raise awareness about dementia and decrease stigma surrounding dementia.

JHF is proud of its proven reputation as a trusted intermediary for health resources across Pennsylvania. Much of the funding awarded in 2022 thus far comes from JHF's partners in Harrisburg within the Pennsylvania state government, and we are honored by the state's confidence in us. In addition to administering these public and private funds, JHF distributes $7-9 million each year from its endowment to bolster initiatives within JHF's focus areas.