One of our new clients is Yale University and Dr. James Leckman of the Yale Medical School who has created a group of highly motivated mental health care professionals, led by:
- Alan Apter, M.D., Director of Clalit Health Services Department of Psychiatry, and Director of the Psychological Medicine Department, Schneider Children’s Medical Center
- Tawfiq Salman, M.D., President, Palestinian Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Bethlehem, Palestine and Director of SOS-Children’s Villages, Palestine Office.
They are working to ensure that mental health professionals can better serve the children of the region through joint training and research projects. We are currently adapting a USAID proposal for submission to foundations which we have identified as funding projects of this nature. Working with a world class organization like Yale is both an honor and a pleasure.
I am very proud and pleased to have been informed yesterday that a grant proposal to the U.S. Agency for International Development that I helped write for a youth leadership coexistence proposal to be implemented in Israel's mixed cities was awarded $560,000! I can't yet share the details because there is a survey process that has to take place before the contract is signed, but I'm confident that the organization in question will be able to get through that last hurdle. This is the second highest grant that I've been involved in obtaining. Like the European Union grant process, USAID is a very complex application form with an equally complex system of assessment. Like most complex grant processes, this was a team effort with me playing a supporting role, including several instances of working through the night. Nevertheless, when successes like this occur there's a great deal of satisfaction and plenty of room for sharing the credit!-David Maeir-Epstein
Several months ago I arranged for the Kathryn Ames Foundation delegation to visit the Hut Hameshulash's (The Three Fold Cord) project 'Bayit Cham L'Banot'. Located in a donated villa in northern Jerusalem, the 'Bayit Cham L'Banot' (Warm Home for Homeless Girls) provides 12 girls, ages 17-22, some of whom are pregnant, with a period of up to a year in an extended family framework,. They receive counseling, vocational training, and a chance to stabilize their lives and choose a positive path for the future. I am very pleased to start my week with the happy news that the foundation has approved a $10,000 grant. Mazal Tov to Yigal Goldstein, the director, and Sivan, the project manager!-David Maeir-Epstein
www.israelgrants.com dmegrants@gmail.com
