STATE GRANTS SUPPORT WJCS PROGRAMS

New York State Senator Shelley B. Mayer has selected Westchester Jewish Community Services (WJCS) as a recipient of two grants that will provide critically needed support for its group homes and its ParentChild+ program.

WJCS operates 12 community residences in Westchester County for adults with developmental disabilities. The Local Community Assistance Program (LoCAP) Grant in the amount of $100,000 will be used to renovate the kitchen at WJCS’s Bryant House group home and the bathroom at WJCSs Cannon House group home. Members of WJCS group homes partake in a wide variety of social, recreational and cultural activities, in addition to attending day programs in the Westchester community, to help them achieve their highest potential.

A grant of $25,000 will fund WJCS’s ParentChild+ Home Visiting Program, a national early childhood, evidence-informed program that provides home visits to parents and their children, ranging in age from 16 months to 4 years old. Over the course of two years, an Early Learning Specialist visits each family twice per week and brings books, in English and in Spanish, and toys as gifts. They engage in reading and fun activities to stimulate parent-child interaction and promote the development of verbal, cognitive, and social-emotional skills critical for children’s long-term success.

Mayer said, “… The group homes provide members of the community with developmental disabilities with the critical service and support they need to live to their fullest potential. Their excellent ParentChild+ Program, which I have been fortunate to see first-hand, meets our neighbors in their homes to help children and their families build their skills so they are ready to succeed when they enter school….”

Westchester Jewish Community Services has been serving those most vulnerable in Westchester County since its founding in 1943. It is a nonsectarian, not-for-profit, trauma-informed human service agency and its mission is to help people of all ages and backgrounds cope with emotional, cognitive, environmental, physical, interpersonal, social, and educational challenges.