PHILADELPHIA—The Pew Charitable Trusts announced today that it will provide $6.8 million over the next three years to 38 Philadelphia-area nonprofits serving some of the region’s most vulnerable adults, including those struggling with homelessness, mental health issues, and extended unemployment. The funding will help organizations address these residents’ critical needs, including those related to and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This support will focus on agencies addressing three core areas: helping adults with multiple and complex needs—such as those experiencing homelessness, survivors of domestic violence, and people with significant behavioral health or substance use problems—transition toward independence and stability; helping people with limited work skills obtain employment through education, training, and job placement; and using evidence-informed approaches to improve behavioral health outcomes.
“Even before COVID-19, the Philadelphia region was already home to a large number of working-age adults striving to overcome complex challenges, including those related to behavioral health, employment and financial instability, and the ability to meet basic needs such as food and shelter,” said Kristin Romens, project director of the Pew Fund for Health and Human Services in Philadelphia, which has supported hundreds of health and social services organizations in the region since 1991. “The pandemic and its impacts on emotional and physical health, as well as on jobs and the economy, are likely to increase the share of these individuals in the region.”
“For 29 years, Pew has been pleased to support local agencies dedicated to assisting the most vulnerable people in our community,” Romens added. “Now, more than ever, we are incredibly thankful to these organizations for their efforts and compassion.”
The Pew Fund for Health and Human Services assists local nonprofits that serve individuals and families in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties. In recognition of the challenges that many of these organizations face in adjusting their services as a result of the pandemic, the Pew Fund will allow its current grantees—94 nonprofits with a total of 109 open grants serving vulnerable adults; the elderly; and children, youth, and their families—flexibility in using their awards. They may, for example, shift their funding from project to operating support, modify their grant deliverables, extend grant and reporting deadlines, and revise their payment schedules. The goal is to enable grantees to make the crucial day-to-day decisions about how to most effectively use their Pew resources to carry out their missions and address critical community needs.
CLICK HERE for a list, categorized by funding goal, of the 2020 grants that the Pew Fund for Health and Human Services has awarded to organizations serving vulnerable adults in the Philadelphia region. For more on Pew’s support for Philadelphia and the organization’s grantees during the COVID-19 pandemic, click here.