The Grotta Fund for Senior Care of the Jewish Community
Our aims:
The Grotta Fund for Senior Care has a rich history. From its early days as the Theresa Grotta Center for Restorative Services, established in 1916, to today, Grotta has maintained an evolving and future oriented perspective to serve and benefit older adults
Since establishing itself as a fund with the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater MetroWest NJ in 2003, the Grotta Fund has made a commitment to improve the lives of older adults living in Essex, Union, Morris, Sussex and eastern Somerset counties.
The Fund has launched a number of initiatives to strengthen cross sector collaborations, expand the use innovative or best-practice efforts and leverage funding of other funders. These efforts seek to create a better environment for older adults to age in community, expand resources and awareness of community services, address emerging needs, and expand enriching, meaningful involvement in community. Funding priorities are determined for each of two grant cycles per year.
Grants are awarded to 501c3 agencies, religious institutions, and municipalities. Selection is on a non-sectarian basis, through a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) process.
Since 2016, the Fund is energizing local approaches to Age-Friendly communities with a multi-year funding. We encourage other communities to learn from our progress and the vast resources on this subject. See our resource pages.
The Grotta Fund is also continuing the discussions on food insecurity and social isolation, challenges faced by many older adults in NJ. A new group of current and former grantees has formed to discuss this important topic and identify collective actions. The group is open to other participants. Pease contact our director at rcarniol@jfedgmw.org if you are interested in learning more about this."