Women’s Amutot Initiative

The Women’s Amutot Initiative allocates funds from the Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s annual campaign to organizations in Israel that empower women to improve Israeli society through social, economic, religious, and political equality. Click here to read more about the Women’s Amutot Initiative.

Click here to view the 2020 Grants.

The Women’s Amutot Initiative was established in 2003 to focus exclusively on the needs and welfare of women and girls in Israel, utilizing strategic grant making and applying a gender lens in its grant making. The committee will consider funding projects that are consistent with its mission and promote social change in Israel by addressing one of the priority areas below:

•   Economic Empowerment
•   Social Empowerment
•   Protection Against and Prevention of Violence
•   Leadership Development

The committee is responsible for reviewing the applications and allocating grants to registered Israeli not-for-profit organizations that correspond to the Women’s Amutot Initiative’s priorities and guidelines. Organizations must have strong professional staff, focus on women or girls, be fiscally responsible providing programmatic and budgetary reports, have evaluation and assessment procedures in place, have other means of financial support, and compliment the Mission of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.

Links

About the Women’s Amutot Initiative
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Women’s Amutot Initiative – 2020 Grants

Leadership Development

JASMINE: IZUN (BALANCE) - PROMOTING WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP
$10,000
Train, mentor and empower women to serve as directors, to increase the number of women on boards of directors and be in key decision-making positions

LISHMA: TRAINING TOWARDS SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
$10,000
Training towards social responsibility, training at IDC and developing policy impact project, municipality training, graduate network

MA’ASE CENTER ASSOCIATION: NE’URIM PROGRAM VOLUNTEER YEAR
$7,000
Personal empowerment volunteer-year program for 70 young Druze women, ages 18-21, volunteering in 14 Druze communities. Through their participation in the program, these young women will serve as mentors and tutors of 3,500 Druze children and teens that participate in youth activities provided by Ne’urim Centers.

NIVCHAROT: ULTRA-ORTHODOX WOMEN FOR REPRESENTATION, EQUALITY AND A VOICE
$11,658
Empowering ultra-orthodox women through awareness of their rights and placing Haredi women in key political positions.

VILLAGE WAY: ISRAELITE YOUNG WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP PROGRAM FOR IMMIGRANT YOUTH (MECHINA)
$6,000
Courses and workshops for young women from immigrant backgrounds attending a mechinagap year program. The mechinais a 10-month (September–June) residential, educational program that provides interactive workshops, community service, seminars, field trips and hikes.

WEPOWER: COLLEGE FOR ELECTED WOMEN COUNCIL MEMBERS
$14,000
Training, leadership development, networking, support for newly elected women municipal council members, as well as promoting gender equality in the public arena.

Protecting Women against Violence

ASSOCIATION OF RAPE CRISIS CENTERS: CHANGING LAWS, CHANGING LIVES
$18,600
To expand the work of advancing laws, national policies and pursuing justice to help survivors of sex crimes in Israel; to continue leading the coalition of regional rape crisis centers by taking cases from the field and leveraging them into national social change.

ITACH MAAKI: FROM SILENCE TO SECURITY – RAISING VOICES OF BEDOUIN WOMEN TO COMBAT VIOLENCE
$9,800
To promote safety, independence and action of Bedouin women living in the Negev and to advance their rights and their independence by providing legal aid, fostering public participation and enacting policy changes.

MASLAN: EMERGENCY SUPPORT LINE FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SEXUALLY ABUSED INDIVIDUALS
$12,200
Supports the Emergency Hotline, a 24-hour service for victims of sexual and physical violence. The hotline is staffed by 300 professionally trained volunteers that offer emotional practical support and guidance in eight languages to accommodate the diverse needs of the Negev’s population.

TAHEL (CRISIS CENTER FOR RELIGIOUS WOMEN): TRAINING TO PREVENT SEXUAL ABUSE OF THE ELDERLY
$8,700
To provide workshops for staff working with the elderly in government and private institutions on preventing sexual abuse of the elderly; to raise awareness of the problem of sexual abuse among families of the elderly and provide workshops on this issue.

WOMEN’S SPIRIT: BREAKING THE BIND – FINANCIAL SECURITY ADVOCACY FOR SURVIVORS OF VIOLENCE
$8,600
To advocate change in Israeli policies/laws that undermine financial security and safety of violence survivors; to advocate change in Israeli policies and laws that undermine, destabilize and weaken women’s financial security and personal safety, especially survivors of violence. Policy and advocacy efforts include initiating and developing effective partnerships with policy makers in the government and civil society organizations.

Social Empowerment

ADVA: THE POWER TO EMPOWER – EQUIPPING MAYORIAL ADVISORS ON GENDER EQUALITY
$8,700
Training for new Mayorial Advisors on gender equality, gender mainstreaming, and the ins and outs of local politics, as well as establishing local women’s councils.

BAT KOL: QUEER JEWISH WOMEN
$ 6,000
To provide a supportive community to women who are dealing with their sexual orientation and gender identity.

CENTER FOR WOMEN’S JUSTICE: WOMEN’S ENGAGEMENT THROUGH LEGAL ADVOCACY
$18,600
To bolster litigation that pushes back against harmful rabbinic court practices and policies using precedent-setting cases.

ISRAEL WOMEN’S NETWORK:CHALLENGING THE EXCLUSION OF WOMEN IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE
$9,500
To prevent the exclusion of women in the public sphere and in the IDF.

MAVOI SATUM: THE LEGAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE PROJECT
$11,000
To provide legal representation in the civil and rabbinical courts, therapy, and empowerment opportunities for women trapped in unwanted marriages.

OHR TORAH STONE: YAD L’ISHA LEGAL AID CENTER AND HOTLINE
$9,000
Assist agunot by providing legal representation in rabbinic and civil courts, and emotional support

RACKMAN CENTER: IMPACT – THE PROJECT FOR LEGAL & SOCIAL CHANGE FOR WOMEN
$13,500
To make real, long term social change for women all over Israel through changing legislation and assisting individual women with difficult family law cases.

SHATIL: FROM ACTIVISTS TO LEADERS: STRENGTHENING ISRAELI WOMEN
$13,600
To establish a new women's network to enable more women to receive public housing, strengthen the capacity of 10 women's organizations and 15 women in a leadership course, and increase the effectiveness of 13 forum against exclusion of women members.

VAN LEER INSTITUTE: THE GENDER INDEX
$9,200
Updates and expands the Gender Index to help facilitate the monitoring of gender inequality in Israel and to promote policy change. The Gender Index is an online analytical report designed to provide crosscutting data on the position of women in Israeli society using 73 key indicators across 12 domains, representing everything from family status to participation in public life. The Index targets policymakers and is aimed at facilitating informed decision-making and activity to promote gender equality in Israel.

Economic Empowerment

AJEEC-NISPED: FOUNDATIONS FOR WOMEN’S SUCCESS – A PRE-EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM
$13,400
Pre-employment training program expansion for women from the Negev Bedouin community. Equips women with the necessary skills to enter the labor force.

BE-ATZMI: MIFNE-MAASAR – EMPLOYMENT ADVANCEMENT AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
$7,000
To provide group workshops, as well as individual mentoring; focus on budget management, financial benefits

BE’ER SHEVA FOUNDATION: SIKET – SUPPORT FOR ETHIOPIAN-ISRAELI WOMEN
$ 9,000
To promote accessibility to higher education and employment for young Ethiopian-Israeli women in the Negev by assisting 100 Ethiopian-Israeli women pursuing a first degree at Negev academic institutions.

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT FOR WOMEN: A BUSINESS OF ONE'S OWN
$10,000
Assist 40 low-income/marginalized women reach economic independence through self-employment. Meetings with empowerment and business facilitators, technical assistance and mentoring for women, as well as personal consulting.

ITWORKS: VOCATIONAL TRAINING AND PLACEMENT FOR SINGLE MOTHERS
$10,000
Soft skills training and job placement assistance for 80 unemployed or underemployed single mothers with no academic background. Soft skills covers topics such as developing a CV, job-search skills, and interview skills.

JERUSALEM COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
$ 9,000
To provide 50 female Orthodox and Haredi students with training in creative thinking and tactical skills necessary to enter the world of entrepreneurship through participation in the College’s Entry to Entrepreneurship course. The project serves as a pipeline for the current pre-accelerator program for hi-tech product ideation and development.

KIEDF (KORET): SAWA-TOGETHER MICROFINANCE SERVICES
$8,700
To enable microfinance services of non-bank loan and ongoing consultation and mentoring to Arab-Israeli women for the development and expansion of their business activity.

LA’OFEK: ACHOTENU-ACADEMIC NURSES TRAINING PROGRAM
$ 7,500
To empower Ethiopian-Israeli women to establish stable financial futures and serve as role models in their communities by supporting their dreams of becoming nurses. Works in partnership with Hebrew University, Hadassah Hospital.

ROTEM CENTER (SAPIR): NEXT STOP – EDUCATIONAL AND EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT FOR WOMEN
$7,500
To support 35 marginalized young women through educational and employment support.

YOZMOT ATID: MICRO-ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM FOR HAREDI WOMEN
$9,000
An eight-week training course providing business training, mentoring, networking, as well as providing micro-loans to Haredi women.