17 HOT Emergency Assistance Programs in Boca Raton and Delray Beach Many individuals and families have trouble paying for their most basic needs. The Financial Assistance Coordinator at Ruth and Norman Rales Jewish Family Service (JFS) comes to HOT with their most dire situations. We discuss the case history and only make a grant if we are satisfied (i) as to the legitimacy and reasonableness of the request and (ii) that all other sources of funding have been exhausted. HOT has provided funds so that JFS can buy hearing-aids to improve quality of life; pay for dental work necessary to prevent daily pain; to pay an electric bill that needs immediate payment before the lights go out and has funded rent, mortgage payments, utility bills, child- care, medications, car repairs, clothing, school supplies and has helped the young, the elderly, the infirmed, and those with debilitating diseases. Jen and Hank never imagined that they would be faced with a financial crisis. With three young children, they were living a modest and happy life until Hank was diagnosed with cancer. He was no longer able to work, savings quickly dried up, and disability payments had not come in yet. The family was faced with being unable to pay $1,600 of rent. HOT matched JFS’s $800 and this family was not evicted. A couple in their late 50’s, both on disability, were unable to work due to illness. Their air conditioning unit broke, they were unable to afford a new one and they were suffering in the Florida heat. HOT matched JFS’s funds so that they were able to buy a new unit. In the past three years HOT has made grants of more than $46,000 to JFS that have been matched by JFS from other sources, creating a fund of more than $92,000 that has been used to fund specific cases, as they arise. HOT’s share of what was needed to meet the emergencies of families and individuals in need has been as little as $347 and as much as $2,500. There are more people with emergency needs than there is money to help them. We need to have sufficient funding for our half of all the emergency needs that people come to JFS seeking. We would like to see our donors designate up to $30,000 for this fund. Think of your gift being used to prevent a life, or lives, from being destroyed as the result of a one-time emergency need that you would fund in a second, if you only knew about it. HOT will be your eyes and your ears. Your designated gift will be matched by JFS and will be life altering.