Six grants totaling $150,000 were awarded by the SSJ Mission & Ministries Foundation in July. In response to the COVID crisis, the Foundation changed its grant process to ensure that the heightened needs of the area’s most vulnerable are met. Specifically, the Foundation board voted to award 100 percent of the funds requested by each applicant, stipulating that the dollars be used to ease the burden of the pandemic on the elderly, the homeless and the disadvantaged.

Recipients of 2020 grants were Erie DAWN, Saint Mary’s Home, SSJ Neighborhood Network, St. James Haven (Meadville), St. Patrick’s Haven, and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Northwestern Pennsylvania.