About the project
The Jerusalem Shelter for Battered Women was created in 1991, when the Jerusalem Foundation supported the relocation of Beit Zipporah to a freestanding house in the Baka neighborhood. The renovated facility provided improved living conditions for up to 15 women and 25-30 children at one time (approximately 60 women and 100 children each year), as well as an office, therapy room, child-care area, kitchen and dining areas, living room and laundry room. In 2000, the Jerusalem Foundation supported construction and furnishing of an addition that includes a new kitchen, meeting room and early childhood wing, and has since supported additional renovations. The Jerusalem Foundation also has supported an empowerment program aimed at helping women regain their self esteem through therapy and skills training; a halfway house program that provides rent-subsidized apartments, legal aid, job re-training and other assistance to women re-integrating into their communities, and the children’s center, which provides educational and therepeutic programs for children and runs summer and holiday camps. In 2003, it established the Lina & Usher Spira Scholarship Fund, which annually supports women at the shelter who are enrolled in study programs to attain or improve professional skills.
