JAZZ FOUNDATION OF AMERICA INC

For 25 years, the Jazz Foundation of America (JFA) has been the only national organization dedicated to saving the homes and lives of elder jazz and blues musicians in crisis – musicians who have made our world richer through their music. JFA has grown to support over 6,000 cases a year with emergency assistance and work opportunities. Every day, the JFA helps clients in need who often have nowhere else to turn. The Emergency Assistance program keeps the electricity on, the rent or mortgage paid, food on the table, and provides counseling and pro bon services. The JFA helps to re-establish a musician’s sense of dignity and purpose through performance opportunities with our Agnes Varis Jazz in the Schools program which brings music to schools, nursing homes, hospitals and other venues throughout the country. We also save lives through our partnership with Englewood Hospital and Medical Center doctors and staff who have been serving JFA clients for 18 years. With this network of caring professionals, JFA social workers provide crucial services that keep many of these accomplished music veterans alive and productive, doing what they love to do – play music.