PERSONAL GRANTS
The 8 Ball Emergency Fund for Journalists (previously known as the 8 Ball Welfare Foundation) grants are given solely on the basis of current need. They go to working journalists who are temporarily “down and out.” The funds they receive are used to pay rent, obtain urgent medical care or purchase food and other basic necessities. With the layoffs in print and broadcast in recent years, the need is especially acute and our requests for donations are ever more urgent.
Please contact us if you have any questions or feedback about the 8 Ball Emergency Fund for Journalists.
If you are a broadcast, print, or web journalist working, laid off, recovering from illness or recently retired in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside, or San Bernardino Counties and feel you qualify for an 8 Ball Emergency Fund for Journalists grant based on temporary financial need, complete and
e-mail our two-page "Emergency Grant Application Form."
Please follow these steps:
1. Click on the "PDF Logo" below:
2. The form will open. Fill out the two pages directly on your computer, then save the completed PDF form with a different file name.
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On a PC - use the "Save As" command
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On a Mac (using Safari) - Use the "Export as PDF" command
3. Attach your filled-in PDF to an e-mail.
4. Send that e-mail to the Emergency Fund's Chair Roberta Wax, at:
The Board of Directors will review and act on your application as quickly as practical. The information you submit will remain confidential.
Our general contact e-mail address is:
Our general postal address is:
8 Ball Emergency Fund for Journalists
PO Box 10186
Burbank, CA 91510-0186
Venice McClean and Ken Moore
Information on 8 Ball Emergency Fund for Journalists grant applicants is confidential. However, Emmy-winning photographer Ken Moore of KTTV Fox 11 in Los Angeles and Venice McClean, a budding broadcast journalist, are two recipients who want their stories told.
When the Fund first learned about Venice, she was a student at West Los Angeles College and a broadcast intern for the Congress of Racial Equality in Los Angeles. She was on CORE's local radio outlet and on cable TV. She had her press credentials and was well on her way to a broadcast career.
Then she suffered a stunning health setback. "After covering the Martin Luther King Day Parade one year, I went home and could not move. I had suffered a stroke."
Venice was both a student and a working mom. But in the days and weeks after the stroke, she couldn't study or work. "I was going through a tough time and needed some help," she says. She heard about the 8-Ball Welfare Foundation (now the 8 Ball Emergency Fund for Journalists) through the Los Angeles Press Club, where she was a member. As a result, for the first time, one of our grants was approved for a student.
"It was so overwhelming," she says. "I received funding, which helped to pay some of my bills. If I had continued without any help, there would have been late fees and it all would have gotten worse."
The grant saved her. "The 8-Ball Welfare Foundation came through for Venice just at the time when she needed it in her life," says Adrian Dove, Venice's boss at the time at CORE.
Ken Moore needed help too. His beloved wife, Lydia Faye, was fighting pancreatic cancer. The emotional and financial toll on Ken became crippling. He lost Lydia in 2008.
"The 8-Ball Welfare Foundation came to me when I lost my wife." Ken says. "I was in a horrible, horrible depression and it was a tough, tough time. I had lost my second income. There were medical bills and more. The foundation helped save me financially."
"The 8-Ball Welfare Foundation gives money to people at times when they are desperate and I can't thank them enough,” Ken adds. “They saved me at a time when I was in really dire straits."
Our organization changed names the 8 Ball Emergency Fund for Journalists in July 2020.
Ken Moore and Venice McClean joined members of our Board of Directors when we were honored with a $5,000 grant by the Good News Foundation of Los Angeles, a group of anchorwomen and reporters from local TV stations.
The "Good News Gals" saluted the Fund for its many years of helping those in our own profession in time of need.
Accepting it are (from left),
Ken Moore,
Then-Chairman Bob Krauch,
Venice McClean and
Then-Treasurer Bob Tarlau.
