High community needs related to COVID-19
Our local health department has identified 2 potential needs, but we don't have an org who has done this yet:
a. Provide deliveries of basic needs to Covid patients who are quarantined.
b. Provide some type of shelter for Covid patients when released from the hospital who can't return home (they live with others who may be too vulnerable).
If your community is providing these services, please comment on which org (did they exist to do this, or did they pivot to meet this need) is taking care of this. Thank, Judy
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Hi Judy,
There is an organization in our community that has started a Meals on Wheels program. This is not specific to Covid patients, but is for anyone who cannot leave home to get food, mostly seniors. May be worth checking if Meals on Wheels runs anything in your community, or if any type of soup kitchen could start this service with funding.
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This was a topic in the first COVID Concerns Coffee Talk For Grantmakers. @CateSitton from The Anderson Foundation shared a win-win-win approach to help get meals delivered and also help folks who are out of work. Click here to get to the written notes from that Coffee Talk. Here is the relevant text from that part of the conversation.
Cate please chime-in if there are other details you'd like to share!
"The last couple of days I have been calling all of my grant partners who work in the Meals on Wheel field. One of them I really thought was a fantastic response, their older volunteers still want to help so what they are doing is making phone calls to the meal recipients, they have their younger volunteers delivering the meals and the older volunteers are making phone calls so they have some socialization. And another one runs an Alzheimer's program and they have had to shut down all of their sites so they are providing a lot of support online but for the employees who are no longer working at the facilities are delivering meals and receiving half their salaries so I thought those were some innovative responses."
Tracy Larimer | Foundant| Bozeman, MT | she / her / hers |
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Our local hospital starting a department called Healthy365 a few years ago to address the overall health and wellness needs of our community. They have been very involved in the Covid-19 response effort including being in charge of providing quarantine facilities for front-line folks who have either been exposed, infected or simply do not want to risk carrying home the virus to their families. They have partnered with our local soup kitchen to provide meals for these folks and any others who are quarantined by the hospital. Our local rural transit has closed due to it being a nonprofit with mostly older drivers. Healthy365 has also picked up some of their critical work in providing transportation to medical visits as needed. You can see more about their organization on their website and Facebook page. https://www.behealthy365.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/BeHealthy365/
On a side note, we have started a no-fee pass-through community relief fund and we granted to this organization in our first round of grants to help support their transportation efforts.
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In Arlington, VA, several senior-serving organizations/agencies have been collaborating to ensure all seniors enrolled in at least one of the combined programs have access to basic needs, health resources and socialization, since many can't leave their homes (either due to being home-bound prior to COVID-19 or as a result of social distancing or, in some cases, actually having COVID-19). For instance, one organization already has a large set of volunteers who are calling each senior daily for a check-in; it also offers online discussions/classes for socialization/exercise and grocery pick-up/delivery. Another organization delivers free meals; another provides virtual doctor visits.
Could be a model for COVID-19 patients.
Caroline
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