COVID-19
Since March 2020, Together Rising has been focused on addressing urgent needs arising from the pandemic. We are acting as virtual first responders for individuals and families in crisis. Together, we are funding hundreds of individual applications from families who need urgent help. We are supporting some of the most vulnerable groups, including heroic healthcare workers and youth aging out of foster care, by providing vital assistance.
As of the end of June 2022, we have given $1,926,689.19 to assist individuals and families and we are continuing that work every day.
Helping individuals and families buy food and pay bills, $481,540.77
We are reviewing, vetting, and funding hundreds of individual applications from families who need urgent help with groceries, rent, utility bills, and vital supplies due to the devastation of job loss and furloughs arising from the crisis. As of the end of June 2022, we have helped more than 455 families during these heartbreaking times.
Supported immigrant family case management and adult employment readiness programs at the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, $314,854.10, on 11/9/2021
We supported the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park’s immigrant family case management and adult employment readiness programs, which have been highly utilized since the organizations’s founding more than forty years ago. These programs provide English lessons, workshops for interview preparation, and comprehensive case management for families so that they’re properly accessing social services that are available to them, which helps ensure families with children are supported as they navigate early childhood development concerns and education.
Purchased 449 Oxygen Concentrators to ship to India, $314,854.10, on 5/7/2021
The surge in Covid cases in May depleted India’s healthcare system of vital resources, leaving patients to die in parking lots waiting for oxygen. In response, all of us, through Together Rising deployed $314,854.10 to our long-time partner, Direct Relief to purchase oxygen concentrators so that patients could be treated at home – making the beds, supplies, and personnel that otherwise would have been devoted to them available for critically ill patients.
Providing mental health support for Navajo Nation hospital staff, $365,000.00, on 3/3/2021
The strain on hospital staff during COVID has been overwhelming. Together Rising invested $365,000 to support Direct Relief’s partner, Brigham and Women’s Outreach Program in Navajo Nation by expanding their mental health programs. They hired additional mental health providers for their staff and focused on boosting morale in other ways that would help reduce burnout and improve the wellbeing of hospital staff. These funds also hired a Traditional Healer.
Purchasing Personal Protective Equipment for health providers working with pregnant women in Nepal and funding related telehealth programs, $100,000.00, on 12/23/2020
The pandemic altered the provision of medical services around the globe, including in rural areas of Nepal, where providing prenatal and neonatal care was already challenging due to significant geographic, financial, and cultural barriers. Through a grant from Together Rising, you allowed One Heart Worldwide, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing maternal and infant mortality, to purchase PPE for health providers working with pregnant women in rural districts, to extend and further fund a telehealth program to identify pregnant women and provide monthly check-up calls from skilled birth attendants, to further develop a phone helpline for remote skilled birth attendants to connect with an OBGYN for support, and to develop remote mentoring sessions for skilled birth attendants.
Providing critical training, mentorship, and infrastructure support to Navajo nurses, leaders and direct-patient care providers, $50,000.00, on 11/27/2020
The Navajo Nation has a higher per capita COVID-19 death rate than any U.S. state. Chronic underfunding, in violation of treaty obligations, has resulted in widespread structural, economic, and health injustices fueling the spread of the pandemic among these first citizens. You are sending an additional $50,000 investment to address the urgent COVID-19 crisis, as well as underlying health disparities and infrastructure injustices facing the Navajo Nation. Through this investment, you are helping to provide critical training, mentorship, and infrastructure support to Navajo nurses, leaders, and direct-patient care providers.
Providing housing assistance to female veterans and minor children in critical need, $50,000.00, on 11/4/2020
In Nevada, which has the highest unemployment rate nationwide, female veterans have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Kline Veterans Fund, an organization that provides support to homeless and at-risk veterans and their families in Nevada, has seen a dramatic increase in need due to pandemic. You stepped in to honor the sacrifices and visible and invisible wounds of these veterans and their families by providing $50,000 in rental assistance, utility and transportation expenses, childcare costs, and other urgent relief.
Connecting vulnerable immigrant families with housing, medical assistance, and basic emergency aid, $20,000.00, on 7/2/2020
The COVID-19 crisis has been particularly devastating for children and families engaged in immigration proceedings. In addition to the health threats of this time, these children and families are facing further restrictions of immigration policies, job losses, and severe economic hardship. To step in for these families, you deployed, through Together Rising, $20,000 to Safe Passage to assist their team of social workers and lawyers to serve as a safe harbor and family for their clients during the pandemic—immediately connecting them with housing, funding, therapeutic care, medical assistance, translation services, and basic emergency aid.
Investing in the Navajo Nation’s defense of their people, $105,262.00, on 5/15/2020
The Navajo Nation has more coronavirus cases per capita than any state in the US. Chronic underfunding, in violation of treaty obligations, has resulted in widespread structural, economic, and health injustices fueling the spread of the pandemic among these first citizens. In collaboration with and under the leadership of Navajo Nation leaders, you have funded $105,262 for masks, eye protection, gloves, PPE, ventilators, oxygen concentrators, and other medical equipment to the Navajo Nation – supplied through our long-time collaborators at Direct Relief.
Funding a community organization supporting New York City mothers and young children, $35,000.00 on 4/30/2020
Community organizations that provide clothing for children, meals, a safe space to gather, advocacy and training, and community were shuttered by stay-at-home orders, as their needs only grew. We sent $35,000 to Nido de Esperanza so they can continue to serve mothers and young children in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, most of whom are immigrants sheltering in place in single bedrooms.
Buying Personal Protective Equipment for healthcare workers, $50,000.00 on 3/27/2020, $12,000.00 on 4/16/2020
Our healthcare workers are the heroes of our time. Many have not had the personal protective equipment (PPE) they need to heal the sick and to protect themselves. Together, we sent Direct Relief $50,000 to provide PPE to the healthcare workers who are working to fight COVID-19 in under-resourced community health centers and free clinics.
Purchasing computers for under-resourced kids to access education during school closures, $25,000.00 on 4/10/2020
As the world adjusted to this pandemic, students were required to start distance learning. Not every kid has access to school provided equipment and not every family can provide that for their kids. We invested $25,000 through One Simple Wish for laptop equipment for foster children to continue education during this crisis and for young adults who have aged out of foster care and require the equipment to continue their education and employment.
Providing community support for youth in rural Alaska, $5,000.00 on 4/17/2020
We all know that youth are having an especially hard time not being able to be with their peers right now. We were honored to partner with Pride Foundation’s Crisis Community Care Fund to give a grant to Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic (KBFPC) in rural Alaska so they can continue to provide community support for youth and families, with a specific focus on LGBTQ+ youth, by hosting virtual meet ups and continued case management.
Supporting separated families, $20,000.00 on 4/6/2020
On March 2, 2019, we accompanied 29 families across the US border to reclaim their children who were taken from them while trying to seek asylum. As these families were becoming self-sustaining, they too were hit with the effects of COVID-19, and many are now without work. We continue to support the families as they rebuild their lives together.
Feeding hungry children on the weekends, $250,000.00 on 3/17/2020
When this pandemic first hit, our community was heartbroken by the thought of children going hungry. Many schools are still feeding kids during the weekdays, but many kids still need support from other programs to eat on the weekends. Together, we sent $250,000 to Blessings in a Backpack, a nonprofit working to provide hunger-free weekends for kids across America. With our funds, they were able to make more than 83,750 bags of food a reality for thousands of vulnerable children nationwide.
Donations to our COVID-19 work are supporting families struggling to pay rent, pay bills, and buy groceries following job losses due to the pandemic.
If you need help to get through this time, please complete our application here. We are reviewing these applications as they come in, and will continue to fund needs throughout this crisis.
Thank you for continuing to show up during this difficult time. We are in this together.
Blog Posts:
6/24/2020 – Thank you for continue to stand with families
5/15/2020 – Navajo Nation
5/9/2020 – Nido de Esperanza
5/6/2020 – You’ve shown up for 193 families so far!
5/4/2020 – We are all in need.
4/23/2020 – Thank you for helping families during COVID-19
4/15/2020 – Connecting during COVID-19
4/10/2020 – You are lifting burdens!
3/30/2020 – We were made for such a time as this.
3/27/2020 – You’re sending PPE to healthcare workers
3/17/2020 – You are helping feed children