Mindful that the coronavirus will have a disproportionate impact on people with the least ability to meet it, the Community Foundation directed Round 2 funding to local organizations meeting basic needs and offering emergency financial assistance to our most vulnerable neighbors. A total of $360,000 has been awarded to the following 28 organizations who continue to man the front lines of the crisis.
Round Two Grantees
ACCA Child Development Center - $15,000ACCA CDC provides comprehensive high-quality childcare services for low and moderate income families in Fairfax County. ACCA remains open and is providing care for essential personnel and first-responders pursuant to the “Joint Guidance for Emergency Child Care during Statewide School Closure” from the Virginia departments of Social Services and Education.
Arc of Loudoun – $10,000
Loudoun County's only advocacy organization dedicated to serving people with disabilities and their families. Support will provide emergency financial assistance and basic needs assistance for their clients, including food, rent, utilities, medical, dental, vision, prescription, transportation, and other basic needs deemed essential to their stability.
Capital Caring - $10,000
Capital Caring provides hospice, palliative care, and counseling to 1,300 patients a day, the vast majority of which are elderly with chronic conditions and at high risk from COVID-19. Support will help their purchase and delivery of food and supplies to their most financially burdened families and to defray costs related to their home based medical care.
Carpenter’s Shelter - $10,000
Carpenter’s Shelter is one of the largest homeless shelters in Northern Virginia, serving approximately 325 homeless men, women and children each year in a residential shelter program in the City of Alexandria. All clients are low income and include people with disabilities, veterans and immigrants. Almost 20% are children; an additional 19% are over the age of 55, and 82% are people of color. During COVID-19 they are providing shelter residents with food, cleaning supplies, food service supplies (plates, cups, bowls, etc.) as well as some medical related supplies.
Catholic Charities - $25,000
Catholic Charities has partnered with Loudoun Cares to serve any Loudoun County resident with housing and hardship needs through the newly established COVID-19 Emergency Fund and Helpline for Loudoun County. The program will provide rent, utility, and other emergency financial needs for households across the County facing a financial emergency. This support will allow them to pool their collective expertise to better serve those disproportionally impacted by COVID19 in Loudoun with a shared database and single point of contact.
Dulles South Food Pantry - $5,000
Provides food, personal supplies and other services to those in need in the Dulles South area of Loudoun County. They remain open for weekly food distribution and are providing supplemental food to families eligible for free and reduced fee meals through Loudoun County Public Schools. They have experienced a 25% increase in demand over the last 2 weeks.
Ethiopian Community Development Council - $10,000
Support will provide emergency financial assistance to their most vulnerable clients, including several families who have most recently resettled in Northern Virginia through the refugee reception and placement program and who do not qualify for the same federal assistance as our other clients in the area due to their status. Funding will support emergency financial assistance for rent, food, and unreimbursed medical expenses for families in Fairfax, Prince William, and Loudon Counties.
FACETS - $10,000
Serves individuals and families who are homeless in Fairfax County. Their COVID-19 response efforts are focused on shelter, food, medical outreach, emergency financial assistance, infection prevention and education. They are prioritizing high risk clients and coordinating care services. They have the infrastructure and expertise necessary to sustain and expand services during the pandemic.
Fairfax Diapers - $5,000
Serving low income, food insecure families, Fairfax Diapers provides diapers to all clients receiving food at Food for Others, through Fairfax County visiting nurses, and through the Annandale High School food pantry. They distributed over 4,000 diapers last week, which did not meet demand. This support will go directly to the purchase of diapers.
Good Shepherd Housing - $10,000
As 46-year-old affordable housing and homeless services provider, Good Shepherd Housing provides housing-related services, housing, case management support and financial assistance to our most vulnerable neighbors and residents. Support will provide emergency financial assistance for both residents and non-residents who have lost work and incomes as a result of COVID-19.
Herndon – Reston FISH - $15,000
With closed businesses and temporary layoffs from the COVID-19 pandemic, Herndon-Reston FISH continues as a 911 responder to local residents in financial crisis. Emergency financial assistance is being provided for rent, utilities and medical prescriptions for those in crisis situations. Over the past 2 weeks, 38% and 67%, respectively, of the cases referred to FISH cited COVID-19 as the reason for needing emergency financial assistance.
Homestretch - $20,000
Homestretch provides housing and supportive services for homeless families in Fairfax County. All have been referred to Homestretch by local shelters. 90% of single women with children have fled domestic violence. During COVID-19, they are providing food, home goods, and critical items such as baby formula and diapers to their clients. They are ensuring all of their families have internet connections for both children and adults, access to health services, access to transportation and quality childcare.
House of Mercy - $10,000
Serves the City of Manassas and feeds 350 families per month. House of Mercy provides food, clothing, household items, and other necessities to their clients, and now need to purchase food to help with dwindling donations. They are seeing many new clients and anticipate a drastic increase in demand in the coming weeks and months.
Infant Toddler Family Day Care - $10,000
Providing workforce development for low income and ESOL residents across Northern Virginia that helps individuals launch child care businesses and provide high quality child care across our community for essential workers during the COVID-19 crisis.
Lorton Community Action Center - $25,000
Offering food and financial assistance for South County Fairfax in the Lorton, Newington and Fort Belvoir communities. They are currently providing an 8-day supply of food at each distribution center for clients and delivering to all seniors and those with special needs as well. More than 2,000 kid packs (snack bags) have been distributed since March 13th. They see a significant increase for emergency financial assistance for rent, utilities, other necessities, especially for gig-economy workers in the hospitality and other service industries.
Medical Care for Children Partnership - $10,000
Now offering only emergency dental care services to the most vulnerable members of the Fairfax County community, including low-income, uninsured or underinsured families who are not eligible for state or federal health insurance programs due to income requirements. The services will be provided by their existing network of dentists, who are located throughout Fairfax County.
National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) - $10,000
NAKASEC serves the Korean and Vietnamese immigrant populations of Northern Virginia, some of whom are excluded from expanded healthcare, unemployment insurance, and small business disaster loan assistance. Support will help the NAKASEC Emergency Fund, providing direct emergency financial assistance for rent, groceries and other medical and non-medical necessities.
New Hope Housing - $10,000
New Hope Housing operates 3 year-round homeless shelters in Northern Virginia that usually serve 160 adults daily. During COVID-19 they are allowing one month of rent forbearance for their housed clients to allow them to save money for the uncertain future.
Operation Homefront – $10,000
Supporting military families across NOVA with their Critical Financial Assistance program, specifically designed to help military families overcome short-term financial challenges during COVID-19. They help military families stay in their homes and put food on the table by covering rent and mortgage payments, grocery and utility bills, and more.
Rising Hope UMC - $20,000
Rising Hope is a faith-based organization along the Route 1 Corridor in Fairfax and Alexandria. Support is for their food pantry that provides more than 200,000 meals each year, and for their Hypothermia Shelter that operates during the winder months so that area homeless have a place to sleep.
Rx Partnership - $5,000
Rx Partnership provides medication for low income, uninsured individuals and families, serving 1,200 plus patients each year who receive more than 3,000 RxP prescriptions in Northern Virginia. During COVID-19, this support will enable Rx Partnership to provide medications to the Arlington Free Clinic, NovaScripts Central, the Loudoun Free Clinic, and the new Mother of Mercy site opening in Prince William County.
Second Story - $10,000
Second story provides housing for 50 homeless young people between 18 to 24 years of age who have no current support from a parent or guardian. Due to COVID-19, many Second Story residents cannot pay their portion of their rent. Nor did they stock up on food and other supplies. Second Story is dropping food and other necessities and providing emergency financial assistance for rent so their youth can remain safely housed.
Share – $10,000
Share operates a food pantry and offers emergency financial assistance for low income families in the McLean, VA region. Support will help them offer emergency financial assistance to neighbors in crisis for uninsured dental, medical prescription, rent and utility bills. They are seeing a significant increase in assistance requests as many are furloughed or laid off.
Shelter House - $10,000
Homeless shelter for low-income families in Reston. Shelter House will use the support to help sustain their organization's mission to provide basic needs for those experiencing the greatest hardship, particularly diverse and underserved communities who are impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, including financial assistance to help insure housing stability and food security for victims of Domestic Violence and families experiencing homelessness.
The House - $10,000
Serving children in Prince William County. The House is open Monday - Friday from 6am-6pm, providing a safe place for low income children and youth who are no longer attending school. With social distancing, the House will accept 60 children and youth at once in their facility, or 10 cohorts of 6 kids each, during COVID-19. They also serve children in the Prince William County schools system with remote access for home work assistance and mentoring. Support will subsidize tuition assistance for their children.
United Community Ministries - $25,000
United Community’s food pantry typically serves 100 families a week. In response to COVID-19 this support will help to expand their food distribution to 300 families weekly and promote their ability to open a second food distribution at a site soon to be announced. The organization is following all CDC guidelines to ensure the safety of their staff and community members.
Western Fairfax Christian Ministries - $25,000
Provide food and financial support for low income and the homeless across 9 zip codes covering Clifton, Chantilly, Centreville, Fairfax, Fairfax Station and Oak Hill. They typically serve 425 families per month in the food pantry and they are trending towards 800 for the month of April. Support will be used for their emergency financial assistance program for rent and utilities. Partners include the Centerville Immigration Forum and Shepherd’s Center of Western Fairfax, who continue to deliver pre-bagged food to homebound seniors in western Fairfax.
YMCA of Metro Washington: - $15,000
Funding will support the YMCAs in Northern VA, specifically YMCA Reston, YMCA Arlington, YMCA Alexandria and YMCA Loudoun County. Through the COVID-19 crisis, these Y’s will support their communities. 4,820 pounds of food was distributed to those in need last week, and the Y’s are anticipating providing approximately 4,500-5,000 pounds of food weekly for the remainder of this crisis. They also provide childcare services, learning loss programs and healthy meals and snacks for over 150 children.
This is a difficult moment. It is hard to see its meaning. More time will have to pass before we can make sense of it. But even with all the change, risk and uncertainty that the coronavirus has visited upon our lives, we are defined not by the crisis, but by the way we have chosen to show up for one another in community.
This past Monday the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, captured this exact sentiment when he was quoted as saying this:
“Let our shared humanity be the antidote to our shared threat.”
To each and every individual, corporate, and foundation donor to the Fund, all of whom are listed on the Community Foundation’s website, please accept our deepest thanks and gratitude on behalf of the people of Northern Virginia. You are choosing to see our shared humanity, choosing to look at the suffering of our friends and neighbors, and you don’t turn away.
We encourage all who have the means and capacity at this time to please give generously if you can to the COVID-19 Response Fund for Northern Virginia. Your gift will be used to help our most vulnerable neighbors get through this.
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