By: Fariss Samarrai | Original Publication: UVA Today | May 2020

"...The University of Virginia has established a virtual Volunteer Center to help connect UVA employees who wish to volunteer their time, skills and compassion with the needs of local service agencies that are working overtime to help community members cope...

Featured organizations include the United Way of Greater Charlottesville, the Red Cross, the regional Emergency Operations Center, the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, Charlottesville Meals on Wheels and others. The Volunteer Center website includes links to local partner websites and additional information...

To learn more, visit the Volunteer Center portal or contact center staff at volunteercenter@virginia.edu or 434-243-4234..."

We hope you find this newsletter (available online on Medium) helpful; click here for a free subscription! Please share this issue with friends and neighbors, especially those without Internet access (phone numbers are provided where relevant).

We love to hear from readers; let us know about articles and information resources we should include, or other ways we can make this newsletter better. And if you might enjoy helping us by doing social media or working on this newsletter, just reach out: CvilleCOVIDupdate@gmail.com.

Please stay safe!

— Cville Community Cares communications team

A time to connect with community in a supportive and positive way. 

Hosts: Ellen Krag and Dolly Joseph, with support from UVA Student Affairs 

Ellen Krag, LPC, has been working professionally with families and children in crisis for over 20 years, and has extensive grassroots experience connecting community members with appropriate mental health support. 

During this community check in Ellen will provide practical tips for calming and grounding to help individuals manage anxiety, stress, and the complex feelings that can result from the effects of COVID-19, social isolation, and our rapidly changing circumstances. 

Ellen will present practical tips to our group, and then call participants will break into “zoom rooms” to participate in small group mutual check-ins, using prompts that emphasize positive coping skills. 

Zoom Meeting Information: https://virginia.zoom.us/j/296873844

You can meet on your computer with or without video. You can meet on your smart phone with the zoom app. You can dial in on your landline or flip phone without video. Long distance charges may apply.

If you are on your smart phone Copy and paste 
One tap mobile
+13126266799,,296873844# US (Chicago)
+14702509358,,296873844# US (Atlanta)

 Dial by your location
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 470 250 9358 US (Atlanta)
Enter at the prompt: Meeting ID: 296 873 844

Mutual Aid in the Time of Covid-19

Monday, May 11 | 8 to 9:30pm EST |

Join a national conversation with SURJ leaders talking about the mutual aid work they are doing with their communities! We’ll be talking with Anna Malinowski and Mimi Arbeit of SURJ Charlottesville and CVille Community Cares (note: these two speakers offer all credit to the Cville Community Cares team). We’ll also be hearing from Chanelle Gallant of SURJ Toronto, SURJ national leadership team, and the COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Sex Workers.

Register for the webinar at bit.ly/SURJMutualAid

Invite your friends on Facebook

• If you applied for a PPP but have not yet received it because your bank ran out of funds, check with your bank now to ensure that you have a loan application number and are "in line" if additional funding is received. It's our understanding that you do not need to re-apply.
• If you have not applied for a PPP but want to - line up a lender now, get your documents in order, and have the application ready to submit through your lender.
• See our summary memo on finding a lender, the PPP application, loan forgiveness (the SBA will be releasing their official guidance on this soon), and additional information on local, state, and federal resources and financial relief.
• If you'd like help considering whether the PPP is right for your organization or to navigate the process, you can always contact Kadi Davis at kdavis@thecne.org or 661-703-4503 or sign-up for Virtual Office Hours.

CALL-IN CLINIC SCHEDULE Mondays: 10 am-12 pm Tuesdays: 9 am-12 pm Wednesdays: 2-5 pm

• For Spanish speakers/Para las mujeres Latinas: Los Miércoles: 2-4 pm

Thursdays: 5-7 pm  Fridays: 10 am-12 pm

One-on-one sessions with a counselor over the phone are offered free of charge during our call-in clinic hours. These sessions are designed to offer immediate, short-term assistance including:
Eligibility screenings for individual counseling and other services
Self-care assessment
Planning
Referral services
Education
Emotional support

Call-in clinics are not designed for crisis intervention. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, please call 911, go to your nearest emergency room, or contact one of the crisis hotlines listed below:
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: (800) 273-8255, available 24/7
Region Ten Emergency Services: (434) 972-1800, available 24/7
Live Chat services available through Lifeline Chat

COVID-19 Response - #50forFood

Cville Community Cares is launching our second call for mutual aid, this time focused on feeding local community members.

In partnership with Sin Barreras, we are raising $50,000 for immediate distribution to residents who are experiencing food insecurity, including our undocumented neighbors. Stimulus checks are on their way but we know many will not get checks immediately or at all.  Join us in redistributing this wealth to our community members who need it most.

$50k for Food is a bridge fund to offer immediate groceries to our community. Our neighbors need to eat even while they are waiting for assistance from other programs. You can help bridge this gap.

We are looking for 50 donors to commit all or part of their stimulus check to these neighbors.

Donate here to become one of the 50. 

Our goal is to raise $50,000 to be distributed directly to regional families. Half of the funds will be turned into grocery gift cards which Sin Barreras will distribute to the many families who contact them daily in need of immediate help feeding children. The other half of the funds will be distributed through the Cville Community Cares network to neighbors, many in our adjacent rural areas, who are struggling to keep food on the table.

You came through with a wave of loving support a month ago, helping nearly 1000 families with direct aid. Let’s do more. Donate today!

Need financial assistance?

¿Necesita asistencia financiera?

Call / Llamenos 434-234-4490

Questions, concerns, and offers to help? Email CvilleCares@gmail.com

 We will take care of each other and get through this… together!

#CvilleCOVIDcare

"UVA Colleagues,

As President Ryan announced last week, the University has created an emergency assistance fund for employees and contracted workers. It provides employees of the University and associated organizations (such as foundations), as well as those who work for UVA’s major contractors, with financial resources to assist them during this emergency. 

The UVA Emergency Assistance Fund will cover reasonable and necessary expenses incurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A description of these expenses, as well as eligibility requirements, contractor firms included, and how to apply for assistance, is available on the UVA HR website. 

Anyone who wishes to contribute to the fund may do so at giving.virginia.edu. Employees have the option to give by payroll deduction. This is very easy to do, and you have the choice of donating to staff needing extra support, students, or health care workers.

If you have questions about the fund, please contact the HR Solution Center at AskHR@virginia.edu.

We greatly appreciate how everyone in our community has risen to this challenge, and we will continue to look for ways to offer support..." 

A Message from Kelley Stuck, Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer

We will get through this together.

Support Cville is an active resource of ways locals can help and get help.

Charlottesville Emergency Relief Fund for Artists

Since launching the Charlottesville Emergency Relief Fund for Artists with New City Arts on 3/20, we've received 111 applications from Charlottesville-area artists requesting a total of $28,750 in support. We have heard from artists whose exhibitions, performances, classes, book tours, concerts, market booths, and craft fairs have been cancelled, as well as artists who have lost other sources of income they rely on like their restaurant or catering gigs. As a reminder:

• Artists can request up to $300 to compensate for scheduled work that was scheduled and lost.

• Artists are eligible to apply for loss of income regardless of whether the income was from art or other jobs.

• Artists must live in the Charlottesville area including the city of Charlottesville or the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, or Nelson.

The fund was seeded with $6,000 from The FUNd at CACF and program support from each organization. Since then, the pool of funds has grown to $15,600 thanks to the generosity of 38 additional donors and 50% of proceeds from the Cville Porch Portraits project. We've heard from artists who have used the funds to buy groceries, pay bills, cover the cost of studio rental, and offer free classes to their students.

It has been utterly inspiring to see community members support Charlottesville's artists.

We continue to fulfill qualifying requests as quickly as we are able in the order they were received, but due to limited funds, we are only able to fulfill about 50% of requests at this time. Please consider expanding the pool of funds available to Charlottesville-area artists who have lost jobs.

If you would like to donate to expand the pool of emergency funds available to artists in need, you can: 

• Give here and designate “Charlottesville Emergency Relief Fund for Artists” in the memo line.

• If you would like to contribute to the Charlottesville Emergency Relief Fund for Artists through bank draft or check, please contact Maureen at maureen@newcityarts.org.

*Neither The Bridge nor New City Arts are keeping a percentage for administrative costs; all funds will be given to artists in need.

Mutual Aid Infrastructure - Charlottesville

The United Way Covid-19 Crisis Relief Fund 

As with most of these disruptive events, our most vulnerable community members will be impacted the most, with even greater economic, income and childcare challenges than what they face on a regular basis. The United Way Covid-19 Crisis Relief Fund is designed to provide emergency help for those who are most in need within Charlottesville and our surrounding counties.

Your gift will go to help families with children, and other community members with limited or no access to emergency funds.

Each of these local populations may experience both short and long-term severe financial hardship and loss of resources from this unprecedented pandemic. 

Funds may be used to help families pay for utilities, rent, food and other critical household needs still unmet by public and private resources.

What took longer to emerge is that the pandemic is amplifying a vast racial divide, killing a disproportionate share of people of color across the United States. Deep racialized disparities began to surface in late March as a handful of counties released preliminary counts of infections and deaths. In Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County, all the people who had died as of March 27 were black; in Michigan as of April 2, black residents accounted for 40 percent of Covid-19 deaths, nearly triple their share of the state’s population. Similarly lopsided death or infection rates appeared in a number of cities, including New Orleans, Chicago, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

But getting a clear picture of the extent of racialized disparities across the country has been a struggle because of the failure of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many local and state authorities to release detailed demographic information..."