St. Joseph Community Partnership Fund

Orange County Community Resilience Fund Evaluation Report 22 communities have seen a groundswell of positive support for relief, she is concerned about the long-term impact of COVID-19 on organizations and communities and hopes we will see sustained funding opportunities for recovery and rebuilding. There is a need for sustained collective impact recovery. Also, as inequities regarding the impact of COVID-19 have shown themselves, in both the short and long-term, she says, "advancing equity in healthcare is going to be top of mind" and that the sector must be "really innovative as we put a gender lens, a race lens, an immigrant lens, an income lens, on any planning, program design, delivery, evaluation funding that we want to move forward with." Homelessness Service Organizations Organizations serving the homeless, particularly shelters, faced a dilemma as it is not possible to deliver shelter remotely. Shelters needed to find a way to institute social distancing while providing food, housing, and supportive services for their clients. They staggered conjugate meals, split up roommates, and in some cases moved high-risk residents to motels so they could remain distant. They also needed to acquire PPE for staff and residents, sometimes at inflated prices, while dealing with loss of staff and volunteer hours as they sought to isolate themselves. All of these raised costs considerably. At the same time, shelters found their revenue declining; almost every survey respondent reported having to cancel a major fundraiser. Fortunately, most shelters were able to tap into emergency funds – all but one survey respondent received multiple emergency grants, and 70% received the PPP. As a result, most have been able to continue operating and only a few had needed to cut staffing. However, as with many other sub-sectors, there is concerned that this respite is short-lived. Furthermore, as economic pressures increase and fears of a wave of evictions rise, there is worry that housing insecure families and individuals will fall into home- lessness, dramatically increasing the need for shelters – with no clear plans to increase capacity. Early Childcare and Education According to Sandy Avzaradel, the Program Director of Early Childhood OC, providers of Early Childcare and Education have been hit hard by the pandemic. Many centers closed immediately, due to already tight and heavily strained budgets and difficulty in safely reopening. Many centers continued to provide care throughout the Pandemic, but enrollment declined because parents were/are afraid to send their children to childcare. Providers in Orange County found some relief through stipends, supply distributions, small business loans, payroll protection, etc. thanks to the CARES Act funding and other allocations specific to early care and education providers. I In the face of these difficulties, the OC Emergency Childcare Task Force, a collaborative of nonprofit and public sector agencies facilitated by Early Childhood OC, including CA Community Care Licensing, Children's Home Society of California, Orange County Department of Education, Early Learning Division, Quality Start OC, OC Child Care and Development Local Planning Council, First 5 Orange County, and OC Social Services Agency, has flourished and has completed an Emergency Child Care plan to identify policies, procedures and practices to support a public emergency. A positive byproduct of COVID-19 on the area of early childhood services is that it has shone a light on the importance of childcare in our community among other stakeholders. It is now easier for this community to convince a wider group of stakeholders of the importance of building resilient families, health care, mental health and wellbeing of families, and the financial status of families. Clear guidelines or recommendations from public agencies in a way that safely allows them to get back to serving children in social settings would be critical for this group to recover. Senior-serving Organizations Organizations that serve seniors were in a very difficult position as the population they serve is at the highest risk from COVID-19, and some seniors' lack of comfort with technology made remote service

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