St. Joseph Community Partnership Fund

Orange County Community Resilience Fund Evaluation Report 9 people and nonprofits began to adapt to the new normal. Nonprofits learned how to provide services remotely and instituted practices for staff to work from home. Community members who remained employed balanced their responsibilities, while many, but not all, of those that lost their jobs received financial support to bridge the gap. By May, when many of this reports' survey respondents returned their surveys, there was widespread optimism that the country had "flattened the curve." On May 23rd, Orange County officially moved into "Stage 2" of the reopening process. The 7-day case average was at 161 per day. Beaches were packed on Memorial Day, restaurants opened indoor dining, and Disneyland even announced plans for reopening in July. Nonprofits made plans to return to in-person services and work, and some even reopened their doors. Unfortunately, this optimism proved to be premature. As the County and nation began to reopen, COVID-19 surged. By July 1st, the 7-day case average was up to 805 a day, and was far worse in neighboring Los Angeles County. While the increase in cases was partly attributable to more testing, there was no doubt that the virus had spread, and new action was taken. At the state and local level, reopening plans were slowed, restaurants went back to closing indoor dining, Disney delayed its return indefinitely, and school districts across the county switched their Fall plans to remote learning. At the same time, families face increased uncertainty as increased federal benefits such as unemployment ended at the end of July, with unclear plans to continue such programs. By late August, the status of federal aid was still murky. Case numbers had begun to drop, and Orange County was removed from the state's watch list, leading to some guarded optimism that schools and businesses may reopen reasonably soon. COVID-19 itself and the months of resulting shut- downs have had an immediate and evolving effect on Orange County residents. The longer term impact may be more severe. Clearly, Orange County's most vulnerable members of the community have felt this impact disproportionately. The most striking effects include job losses and economic insecurity, increased need for the social safety net, increased physical and mental health needs, increases in domestic violence, and children being left behind developmentally and educationally by school and early child education closures. What follows below is a brief snapshot of Orange County across these impact areas at the five-month mark of the pandemic. Job losses and economic impacts According to the California Employment Development Department (EDD), unemployment in Orange County as of July 2020 was at 12.6%, more than 9 percentage points higher than the 3.1% of July

• Cover