Quantum Foundation (West Palm Beach, FL)
Quantum Foundation announced a $1 million funding package, to be immediately distributed to meet Palm Beach County’s basic needs impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The money will go to multiple local nonprofits, funding programs providing rental assistance, financial assistance, and targeted COVID-19 vaccination education efforts.
Of the $1 million, $300,000 went toward the Community Health Workers (CHW) Program for COVID-19 response. A joint effort across organizations, CHWs are a bridge to hard-hit communities that are often skeptical about the vaccine. The CHW program is working to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 through education, outreach services, and contact tracing assistance.
Urban League of Palm Beach County also received more than $100,000 of funding from the $1 million grant for ongoing support for vaccine efforts and pop-up vaccine stations to micro-target underserved communities when vaccines are made available.
Quantum Foundation earmarked $700,000 to rental housing and financial assistance to be distributed to Adopt-A-Family of the Palm Beaches, Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, and Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Palm Beach.
Adopt-A-Family of the Palm Beaches is running its Housing Stabilization Program, providing short-term rent/utility assistance, case management, budget counseling, and referrals.
Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County is using the money for its Rapid Response Eviction Assistance Program to provide legal housing representation. The organization provides tenants with legal representation through negotiations, mediations, settlement agreements, and up to $5,000 in rental assistance.
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Palm Beach is using its Hunger, Homeless & Outreach program to provide rental and utility assistance, benefit enrollment assistance and food as well as case management and referrals to clients. Part of the money it received from Quantum Foundation will fund a new position to help streamline the process of identifying needs and connecting to the correct avenue. Catholic Charities can help people through homeless prevention programs before they are evicted. The Quantum Foundation grant will be put toward rent and mortgage payments.
Each agency receiving funds is a trusted partner with a demonstrated record of success and strong compliance with previous grants from Quantum Foundation. Each has the administrative capacity to handle an influx of funding. All grants benefit the people of Palm Beach County, Florida. Quantum Foundation provided funds totaling $900,000 to Palm Beach County qualifying nonprofits in 2020 for COVID-19 relief in addition to the $1 million grant in 2021.
For more information or to learn about applying for grants, click here.
Contact: Jennifer Brooks at 561.278.0850, ext. 3 or jennifer@slatkowhusak.com.
The New York Community Trust (New York, NY)
To curb the spread of COVID-19, The New York Community Trust approved $1 million in grants to six nonprofits to work together over the next 18-months to counter misinformation, use science-based messaging to encourage people to get the vaccine, and improve access.
The nonprofits include:
- Community Health Care Association of New York—to work with health centers in neighborhoods with high vaccine hesitancy by collecting vaccination data, creating messaging and educational resources to fight misinformation, and coordinating with other nonprofits involved in the effort. ($200,000)
- CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy—to gather information about why some New Yorkers are hesitant to get vaccines by conducting surveys to track changes in sentiment, creating a web-dashboard with their findings, and working with community members to create targeted messaging. ($225,000)
- Fund for Public Health in New York—to hire a coordinator to assist community, immigrant, and faith-based groups in neighborhoods with high COVID-19 deaths and low vaccination rates conduct outreach and convince people to get vaccinated. ($150,000)
- New York Academy of Medicine—to bring together nonprofits, faith-based groups with medical personnel and government partners to gather information about vaccine distribution needs in hesitant communities. ($150,000)
- Public Good Projects—to assist community and faith-based groups to create customized messaging that counters vaccine misinformation by working with influential local influencers, deploying social media, and tracking messaging success. ($125,000)
- VOCAL-NY—for a vaccine advocacy campaign to encourage the formerly incarcerated, people with HIV/AIDS, injection drug users, and homeless people to get vaccinated by working one-on-one with individuals, sharing public health information via social media, and sharing stories of members who have been vaccinated. ($150,000)
Contact: Irfan Hasan at 212.686.1622 or iha@nyct-cfi.org.