MARTINEZ — Beyond its devastating health implications, COVID-19 is undermining basic living conditions for tens of thousands of people living in the Bay Area, especially those that are most vulnerable. The Contra Costa Regional Health Foundation (CCRHF) has established a COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund, and has been selected as a lead partner organization in the newly formed COVID-19 Regional Response Fund supported by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund is also supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative as well as individual donors.
The CCRHF Rapid Response Fund is moving quickly to help those individuals in desperate need. Locally, the Contra Costa Regional Health Foundation will play an important role in identifying highest risk populations and funding organizations to provide needed assistance.
“The economic impact of COVID-19 in the Bay Area is immense, with the biggest impact on people who have been living on the margins. These are families that can’t wait for government assistance in a few weeks, they are suffering and in jeopardy now,” explains CCRHF Chair Bette Felton. “Thanks to the amazing generosity of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, as well as individual donors, we can now move rapidly, locate the organizations best suited to safeguard those people at high risk and make sure they have the funds and resources to help protect our communities.”
We understand this is a dynamic and changing situation. Based on our understanding of the greatest needs at this time, the Fund is supporting four key areas: food distribution, financial assistance, shelter and emergency housing, and support for essential workers.
“Grants will be made on a timely basis to organizations best equipped to address these needs among the county’s most vulnerable populations. Given the urgency of the crisis, our priority is to find organizations with the proven capacity that can move quickly,” says Felton.
In light of that urgency, in its first round of funding, the CCRHF is extending grants to five organizations: The Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, The Contra Costa Crisis Center, Shelter, Inc., Catholic Charities of the East Bay and White Pony Express. These initial grants will quickly amplify the impact these organizations are positioned to make.
Additional organizations will be considered in future funding cycles, based on:
• the organization’s ability to reach populations most vulnerable to the economic or health risks posed by this public health crisis,
• its capacity to move expeditiously and
• the ability of the organization to deploy the funds expediently.
For additional information about the COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund and the Contra Costa Regional Health Foundation visit https://www.ccrhfcovid-19.org/
Contra Costa Regional Health Foundation:
Established in 2003, the Contra Costa Regional Health Foundation is a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization that supports Contra Costa Health Services in its work to care for and improve the health of all the people in Contra Costa County with special attention to those who are the most vulnerable.
Moraga is an affluent community, and I am very fortunate to live here, so I wonder what is being done to support our extended family, those who don’t qualify for health benefits or unemployment benefits because our economic system is so ruthless, heartless, and ultimately inefficient? The gardeners, the house cleaners, the nannies, the occasional drivers and personal chefs? What is the Moraga Community Fund doing to help those who so personally serve us, for example? And, while on that topic, don’t you think Moragans deserve a followup as to where Mr. Fritzky is and what he is doing right now? It’s all so eerily quiet, like we don’t talk about that here…Too many prominent locals kissed the Tar-Baby. Tell the story.
To quote this very news site – “It’s clear now the whole thing was a con. A cruel and callous crime according to some. And with every con there are victims – and victims of cons are never eager to admit they were conned. Hence much of the silence we’re hearing, or not hearing, as the mushroom cloud rises into the sky……”
Yeah, but there’s a story there, an important local news story, and no one tells it. These country club Dicks and Janes serve on other boards, the Moraga City council, etc as though failure to oversee Moraga Community Foundation for years of malfeasance was some sort of bad luck. I don’t think they need be pilloried but for the fact that they are still in positions of trusted responsibility. THAT is embarassing. That has Mayberry written all over it.
The “Chan Zuckerberg Initiative”. Has anyone seen the Social Network? Gotten your news from Facebook, have you? Rockefeller, Du Pont, Carnegie, Milken, Zuckerberg (mentioned only twice)…Plug your nose and take the money unless you are required to kiss the ring because if that is the deal, it is not a gift at all.