In response to the COVID-19 crisis, we (funding partners) are establishing a cross-sector, community wide COVID-19 Response Fund of the Greater Evansville Region, primarily Gibson, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh and Warrick Counties. This response is designed to serve the community through the relief, recovery, and restoration phases typical of large-scale crises to catalyze hope in a time that perpetuates hopelessness and isolation.
All partners involved agree that the current priority is to ensure responsiveness in the human services sector so that individuals and families in need are supported during this pandemic, especially vulnerable and at-risk populations. Specifically, the Fund will seek to:
*Advance tactics that provide gap support (not duplicated by Federal programs) to those who are asset-limited, income-constrained and may be temporarily unemployed (ALICE)
*Sustain critical operations and levels of service that meet the basic needs of the vulnerable, at-risk, health care workers, and first responders (e.g., food, shelter and childcare)
*Support temporary staffing or volunteer mobilization efforts in response to loss of the volunteer base critical to essential social services
*Encourage and champion a movement of neighbors caring for neighbors
The purposes* are focused on short term relief. Criteria for the recovery and restoration phases will be determined as needs and opportunities emerge in the coming months.
The founding fund partners invite the broader community to contribute to the COVID-19 Crisis Response Fund as a primary and strategic vehicle designed to meet our community’s needs in the short, mid, and long term (18 month horizon).
The Fund was launched on Friday 3/27/20 with over $1,000,000.00 committed by individual donors and initial partners. These first gifts are intended to be catalytic in creating confidence that this is a strategic united effort across multiple sectors of our community.
As the fiscal sponsor, United Way of Southwestern Indiana will accept these funds free of administrative costs and work in connection with the fund committee to seek donations in the weeks ahead. Any unused funds will be used to establish a future community crisis response fund.
Fund Advisory and Allocation Committees with members from broad-reaching, representative organizations and leaders across the region will be formed to work to identify organizations to which the fund will make initial contributions. The committee will make timely and informed grant-making decisions and we expect that there will be multiple rounds of investment based on evolving needs over time. Organizations receiving grants will be required to report on use of the monies granted. We are hoping to launch the application for organizations on Friday, April 3. Please click here for more information about the application.
Committee Members:
Crisis Response Fund Allocations Committee
Crisis Response Fund Advisory Committee
For questions regarding the COVID-19 Crisis Response Fund of Greater Evansville Region, please contact Amy Canterbury at United Way of Southwestern Indiana (acanterbury@unitedwayswi.org) or Pat Creech at Welborn Baptist Foundation (pcreech@welbornfdn.org).
WEBSITE: http://unitedwayswi.org/covid-19-crisis-response-fund-of-the-greater-evansville-region/#
