Hello friends,
I pray that each of you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. This historical time that we are currently living in has been such a roller coaster of emotions. We are seeing the horrible impact of the virus, yet we also see the common unity, or Community, working together to help us all get through this.
I felt compelled to give each of you, as financial supporters, a quick update on how ENP has shifted our work since March 13th when schools announced they would close due to COVID19.
I was actually at one of our schools that Friday afternoon when the principal gathered all the teachers and let them know they would be closing for at least a month. I quickly texted Bob Nelson, our Superintendent of Fresno Unified and asked him how ENP could assist with meals, online activities and such to support our families. I then reached out to the Mayor’s office as well as with Ashley Swearengin at the Community Foundation.
A COVID19 taskforce was quickly created so we could gather various organizations to 1) discuss how to best work along-side our schools and other institutions, 2) start the process of creating a mapping of distribution hubs and 3) discern how to best gather accurate information and get it to our families.
ENP took the lead on distribution hubs as well as using our existing city-wide map of relational connections to keep a pulse of how our families and kids were actually doing in the neighborhoods. We continue to lead in these two areas.
Since March 13th, here are some ways our ENP staff have used their creative minds to recalibrate how we serve our community
- We’ve called all our local senior living centers to see how they may need assistance
- Started the process of building a website to map all of our various distribution hubs
- Created virtual fitness classes with our resident Latin Dance Instructors so families could exercise at home
- Created large book sorting hubs at two large churches so we can get both kids and adult age books to communities all over Fresno County. We’ve already sent out over 10,000 books to date, our goal is 150,000 by June.
- Our Literacy team continue to make fun activities for our residents to use to engage with their kids while school is out.
- All our teams are creating virtual trainings on how volunteer teams can continue to learn and grow during this season when they can’t engage face to face with our families.
- We are working closely with our Churches to both serve and pray for our community
- ENP plays the role of product “middle man” when businesses or institutions have items they would like to get to families and we leverage our neighborhood network to get these products to those with the greatest need.
So as you see, we continue to serve, it just looks a little different.
ENP has built a lot of social capital over the last 12 years, we are now cashing in our chips to build upon our mobilization of servants for the health of our community. And rest assured, we are working closely with the Department of Public Health to maintain safe ways of service so everyone involved stays healthy.
Please join us on a special Donor Zoom Call on Thursday, April 16th at 12pm.
Use the following link (https://fresno.zoom.us/j/91999703004) or click below to add it to your calendar.
Leave a Reply