It Takes a Village, by Cindy Pasko Executive Director of The Living Room
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” Well, he should have seen what we are going through right now! He would have been thrilled for the opportunities!
On March 16, we closed our campus after receiving the news of the COVID-19 shelter in place order for Sonoma County. We fed our participants, cleaned up, and released the staff to go to their homes. Later that same day we began to receive emails that over 100 of our volunteers would also be sheltering in place indefinitely. Difficulty.
It was clear that even though the County deems us an “essential service” we could not operate our campus, the 20+ programs and our food service with only our staff. It was also crystal-clear that we would not be allowed to open our campus for onsite service. More difficulties.
Over the next week a lot of time was spent checking-in with the Health Department, Sonoma County and City of Santa Rosa staff, other local agencies (who were either closed or short staffed themselves) and monitoring the quickly changing CDC and federal guidelines. The quandary was in trying to figure out how to be able to operate and still keep staff, volunteers and our participants safe. During that week, with the staff still at home, I participated in a brisk bartering system with other nonprofits. We were able to share food, masks, hand sanitizer, and diapers, clothes, and other items. Whoever had, gave, and we all benefitted. Those newly forged or renewed relationships have developed into true partnerships. Opportunity!
By March 28, most of the staff had returned to work, and within a week we created a new method of service. We got to work completely tearing our campus apart in order to reimagine ourselves and be able to serve hungry, frightened people from out of our front building windows. Together we worked out each obstacle and on April 6, we began to serve two hot meals (a breakfast burrito and a hot lunch), pet food, care kits, mail, limited clothing and supplies. Because many agencies were either closed or limiting service, we realized we could not give food and supplies to hungry women and then turn hungry men away. Therefore, we decided to serve anyone who came to our windows! We are still doing that. Opportunity!
Since this began, we have had to cancel every fundraiser we had on the books. However, many donors have stepped into the gap with donations to help make up the difference and we are looking at ways to reimagine our fundraising events. Opportunity!
In the midst of this unbelievable set of COVID-19 difficulties, we have taken the opportunities wherever we have found them. We have expanded what we are doing and we have many ideas for expanding our services even further. Here are a just a few ideas that look towards the future.
- Opening a food distribution pantry for people who have the ability to prepare food, but are having food insecurity issues
- Opening a Living Room Thrift Shop. This would serve two purposes.
- To give us a place to send participants in need of clothing using a voucher system
- Provide a revenue stream
- Reopening our onsite shower and laundry services to women and children by appointment
- Holding limited classes, groups and counseling in our outdoor areas so that social distancing can be observed
- Hosting a job fair for our participants. It becomes very hard to get a job if you do not have an address, we are looking at ways to circumvent that obstacle and help more people get their feet back underneath them.
It is clear that The Living Room will not ever be exactly the way it was before COVID. The good news is that we are currently serving more people than we did before. The harder news is that there are more people in need of help, and it will likely get worse before it gets better. We have gained new partners and new opportunities to keep serving women and children. We will simply need to do it a different way. Opportunity!
We believe we have a clear way to proceed and reopen the campus in a limited way. Our outreach and depth of services will only increase. Social distancing and COVID-19 safety protocols will guide what we do and how we do it. I hope that you join us as we continue mining the economic and health concerns we are facing for some truly amazing possibilities - for ourselves, The Living Room, and our neighbors!