United Way of Northern Arizona COVID-19 Fund Reaching the Overlooked & Underserved

When we started the COVID-19 Fund back in March, our goal was to quickly turn your donations into support for local organizations meeting the basic needs of our residents during this unprecedented time. Our expertise means we can cut down on the ‘red tape’ and rapidly get money to agencies that are highly skilled at meeting this moment.

Your generosity has allowed us to distribute almost $400,000 to local nonprofits including food banks, child care providers and homeless shelters. Often, your gifts have helped communities and populations that are overlooked or underserved.

In the case of a recent $22,000 grant to the Northern Arizona Volunteer Medical Corps, that meant providing personal protective equipment (PPE) to tribal communities, which have been among the hardest hit areas during this pandemic.

NAVMC is better know for its work bringing teams of volunteers to places like Haiti and rural Bolivia to provide medical and surgical services. But it is active in northern Arizona as well, addressing food insecurity, managing blood drives and, most recently, arranging for the production of reuseable PPE for health facilities. The grant from the UWNA COVID-19 Fund allowed for the manufacture of 1,000 reusable isolation gowns for tribal health centers, protecting both front-line healthcare workers as well as their patients.

Meanwhile, the First Congregational Church Flagstaff, which calls itself “the little church with a big heart,” turned its attention to a community often overlooked in this crisis – local immigrant families, particularly those with undocumented family members.

Unable to receive federal stimulus support, unemployment insurance and most public-welfare benefits because of their status, many of these families are in crisis with limited resources available to them. Many work in our local hospitality industry, meaning they have either lost their jobs or had their hours cut dramatically because of COVID-19.

Partnering with El Pueblo de Flagstaff, the church, part of the United Church of Christ, has provided one-time grants of $500 to immigrant individuals and families. The UWNA COVID-19 Fund gave the program $25,000 or enough for 50 grants.

With our partners and fueled by your generosity, UWNA is continuing the work of transforming donations into solutions as we collectively deal with this crisis and the economic recovery to come.

If you can, please consider a donation to the COVID-19 Fund today.