COVID-19 Special Edition: two months that changed the world
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This newsletter originally was to be a celebration of Trident United Way's 75th anniversary. This section was supposed to feature pictures from a celebration to honor our longtime donors, volunteers, board members,
our collective achievements and renew our commitment for the next 75 years and beyond.
Then, COVID-19 came and changed all of our lives. While we are thankful for 75 amazing years, now is the time we must all roll up our sleeves and refocus our efforts on doing what Trident United Way does best:
UNITING our community to improve lives.
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How you're making a difference
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In the past month, Trident United Way has funded 20 partner agencies in four phases totaling $246,000. These funds are helping more than 4,300 families with food, housing, utility assistance and basic needs.
The tough reality is the needs are still out there. Partner agencies requests exceed $500,000.
Please do what you can and help support this very worthy cause. For 75 years, Trident United Way and the people of the Tri-County have stepped up to any challenge. This may be one of our biggest yet, but UNITED, we are ready to serve!
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See your support in action
In early April, we partnered with The Lowcountry Food Bank to hold a "fresh for all" food giveaway event in Summerville.
The event had been in the works prior to the COVID-19 crisis. Participants received a box of fresh veggies and fruit to promote healthy eating habits.
How great is the need? People lined up two hours before the start of the event. Click below to see a video from the event.
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Volunteers make a huge difference across several areas for Trident United Way, including education. We recently celebrated "Volunteer Appreciation Week" to thank those who make a big difference in our community.
There's not enough room in this newsletter or our website to talk about all of our volunteers, so we picked three superstars, Michelle Dame, Monifa Ellington and Will Hopkins.
Click here
to read more about them.
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Share your expertise
Since so many people are working virtual right now, we thought it's a great time to learn from each other.
We're looking for volunteers to host a series of 30 minute to 1-hour free virtual webinars, each focused on answering direct needs of the Tri-County area
.
Are you an expert in finances, personal development, resume building or other areas to help others? Please share your skills and email
volunteer@tuw.org to join the team!
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Be part of Day of Action - Friday June 19
June 19 is Day of Action, a global day of service where United Ways from across the world do community service projects. TUW will be helping area senior citizens by assembling and delivering care kits and engaging with them in unique ways during the current health situation.
If you or your team are interested in participating in Day of Action please email
volunteer@tuw.org
.
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Leveraging grants to help
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The COVID-19 crisis has broadened our use of the Duke Endowment Healthy People, Healthy Carolinas (HPHC) grant which promotes healthy eating, active living and chronic disease prevention.
The Endowment recently gave us permission to help with COVID-19 response efforts. We will be coordinating disbursing $25,000 to food pantries, including giveaways across the Tri-County.
This past weekend we assisted with a fresh food giveaway in Cordesville and we're planning to help Tricounty Family Ministries for an event in the Chicora area. Each of these events cost around $3,000 and we hope to sponsor eight events through June.
Access to nutritious food is one of the biggest contributors toward preventing obesity and other chronic diseases. Underscoring this point is the fact COVID-19 deaths have heavily affected patients with existing chronic conditions or who are obese.
HPHC acts as a catalyst and driver of
Healthy Tri-County’s Obesity, Nutrition, and Physical Activity priority area which was established as a top need in our community in our last two Community Health Needs Assessments.
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UNITED to battle COVID-19
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These past two months have shown the strength of our community as we've banded together to help those who were blindsided by this invisible enemy known as COVID-19.
You've stepped up to donate to our
COVID-19 Response Fund, and it's making a huge difference. I wanted to share two stories we've received from partners who are on the front lines of this battle.
- A single mother in rural Charleston County needed assistance with a past due utility bill and her mortgage. She worked in a nonessential business and had been out of work since early March. Living check to check to make ends meet, she is responsible for the care of her two young children and disabled grandmother. Because of TUW funding, we were able to fully cover her past-due mortgage payment and referred her to a community partner where she had her other needs met.
- A self-employed man in Berkeley County applied for rental assistance through the Humanities Foundation ShelterNet. Unable to operate his business amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he fell behind on his rent. He had not heard back from unemployment and didn't receive his federal stimulus check yet. He was connected with 211 for an emergency SNAP application and was referred to a local food pantry. ShelterNet provided one full month of past-due rent. He has since visited the food pantry and submitted a SNAP application.
We'll be sharing these stories throughout our COVID-19 response and recovery efforts. With our dedicated partners, together we're making a difference one person at a time. It may take a while, but together we'll get through this. Together, we are UNITED for the Tri-County.
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We've been in the news a lot lately. Click the links below for recent highlights.
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