EAST PALO ALTO, Calif.,
May 27, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/
-- Today, community leaders and three Silicon Valley-based
nonprofits announce the launch of #FirstOfTheMonth – a joint
campaign to provide direct rent relief to local working-class
families who've lost their jobs and are now at risk of losing their
homes due to COVID-19 fallout.
#FirstOfTheMonth aims to raise at least $2 million in order to stabilize 300 or more
families. Donations are being collected at liveinpeace.org and
distributed through direct mutual aid – meaning families receive
funds within 48 hours. Recipients of #FirstOfTheMonth rent relief
are identified and carefully vetted by community leaders of the
three nonprofits – Dreamers Roadmap, Kafenia Peace Collective, and
Live In Peace.
"Growing up here we were always supported by others and now it's
my turn to give back, I was once in their shoes and I know how it
feels to be trusted and helped. Asking for help is not easy, even
in these times," said Dreamers RoadMap Founder Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca. "So when we found
that our community members were in dire need, we moved quickly to
provide them as much help as we could. This is how we show our love
for our community."
When shelter-in-place led to countless job losses in the service
industry, affected community members and local nonprofit leaders
quickly organized to help stabilize their neighbors who continue to
be devastated by COVID-19 fallout. In late April, #FirstOfTheMonth
started with a soft launch and goal of raising $1 million to assist 150 families with rent
payments for three months.
Weeks before officially launching, the campaign met its initial
goal, thanks to the generosity of New Story, a nonprofit focused on
pioneering solutions to end global homelessness, and over 300
individual donors and tech leaders – including Joelle Emerson and Aaron
Levie, Eric S. Yuan, and
Jack Dorsey's #startsmall
initiative.
"I believe it is important to contribute to our neighbors who
need the most help right now so their lives can remain safe and
stable," said Eric S. Yuan, CEO of
Zoom. "I am honored to give to #FirstOfTheMonth's rent relief
campaign in order to make sure that hard working local families
don't lose basic necessities like housing during this crisis."
An initial round of rent relief was distributed directly to 187
families' landlords on May 1, 2020.
The new $2 million goal means that at
least 300 families can be stabilized through the end of July,
preventing hundreds of children and their parents from losing their
homes. To encourage support from as many neighbors as possible, a
generous anonymous donor will match individual donations under
$1,000 through May, up to a maximum
of $100,000.
"Protecting those hit hardest by COVID-19 takes a village of
small and large donors," said Live In Peace Executive Director
Heather Starnes-Logwood. "We were
overwhelmed by the need, and the desire to help from nonprofits,
neighbors and tech leaders who mobilized to be a part of the
solution."
The campaign is officially launching this week via Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter – utilizing the same grassroots efforts that
the three nonprofits have come to rely on.
"We don't want a single neighbor to lose their home, community,
or school because of COVID-19, and with your help, we can make sure
that's true," said Mary Jane Marcus,
founder of Kafenia Peace Collective.
Images and interviews are currently available with
#FirstOfTheMonth nonprofit leaders, several donors and local
families aided by the campaign.
About #FirstOfTheMonth Nonprofit Organizers:
Live In Peace
Live In Peace's mission is to empower our youth and young adults to
reclaim the vision for their future. We accomplish this through a
highly relational model that connects young people to their
talents, educational pathways, jobs, and a bright future. We have
four programs: SWAG, Gap-Year Project, College Initiative, and The
Bike Shop, and many of our students are able to take advantage of
many or all of our programs as they provide wrap-around support at
all stages of young adults' lives. Our programs combine our
intuitive nature and systemic understanding to create powerful and
effective programs with long-term impact. Our programs focus on
youth and young adults that are not served by other programs and
partners, and those identified by their high schools as the most
at-risk for dropping out. We mentor, counsel, tutor, coach,
advocate, fund, and serve in the role of anything that a strong
community should do on behalf of its youth.
Dreamers Roadmap
Dreamers Roadmap is a free national mobile app that helps
undocumented students find scholarships to go to college. For years
undocumented students have struggled more than permanent residents
or citizen students in everyday situations. But when senior year of
high school comes around, it becomes one of the hardest years for
an undocumented student. This is the year when most students find
out that they don't qualify for FAFSA and the majority of
scholarships. First because they don't have a social security
number and second because they are not "legal" permanent residents
or citizens of the United States.
Many students by this point are discouraged and don't believe that
going to college is a possibility. That's why Dreamer's Roadmap is
very proud to provide them resources that they do qualify for
through the Dreamer's Roadmap App.
Kafenia Peace Collective
Kafenia Peace Collective offers welcome, refuge, and real human
connection in an ever more virtual world. We're a network of
neighbors from all over the world who organize gatherings and
projects that bridge our diverse backgrounds and celebrate our
common humanity. The Kafenia name comes from the village Kafenio in
Greece where men shared food,
friendship, social and political life together. The "A" signifies a
feminine, multicultural reimagining of this old tradition. Join us
in building a more humane and interconnected Silicon Valley and
world, what we call "A Village of All Together."
SOURCE #FirstOfTheMonth