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  • Writer's pictureEpiscopal Charities
    • Nov 14, 2023
    • 10 min read

Weekly Resource Round-Up: November 14, 2023

This Week's Resources

If you have resources to share with our network, please contact Tobi Mojeed-Balogun our Associate Director of Programs Support.


NYS COVID and MonkeyPox Updates (Plus Info about the Flu, RSV, and Norovirus)


A lot of the news around mandates, vaccines and restrictions have been a little confusing so I will list some resources below that might help.

  • Interview with NYC Health Commissioner on COVID bump. Link here.

  • NYS Department of Health COVID website - It's a one stop shop with an info summary at the top. Link here.

  • NYC Department of Health Monkeypox Webpage - lots of information and resources about the virus with pictures of the rash included. Find the link here.

    • With Mpox at Risk of Flaring, Health Officials Advise, ‘Get Vaccinated’ - New York Times - Read here

  • COVID vs Flu vs RSV info - I found a good article from the Washington post that gives information about three viruses that have been spiking this winter. Read the article here.

  • The Time Magazine article on the new variant (XBB.1.5) - Link Here

  • US News and World Report article on newest variant (BA.2.86) - Link Here

  • COVID is back in NY. What to know about schools, nursing homes and more (lohud.) - link here

  • How to Keep Tabs on COVID Through Wastewater Testing in NYC (The City) - link here

Food As Medicine Summit: Treating Disease (Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center) [TOMORROW]


You're Invited
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
@ 9:30am - 1:30pm EST
FREE VIRTUAL EVENT
Registration Required
(Email Opt In)

In partnership with the Center for Food As Medicine


Introduction

Charles Platkin, Ph.D., JD, MPH, Founder and Executive Director, Center for Food as Medicine


Keynote

Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, MPH, Cardiologist, Dean and Jean Mayer Professor, Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and Professor of Medicine, Tufts Medical School, Director, Tufts Food is Medicine Institute


and more...



Scams pretending to be immigration agencies: How to protect yourself (Documented)


"Fraudulent emails and messages have circulated social media, masquerading as communications from federal immigration agencies, that falsely promise migrants legal representation for obtaining a Green Card in exchange for a small fee. Scammers specifically target Spanish-speaking, migrant New Yorkers who are in the process of adjusting their immigration status.

Rosa Santana, the Bond Director at Envision Fund, contacted Documented regarding scam messages circulating on Facebook and WhatsApp. The emails also falsely claim that failure to respond to the correspondence could result in a “negative report in the migration system,” making individuals “prone to deportation.”

Scam messages that target migrants are nothing new, as Documented reported in the past during the Excluded Workers Fund. However, these new scams exploit the necessity of migrants as they seek asylum in the United States. Here are some of the common scams targeting migrants with immigration cases and how to avoid them." Read the rest of the guide here.


Floyd Bennett Field shelter site opens in Brooklyn, but many migrants stay away (Gothamist)


"Too remote. Too far from schools. Unsatisfactory accommodations.

Those are just some of the reasons cited by migrants refusing to stay in newly opened shelter space at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, according to Council Member Joann Ariola and Assemblyperson Jaime R. Williams.

Some two dozen families totaling 100 people were expected to be brought to the shelter site on Sunday, according to a statement from Williams and Ariola, who represent the area. An untold number declined the accommodations in large temporary tents, for the cited reasons and others.

“It’s proven over this weekend that the migrants could see upon arrival that this was not a good place to house individuals,” Ariola, a Republican, said Monday." Read more here.


Participation in Parent Conferences Has Plunged 40% Since COVID Remote Meetings Began (The City)


"Remote parent-teacher conferences, a holdover from the height of the pandemic, continue to elicit mixed feelings among families and educators alike.

For some parents, these virtual meetings — which were enshrined in the most recent teachers union contract — have been a boon. They can Zoom with teachers during their work day. They no longer need child care to travel to and from schools for the meetings. For those with multiple kids, it can be easier to juggle meetings at different schools.

But just as remote learning exacerbated New York City’s gaping digital divide, these virtual meetings also leave out families with less tech access and those with language barriers. Faced with an array of teachers with different sign-up methods, joining the meetings can feel insurmountable to some." Read more here.


Help, Not Jail, Now Under Construction for People With Mental Illness (The City)


"After 10 years of advocacy, a residence for people with mental illness who would otherwise be incarcerated for felonies is finally on its way to The Bronx.

Hope House is officially breaking ground Tuesday in Crotona, promising to house 16 people at a time who have conditions such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. The Greenburger Center for Social and Criminal Justice, the nonprofit organization sponsoring the project, expects construction to be completed sometime in 2025.

“I want them to be able to leave Hope House and never come back to the criminal justice system again,” said Greenburger Center executive director Cheryl Roberts.

Roberts and Greenburger Center founder Francis Greenburger have nurtured the Hope House idea for years, despite obstacles including a federal ban on using Medicaid dollars for mental-health residences with more than 16 people." Read more here.


Anne Williams-Isom on life at the center of the storm (City & State NY)


"Inside midtown Manhattan’s grandly appointed Roosevelt Hotel – New York City’s central intake center for migrants – sit rows and rows of chairs. Lightly padded, a couple steps more comfortable than a plastic folding chair, they’re lined up under the chandelier in the hotel’s sprawling lobby. And on the deep red carpets of the oval-shaped Palm Room. And across from makeshift medical screening rooms in what once served as the main dining room.


Newly arrived migrants still recovering from often grueling journeys – many from Latin America, but also from Africa and the Caribbean – sit with napping kids in these chairs for hours, waiting to find out where they’ll sleep that night.


Once every couple weeks these days, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said she will come to the Roosevelt with politicians or a reporter. “I think we were doing such a good job of keeping everything really quiet, and decided that we had to make sure that people were seeing what’s going on,” she said recently, referring to the city’s massive response to the influx of migrants. On a tour in mid-October, Williams-Isom threaded through the rows of chairs, stray baby strollers and a toddler making a break toward a bar where snacks and drinks were available, to point out the intake center’s many functions. Contractors staffing the site take down information about newly arrived migrants, including where they ultimately want to go and whether they know anybody in the city who they can stay with. Medical screenings are conducted and vaccinations are provided. The north side of the city block-sized hotel functions as a shelter for families." Read more here.


Food Insecurity Is Getting Worse. What Can We Do About It? (Forbes)


"The U.S. Department of Agriculture just published its annual report on the state of household food security in the U.S. in 2022, and the situation is becoming worse than we imagined.



Last year, 12.8 percent of households—17 million households—reported being food-insecure. That’s higher than both 2021 (10.2 percent, or 13.5 million households) and 2020 (10.5 percent, of 13.8 million households).


Kids and marginalized communities were also more likely to experience food-insecurity last year, compared both to previous years and to the 2022 national average.


Of households with children, 17.3 percent experienced food insecurity. Sometimes, adults skip a meal or eat less to feed their children, but even still—in about half those households (8.8 percent), the kids themselves have low or very low food security. That number, too, is up from both 2020 and 2021." Read more here.


Johnson’s brewing SNAP crisis (Politico)


"Mike Johnson‘s new role as House speaker heightens the chances of a major political clash next year over one of the nation’s largest welfare programs and the government’s preeminent aid package for farmers and rural America.

The fallout is likely to reverberate in countless congressional races, not to mention President Joe Biden’s attempts to win back rural voters in the 2024 presidential race.


Johnson, more so than previous Speaker Kevin McCarthy, is a proponent of more hard-line GOP efforts to overhaul the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the country’s largest anti-hunger program that serves 41 million low-income Americans. As a senior member of the conservative-leaning Republican Study Committee, Johnson backed proposals to roll back food aid expansions under Biden and block states from exempting some work requirements for SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. In 2018, Johnson referred to SNAP as “our nation’s most broken and bloated welfare program.”" Read more here.


Safe Church Training


Safe Church is handled by the Diocesan Human Resources Department which can be reached at safechurchinfo@dioceseny.org. You can also call 917 414 0156.



Documented's Mental Health Resources for Immigrants in New York


"A list of organizations that provide free or low-cost mental health care services to immigrants in New York

It can be overwhelming to find mental health care services, so Documented compiled a list of organizations and groups that offer low cost options, accept Medicaid, or render free services to individuals who are seeking counseling.

Most of these locations provide services in English and Spanish. We recommend reaching out to the location for more information, as some of the prices for services given are based on the level of income. For emergencies always call 911.


You can also contact NYC Well for free, confidential crisis counseling, mental health, and substance misuse support, information, and referral. You can reach the toll-free helpline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by phone, text and online chat. Mental health professionals there can link you to the services you need. Phone: 888-692-9355 | (Espanol): 888-692-9355"



NYC migrant crisis: Where to volunteer and what to donate (Gothamist)


"Mayor Eric Adams has repeatedly urged New Yorkers to volunteer or donate to help ease the asylum-seeker crisis, but figuring out where to go to help or what items to give can be difficult.

For information on how New Yorkers can help, Gothamist spoke with the mayor's office as well as several organizers involved in daily efforts to aid migrants who have recently arrived in the city." Read more here.


Documented's Immigrant Resources and Job/Housing Discrimination Guides


"Documented has gathered all of the resources we can find to help immigrant New Yorkers. New links will be added and the following pages will be constantly updated. If you would like us to add information to this list or have questions, please reach out to us at info@documentedny.com."



"The New York City Human Rights Law is one of the most comprehensive anti-discrimination laws in the country, prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on race, color, religion/creed, age, national origin, immigration or citizenship status, gender (including sexual harassment), gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, military service, marital status and partnership status. As a newsroom that serves immigrant communities, Documented has written a comprehensive guide for immigrants."




Hudson Link Employer Toolkit


Our friends at Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison put together an employer toolkit for hiring formerly incarcerated people. Thank you to Sean Pica, Eldredge Blalock, Elisabeth Santiago, and the rest of the team at Hudson Link for this important resource. The toolkit can be found here. If you have any questions about hiring formerly incarcerated people, please contact Elisabeth Santiago from Hudson Link's Alumni Services at esantiago@hudsonlink.org.


Community Food Funders Newslink


Community Food Funders has opened up their newsletter to a wider audience (so not just food funders). "Each month, CFF compiles a newsletter with news, articles, reports, and events for those in our region interested in an equitable and sustainable food system." Highlights on this month's newsletter include:


  • Study: Food insecurity among households with children during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic - Understanding impacts of the COVID-19 pan­demic among households with children is neces­sary to design appropriate public health responses that protect food and nutrition security. The objec­tive of this research was to understand predictors of food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic among households with at least one child. Con­sistent with other data collected and analyzed dur­ing the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study contributes findings that emphasize the need for enhanced public health responses and emer­gency preparedness measures that protect food and nutrition security.

  • Food Forward NYC: 2-Year Progress Report - Food Forward NYC is the City’s first ever 10-year food policy plan, laying out an comprehensive policy framework to reach a more equitable, sustainable, and healthy food system by 2031. Food Forward NYC emphasizes the importance of equity and choice - enabling a food system where everyone should be able to access the food they want wherever they may want it. To enable this choice, we need to support both our food workers and our food businesses. To strengthen the sustainability and resiliency of our food system, we need to rethink our food infrastructure and deepen our connections with the region.

  • NY Healthy Food, Healthy Lives Match Program - This ioby match opportunity may be of interest to BIPOC-led organizations using grassroots fundraising approaches to support food justice work in New York State. For approved participants, donors are matched up to $1,000 and projects may access up to $5,000 in matching, until the program ends. Learn about eligibility requirements and share your idea.

  • Dyson Foundation Mini-Grant Program - The Dyson Foundation’s mini-grant program funds capacity-building projects that improve a nonprofit’s administrative, governance, or programmatic functions. Mini-grants enable nonprofit board, staff, and volunteer leaders to develop new skills through specific consultant-led capacity-building activities, or through conferences, seminars, and other relevant training opportunities. Mini-grants are available to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations and libraries in the Mid-Hudson Valley. Grants are available on a rolling basis.

I will continue to include highlights from each month's newsletter on our weekly resource round-ups but if you would like to subscribe yourself, the link is here. The link to last month's newsletter is here and their archive is here.


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That's all for this week -- thanks for all you do!


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