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Happy New Year from Ryan and the Relief Corps LA team! We are holding on to new beginnings, even in the midst of so much grief & pain of the last 10 months.
Relief Corps LA was the focus of our work in the first half of 2020. However, when LA County decided they did not have the political will or the funds to scale contact tracing through partner organizations (like us), we made the decision to focus on long-term justice issues. Incorporating our nonprofit as Kairos Community Ventures (KCV), of which Relief Corps LA is a program, and getting 501(c)3 status was a huge part of it! Please visit our long term efforts underway: KCV Website & our Racial Justice & Economic Justice initiatives. However, due to the recent surge, we have turned back to the “both and” of long-term and immediate relief. Hospitals are overwhelmed. Food pantries and food banks are overwhelmed. The largest mutual aid network in Los Angeles (neighbors helping neighbors), Mutual Aid LA, has temporarily stopped receiving requests because they are overwhelmed and cannot keep up with the needs. We believe that Relief Corps LA (and KCV) can make a big impact! Ryan’s wife, Teresa, a physician at a hospital in northeast Los Angeles, shared a Facebook post about her most recent, heartbreaking week in the hospital. Her post gives some texture and emotion to the situation that many of us cannot see or experience first hand.
Would you consider giving what you can, in coin, time, or presence? Giving what we are able, as small as it might feel, is the only way we can collectively overcome the great challenge before us and truly care for each other!
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