Dear All,
For months, 11 weeks and 4 days exactly, we have been privileged to serve our community with a full staff and the commitment to deliver all we could to every one of our members - including those who became financially stressed during the nightmare called Covid-19.
We established an emergency fund as our income streams, one by one, fell short or disappeared. We doubled down on building our Community Needs Bank as more and more people in our community and beyond our community reached out for food and personal care products for their families. Our Social Workers went into immediate action to care for those in distress. And finally, we launched over
100 virtual programs
every week for every age and every stage of life to connect to us and to each other for the simple joy and integral need of human interaction.
Click here
for a complete list of what’s available this week.
Our ability to support all of our staff came through the vision of our Board that wanted to assure our footing and the Congressional Paycheck Protection Program, (PPP), that was originally designed to keep our staff fully employed and our financial situation above water - all while our sources of income declined. The PPP loan was based on the theory that within eight weeks, all would be right with the world and our traditional income streams and fee based programs would all return. But as you know, that is not the case. As PPP support comes to an end, Congress is on the verge of rearranging its terms. For us, it means that we must furlough staff who cannot work while our building is closed. This is a temporary measure, intended to last until we reopen our building and can safely re-establish these positions.
Affected staff will be furloughed as of today, June 1. Remaining staff have been reassigned to ensure all essential services and virtual programs continue to run without interruption and remain high quality. While scaled down in some areas, vital programs will continue as usual until our doors reopen. If our calculations are correct, we will be entitled to reopen in Phase 4 and we are readying our building in accordance with every health and safety measure allowable. Our hope is to reopen in mid-July, dependent on Long Island’s ability to meet the requirements set by New York State. Until then, please continue to
visit our virtual schedule
, to take part in all our community has to offer and to stay connected.
As with every national or local crisis, we have risen to every occasion and reinforced our ability to serve our community with everything we’ve got. That holds true today. While we may contract to preserve our ability to serve, we intend to meet the needs of our community in the weeks and months ahead. There is light around the corner.
