Saludos,
On behalf of the CivicLab I offer my deep gratitude and blessings to the healthcare workers, janitors, emergency responders, transportation workers and all essential and non essential staff who are on the front lines combating COVID19 and saving lives. I also offer my sincere condolences and prayers from our CivcLab family to all of yours who have lost loved ones during these troubles.
As you work to keep yourself and your loved ones healthy, in good spirits and safe in your domicile we at The CivicLab, are focused on ensuring our communities remain safe and secure. Our Black and Brown and undocumented immigrants are among those hardest hit by COVID-19. We know, according to the South Side Weekly COVID19 Chicago Neighborhoods Tracker, Black, Brown and Asian people combined make up 88.1% of the COVID19 deaths in Chicago as of April 23rd, with Black people making up the majority of those deaths at a staggering 54.74%.
We also know that one of our greatest weapons to combat COVID19 and the historical inequities that are exasperated by COVID19 is to immediately release the $1.2 Billion in TIF funds (see www.endtifsnow) and fund The People’s Response to COVID19 (see https://tinyurl.com/Peoples-COVID-Response-Demands) and move those funds to the streets to provide PPE and emergency supplies to our most hardest hit neighborhoods immediately. This will save lives!
We are providing the current relief options and how they might apply to you, please visit us at https://www.civiclab.us/mutual-aid/
We’re are also here to help you navigate these challenging situations you face. I
And we need everyone to be counted. While you’re social distancing or working from home, please fill out your 2020 Census form. Completing the 2020 Census is huge win-win for all of Chicago and Illinois. Make Us Count! Go to my2020census.gov today.
Stay Woke. Stay Home and Take Care of yourself and your loved ones. We will make it through this global pandemic together and we shall overcome all barriers to justice and equity.
A Luta Continua!
Jonathan Thanh Danh Peck
President & CEO, CivicLab
COVID19 RESOURCES
- Chicago Coronavirus Response Center – LEARN MORE HERE
- State of Illinois Coronavirus ResponseLEARN MORE HERE
- For Business and Employers
- Loan Applications Open for Chicago Small Business Resiliency Fund LEARN MORE & APPLY HERE
- SBA Loans for Small Business LEARN MORE & APPLY HEREFacebook Small Business Grants Program APPLY HERE
- Illinois Small Business Grants & Loans APPLY HERE
- For Non Profit Organizations
- Fund for Local Non-Profit Organizations LEARN MOREAPPLY HERE
- Crossroads Fund Critical Response Fund APPLY HERE
- Groundswell’s Rapid Response Fund APPLY HERE
- For Self-Employed
- For Self Employed and Independent Contractors LEARN MORE & APPLY HERE
- For EmployeesUnemployment Insurance LEARN MORE & APPLY HERE
- ROC United Restaurant Workers Disaster Relief Fund LEARN MORE & APPLY HERE
Resources & Opportunities: Grants, legal clinics, and other aid
- Black Lives Matter master list of resources
Taking Action: Ways to get involved in supporting our communities
Finding Inspiration: Tools to help us keep us grounded in this time
Resources & Opportunities
– City Bureau COVID Resource Finder: Navigate through hundreds of resources in multiple languages.
– Community Organizing: Technology Funders Collaborative – Grant: As community organizing shifts to a digital world, local funders are offering rapid response funding to support technology and develop innovative organizing strategies to organizations with budgets of up to $750,000. Grants will be issued on a rolling basis, within 10 working days of receiving the request. Learn more here.
– The Field Foundation Letter of Inquiry deadline May 15th, 2020: Please reach out to a Field program officer with your questions and ideas between now and then. FREE virtual brief service and legal advice clinic: Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights is partnering with member law firms to offer this service to small businesses and nonprofits who have suffered adversely from the impact of the COVID-19. Request an appointment to receive free legal advice during a 30-minute remote consultation with a volunteer attorney.
Taking Action:
– Share Multilingual COVID Messages: With the help of talented translators in our network, we have been able to translate the works of artists Natalie González, Arabella Breck, and Bianca Xunise into 10 languages spoken in Chicago: English, Spanish, Farsi, Mixteco Alto, Tagalog, Hindi, Chinese, Urdu Polish, Zapotec and Punjabi. Check them out!
– Donate to Cash Relief Fund: If you are able to support others in this time, please make a donation to the FII #GiveTogetherNow campaign.
– Volunteer with Local Mutual Aid Groups: Join volunteer teams for mutual aid groups in Greater Bridgeport/Chinatown, Rogers Park, and Bronzeville.
– Finding InspirationTOOL:
- Equity in Local Funding: As more local funds and mutual aid networks are set up, it’s important to ground our rapid response in core principles of equity. If you’re working to set up local funding support, read this first.
- ESSAY: “We Don’t Have to Prove Our American-ness”: Reflections from Andy Kang on respectability politics, fighting anti-Asian American rhetoric in a time of pandemic, and building a multiracial coalition for racial justice.
- PANEL: Understanding the Coronavirus Pandemic Through the Lens of Racial and Social Justice – Join the Chicago Torture Justice Center, Organized Communities Against Deportations, Alderwomen Rossana Rodriguez and Jeanette Taylor, and President of the American Public Health Association Dr. Linda Rae Murray for a virtual panel on Thursday, April 23rd from 11 am – 12 pm.
- INTERVIEW: How should abolitionists respond to the coronavirus pandemic? Watch Ruth Wilson Gilmore in a conversation about Covid-19 and decarceration.