Dear Community Foundation Friends,
Snow is melting, calves dot the fields, and the sandhill cranes are sounding their haunting calls as they rest here on their northern migration. Spring unfolds in the valley, and I have good news for you.
The Community Emergency Response Fund just surpassed $2 million. The generosity of this community is astonishing. We’ve put the funding to work right away. Here are some highlights.
- The Community Foundation funded immediate hiring and training of nurses and administrative assistance for Teton County Health Department. As background, Teton County Health Department put out notice that they need additional help for COVID-19 epidemiology and contact tracing. While our community is expressing an urgent desire for testing, we must first reinforce Public Health staff, as they are the ones who process the outcomes of tests. Each positive test result requires a Public Health nurse to interview the patient, retrace their contact history, provide isolation standards and resources for getting them the basics while they isolate, and then follow up for 14 days with temperature checks and advice. Additionally, a Public Health nurse calls each person in the patient’s contact history and sets up isolation and monitoring for symptoms. Some contacts will present symptoms and additional nursing time is needed to trace their connections in the same manner. For each patient and contact, the Health Department fills out forms – for the County and for the State – coordinating with the hospital and the Wyoming Department of Health. With your support, we are preparing Teton County Health Department for wide-scale patient management through this grant.
- One22 received additional funds from the Community Foundation to support their operations while they process more than 1,400 applications for economic assistance from individual community members. One22 has begun their 22Helps campaign to raise funding for individuals as the crisis continues. Our Response Fund provides foundational support for their office while they assist individuals.
- The Emergency Response Fund is supporting KHOL 89.1 as they expand their broadcasting of COVID-19 information in Spanish. With a Spanish-speaking reporter, our Latinx community will be up-to-date on County numbers, regulations, and information on how to stay healthy.
WORKSHOPS FOR NONPROFITS
We held three COVID-19 Response workshops for our nonprofit partners this week, and 200 people attended. Presenters – Kari Anderson, Karen Coleman and Gary Trauner - focused the workshops on managing finances, communication outreach, and setting strategy so that our nonprofits continue to function.
COORDINATED COMMUNICATIONS
On the communications front, we continue working closely with our partners at the Teton County Health Department, Town of Jackson, Teton County Emergency Management, Teton County Government, and St. John’s Health to coordinate public messaging and ads about COVID-19. This unified approach helps to ensure that all agencies are providing consistent messaging across the entire community.
HELPING THE HOLE COMMUNITY
As the number of COVID-19 cases increases in Teton County so does the need in our community. In an effort to increase awareness of and giving to our Community Emergency Response Fund, we began rolling out our “Helping the Hole Community” campaign this week. The campaign will consist of video testimonials from our nonprofit grantees, infographics (see below), and ads illustrating the Fund’s positive impact on the entire community during these difficult times.
We are grateful for gifts of any size to the Community Emergency Response Fund. We promise to put your dollars to work where there is immediate need.
April is another month when we miss our physical gatherings. If you have a special day that you celebrate or honor, let it be filled with sunlight and all the hope that springtime brings. Stay healthy.
Warm regards,
Laurie Andrews
President, Community Foundation of Jackson Hole
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