New round of pandemic relief from SNF continues wide-ranging assistance (video)

A new round of more than $6.9 million in SNF’s $100 million global COVID-19 relief initiative brings a total allocated to $88.8 million.

As global vaccination efforts and new variants of the virus continuously shift the landscape of the pandemic, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) continues to focus on meeting urgent needs for vulnerable populations in a way that also lays the groundwork for recovery through its $100 million global COVID-19 relief initiative. In this sixth round of grants, 32 grants total more than $6.9 million and bring the overall total allocated through the initiative so far to $88.8 million. The new grants aim to help keep kids’ education on track, combat elevated food insecurity, make quality health care accessible in remote settings, provide access to clean water, and more.

“One year ago, we could not have predicted where we would find ourselves now,” said SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos. “What the next months hold will be determined in large part by leadership across sectors, and these organizations demonstrate a critical type of leadership: leading by action. SNF is proud to partner with organizations trusted in their communities to help meet the needs of the most vulnerable.”

As it has been since the start of the pandemic, food insecurity remains a dire and growing need, including in communities across the United States. A flexible $3 million grant to Feeding America will let the organization direct resources to the places in the country they are needed most, through its network of hundreds of food banks and tens of thousands of partner organizations.

UNITED STATES

Helping to ensure that students don’t miss out

From the country’s largest city to rural areas, grants support educators and mentors in helping young people achieve their full potential, in spite of the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Summer Search New York City, New York: A renewal grant continues support for full-time mentors for hundreds of high school students as they navigate the academic and personal dimensions of the crisis

George Jackson Academy, New York: Supplying laptops, headphones, robotics kits, and software to enable effective remote education for middle school boys from low-income families

DonorsChoose, United States: A second campaign supported by SNF will double donations through the DonorsChoose platform to provide classroom essentials at schools in rural districts

Advocates for Children of New York Inc., New York: Providing individualized assistance and informational outreach to help ensure that students from marginalized populations, including low-income students with disabilities, students living in shelter or foster care, and English language learners, can continue to participate in school despite pandemic disruptions

Community-based support for food and more

Localized support, though organizations known and trusted in their communities, will aid in meeting essential needs like food security, shelter, and employment.

World Central Kitchen, Central California: Employing local restaurants to provide more than 45,000 meals to rural farmworker communities, helping fight food insecurity while guaranteeing income for small restaurant businesses and their employees

The Alaska Community Foundation, Alaska: Supporting the work of frontline nonprofits addressing needs created by the pandemic and offering direct support to families in need through the AK Can Do Fund 

Neighbors Together, New York: Addressing sharply increased needs in Brooklyn’s Ocean Hill, Brownsville, and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods by serving hundreds of nutritious hot meals each day and offering an Empowerment Program providing a range of services, from eviction prevention assistance to job training referrals

Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center, New York: Building on a previous grant by helping restart a community kitchen that will serve thousands of meals weekly while employing restaurant workers who have lost jobs due to shutdowns, as well as recent graduates of the Center’s workforce development program

New York Restoration Project, New York: Enhancing and expanding the capacity of the organization’s community gardens, in turn increasing the amount of produce they share with thousands of New Yorkers and local service providers

New York Immigration Coalition, New York: Following on an initial grant that created multilingual resources to help immigrant-owned small businesses respond to COVID-19 and access relief, this new grant will allow the organization to re-grant funds to community-based member organizations operating food pantries and mutual aid programs, helping meet food needs for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers

The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, New York: Giving direct assistance to vulnerable populations through ten social service organizations, including Brooklyn Community Services, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, Children’s Aid, Community Service Society, First Book, the International Rescue Committee, The New York Community Trust, and UJA-Federation of New York

Feeding America, United States: Combatting food insecurity across the country by directing resources to the local partner organizations that are most in need 

The Partnership for the Homeless, New York: Working to help keep New Yorkers at risk of homelessness in their homes through cash assistance, benefits referrals, and landlord mediation

Bowery Mission, New York: Providing a welcoming, trauma-informed basic services and emergency care to hundreds of people experiencing homelessness each day, including shelter, showers, meals, clothing, and hygiene products

Henry Street Settlement, New York: Re-upping SNF support, a new grant supports the organization in offering thousands of meals a week, a helpline, emergency cash assistance, mental health services, and an emergency job corps on Manhattan’s Lower East Side

Care at home and across America

Grants seek to provide free health care to people who would otherwise lack access while also looking to the needs of those providing care at home.

Remote Area Medical, United States: Providing quality free health care to people in need who otherwise lack access through pop-up clinics offering medical, dental, and vision care

Family Caregiver Alliance, United States: Scaling up a digital database and adding staff to refer more caregivers to resources that can improve quality of life for them and the people they care for at home

Relief for artists and through the arts

Grants recognize the essential role of the arts, especially during the pandemic, offering emergency relief to artists and helping important stories reach the public.

Playwrights Horizons, New York: Offering $1,000 emergency relief grants to more than 130 individual theater practitioners through The Artists’ Relief Fund

Gibney, New York: Offering holistic emergency relief to the dance community through the organization’s Rebuilding Blocks initiative

The Moth, New York: Employing storytelling as a path to collective mental health and community wellbeing by engaging experts in these areas, and as a means to amplify the voices of the marginalized groups hit hardest by the pandemic

The Field, New York: Offering a suite of tools and services—Vision Plan: Life Preparedness for Artists—to help artists build financial stability, develop professionally, and thrive personally

EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST

Greece

From Thessaloniki in the north to Crete in the south and in Athens in between, grants in Greece help marginalized populations access essential services and support families with children undergoing cancer treatment.

ARSIS, Thessaloniki: Delivering services and referrals to help vulnerable populations access key social services and public benefits, along with other primary health care and mental health resources 

Faros, Athens: Supporting unaccompanied refugee children experiencing homelessness through a drop-in center and street work to help them meet basic needs like food, hygiene items, and protected accommodation and access psychosocial services, sports activities, and educational programming

Iliahtida, Crete: Using the expertise of a staff psychologist and social worker to aid in the organization’s core mission of providing free accommodation and psychological support to children traveling to Heraklion for cancer treatment at the University Hospital, as well as to their families

FC Barça Foundation, Lesbos: Bolstering social sports programming offering emotional and psychological support for refugee children and young people on the island of Lesbos to include a third more participants

Spain and France

In Spain and France, grants provide direct assistance to meet basic needs and tackle two issues—unemployment for young people and social isolation for older adults—together.

Acción Contra El Hambre: A previous grant provided food assistance, hygiene kits, and consultation around nutrition, reproductive health, and mental health in Central and South America. A new grant in Spain provides cash transfers for essentials such as food to over a hundred families from vulnerable groups, including survivors of gender-based violence and single-head households

Doctors of the World Spain: Renewing previous SNF support, the new grant provides psychological services, hygiene kits, food and other essentials, and public health information to tens of thousands of those living most precariously in Spain

Unis Cité: Making personal protective equipment available to young people participating in a civic service program in France in which they lend support to older adults, encompassing companionship, mobility support, and more

AFRICA AND WORLDWIDE

Grants to organizations working in Zambia, Ghana, and Madagascar with a focus on empowering women and girls support access to education, clean water, and food. A worldwide grant with a significant African-led component aims to contribute to wider sharing of research and treatment technologies.

CAMFED International: Helping ensure access to education for girls in rural Zambia by improving school environments, training teachers, implementing meal programs, providing direct support to encourage children to stay in school, and more

Saha Global: Employing a network of women-run small water businesses to provide free clean water for hundreds of communities across Northern Ghana

Action contre la Faim: Fighting food insecurity in Southern Madagascar by working with 1,500 local women to disseminate knowledge and resources to enable market gardening, while also working with local groups to promote pandemic safety

Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative: Coordinating ANTICOV, a multi-country, African-led clinical trial to identify early treatment options for mild to moderate COVID-19; accelerating and facilitating research and scientific exchange in low- and middle-income countries; and advocating for equitable access globally to COVID-19 health technologies

Other grantees in the previous rounds of the relief effort include Robin Hood, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the San Antonio Food Bank, Bangor Region YMCA, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, GrowNYC, Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital, The Rockefeller University, the French Red Cross, Boroume, Médecins Sans Frontières, City Parks Foundation, Figure Skating in Harlem, and many others.

Read more at SNF

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report